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Pulling her shoulders back, she strode to the door that led to the back of the shop and glanced back. “Are you coming or not?”

Andrew grunted, but she didn’t linger to see if he followed. The clip of his heels was signal enough.

She walked quickly past the corridor to the salon and the stairs to the workroom and into the kitchen, but she didn’t stop there. Instead, she pushed through to the back door that led to the close connecting the buildings on this block. The downpour that had soaked Moira had subsided to a light mist of early-autumn rain, but she hurried along, not wanting her curly hair to frizz any more than it was wont to do.

“Where are we going?” Andrew asked from behind her.

She turned a corner and stopped before the nondescript door of a stone building. “Worried I’ll bludgeon you in the back alley?”

“The thought had crossed my mind,” he said.

Instead of answering, she rapped twice on the door. It swung open a moment later and a little boy greeted them. He was freshly dressed, his hair damp from a bath. She couldn’t help but smile, knowing that, despite his mother’s best efforts, neither his pale blue cotton kurta nor his white linen trousers would stay dirt-free for long.

“Hello, Hari. Is your mother in the shop?” she asked.

“Aai!” Hari shouted, and raced into the shop as quickly as his seven-year-old legs would take him.

“This way,” said Lavinia, glancing at a frowning Andrew.

Anika’s shop was laid out much like Lavinia’s, with a kitchen in the back, a set of stairs leading to rooms that served as living quarters above, and a corridor off of which stood Mr. Pawar’s office and a storeroom where the family stocked the beautiful fabrics that were their trade.

“It’s a little early for chai,” Lavinia’s friend said as she trailed behind Hari, who’d zipped out of the stockroom again like a rocket. Anika stopped short at the sight of Andrew, even as her son bolted up to him.

“Who are you?” Hari asked, scrutinizing Andrew with open curiosity.

Andrew’s eyes cut up to Lavinia’s and held for a moment. “Can you keep a secret?” he asked.

Hari nodded quickly.

“I’m supposed to tell you that my name is Mr. Colter, but I’m really Captain Colter,” he said.

“Why?” asked Hari.

“For adult reasons. But I can tell you that because I can see you’re the man of the house.”

Lavinia thought Hari, who was at the age where he peppered everyone in his path with questions, would ask “why?” again, but instead the boy scrunched his nose up. “You don’t look like a captain.”

“What do captains look like?” Andrew asked, crouching down so that he was at eye level with the boy.

Hari tipped his head to one side, his black hair falling in his eyes. Then he shrugged. “They have spyglasses. Where’s your spyglass?”

The corners of Andrew’s mouth lifted a fraction. “I left it on my ship.”

Hari considered this and then nodded. This was an acceptable explanation.

“Hari, go play upstairs,” said Anika, brushing his hair back and giving him a little push to send him on his way.

With the boy gone, Anika glanced between the two of them. “Well, you aren’t here to complain about your brother.”

“No.” Lavinia shot her a tight smile. “Could we have use of one of your rooms for a few minutes?”

She knew she wouldn’t have to explain to Anika that there were some conversations a businesswoman didn’t want to have when her staff was in earshot.

“Mrs. McLean is coming to look at bolts of calico, and Vinat doesn’t like anyone to use his study while he’s gone,” said Anika. “There’s the storeroom . . .”

“That will be fine,” said Andrew, putting his hand to Lavinia’s back. She jolted forward at the warmth that flooded her body. She remembered what it had meant to be touched by him once. Her first love. Her first kiss. Her first everything. He’d made her heart sing and her body sigh, but he wasn’t that man any longer. Still, he didn’t get to touch her as though it was a matter of no consequence.

“I’ll be in the front of the shop, Lavinia.” Anika scrutinized Andrew as she adjusted the pallu of her sari to sit higher on her shoulder. “It’s very easy to hear a woman shout from there.”