Surely, they would find some solution to that problem… even if Neil hadn’t the foggiest notion what it might be.
He shook off the swirling mess of worries and crossed to where Adam stood beside a quartet of horses.His strapping American friend wore a rifle across his back in a way that looked entirely natural while he offered the animals treats from his pockets and rubbed down their necks.One of the mares, a gleaming chestnut, had taken a liking to him, huffing and nibbling at his hair.
His leggy dog bolted across the paving stones after a cat that slept placidly on a bench.The cat waited until the dog was a breath away before suddenly bristling with teeth and claws.
Kalb scrambled back, whining with terror.He hid behind Adam’s legs, quivering.
Adam eyed Neil warily.“Doing all right, Fairfax?”
Neil opened his mouth to give him a comfortably reassuring answer—and lost the words as Ellie descended the palace steps.
“What’s wrong with your legs?”he blurted out instead.
Ellie glanced down at the loose khaki trousers she wore with her blouse and light jacket.“What on earth do you mean?”
“I think he’s talking about your pants, Princess,” Adam replied, scratching the chestnut mare behind her ears.
“Oh, these!”Ellie’s face broke out into a happy smile.“I picked them up at a secondhand shop in Cairo once I knew we were coming to India—and I’m quite glad I did.It’s much easier to travel through the wilderness in trousers than a skirt.Really—one would think that women’s dress had been explicitly designed to make it difficult to do anything other than lie around the house!”
Adam made an appreciative assessment of the lower half of Ellie’s ensemble.“They look good.”
“But everyone can see them!”Neil waved a helpless hand at his sister’s legs.
“Like who?”Ellie retorted.“Do you think the Adrija Khond are going to care whether or not I’m wearing a skirt?”
“Maybe?”Neil pushed back hopefully.
Ellie’s eyes shifted to the weapon on Adam’s shoulder.“What’s that?”
Adam’s grin was unapologetic.“It’s a Winchester lever-action repeater.”
“Of course, it is,” Ellie returned with an exasperated sigh.“But where on earth did you find it?”
“The armory.”
Neil frowned, recalling the room they had seen on their whirlwind introduction to the palace.Had that really just been the previous afternoon?“But all the rifles in the armory were old.”
“Notthatarmory,” Adam corrected him.“The one we’re not supposed to know about.”
“How doyouknow about it?”Neil protested.
Adam answered him with a wink.
Constance’s voice rang out from the palace steps.“Good morning, everyone!”
Neil glanced over at her—and froze as he realized that she, too, was wearing trousers.
Constance’s attire was not secondhand.The garment was in a rich shade of plum that perfectly matched her fashionable jacket and had been expertly tailored to glide mercilessly over every curve of her legs.
The ensemble was topped by a matching hat with a dashingly turned-up brim.
Adam tipped back his own battered fedora.“Well, don’t you look ready for an adventure?”
“I do, don’t I?”Constance pivoted proudly to show off.“Oh, Ellie!You’re in trousers too!Isn’t this fun?”
Neil’s gaze locked helplessly on the taut line of Constance’s thighs.“But wouldn’t you be better off in something a little less…”
Mind-numbingly attractive, Neil’s brain finished for him.
