Vijay came to Mr.Chowdhury’s side.“Agreed.You’re to bring Connie and the others to your grandmother’s house and no further.Is that clear?”
“Fiiiiine,” Vanika promised with eloquent resignation.
“But I’m forgetting myself!”Vijay exclaimed with a clap of his hands.“It seems I owe two of you a hearty congratulations!”
With a guilty lurch in his guts, Neil realized the maharaja was referring to his fake engagement.
The guilt evaporated into an even less comfortable sensation as Constance hooked a hand through Neil’s arm and plastered herself to his side.
He could feel the curve of her hip brushing against his leg.
Don’t think of trousers,he pleaded with himself desperately.
“That’s very kind of you, Uncle Vijay,” Constance asserted, treating her royal relative to a blinding smile.
“Kind!?”Vijay exclaimed.“Let me tell you how cross I was at learning that the two of you had kept such a delicious secret from me!I might just forgive you for it—if you’d promise to bring our Connie back to India to visit us every few years.”
Neil felt an unexpected burst of indignation.“Why wouldn’t I?”
Constance’s eyebrow cocked with surprise.
“It’s a long trip,” Vijay challenged.
“This is Connie’s other home,” Neil retorted.“It doesn’t matter how far it is.”
Vijay’s eyes twinkled as he addressed Mr.Chowdhury.“I told you I liked him.”
Neil went over a bit dizzy.
“Are we going, then?”Vanika cut in impatiently.“Or are we planning to stand around chatting in the drive all day?”
?
Neil rode over wide green meadows dotted with wildflowers.The clear morning light had given way to high gray clouds pierced here and there by golden rays.He was grateful for the cover overhead, as it somewhat softened the thick heat of the afternoon.
Sweat beaded on his skin.He had stripped to his shirt and waistcoat but kept the scabbard.The weight across his back was starting to feel familiar.
There was no road, only a dry track of packed earth that wended between shivering grasslands and sprawling, ancient trees.Their twelve-year-old guide navigated the trails with ease despite a complete lack of signs or other markers of direction.
They passed clusters of tall mango trees.Trumpetbushes burst with yellow next to small farmhouses.Cows grazed in unfenced fields accompanied by wandering chickens.
Adam and Ellie rode ahead, alongside Vanika.It had taken Adam some coaxing to get Ellie into the saddle.Neither she nor Neil had ever had much cause to ride when they had lived at home.Neil had made up for it since, especially once he had gone to Egypt, and was now fairly comfortable with the whole process—unlike Ellie, who had looked at the horse as though she suspected it might bite her.
“I don’t see what’s wrong with walking,” Ellie had grumbled.
When Kalb wasn’t sprinting after some small animal, he trotted happily alongside while Adam and Vanika kept up a running line of easy chatter.The girl was clearly taken with Neil’s friend, her head stuffed with stories about dashing American gunslingers.
Neil rode several paces behind them… with his fake fiancée.
Not that Constance would be engaged to him for long.Their mad arrangement would most likely be over in a month or so.
Wouldn’t it?
He tried to imagine pretending to be marrying Constance for more than a month.A trickle of sweat ran down his back.
They passed a tumbled pile of ruined houses set under the leaning branches of an almond tree.The thatch on the roofs had mostly rotted away.
“There seem to be a lot of empty villages around here,” Neil noted.
