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Epilogue
Six months later...
Calcutta, India
“Here.” Nick pointed to a spot on the map spread before him on the table in the study of the house they’d rented on Council Street in Calcutta. “We’ll find the Cymbidium aloifolium blooming in the forests of the Himalayan foothills.”
“Aloifolium. Does it resemble an aloe plant?” Alice asked.
“It has elongated leaves which resemble aloe,” said Nick. “The Nepalese believe its roots cure paralysis and treat vertigo and insanity.”
The duke glanced at his son, his gray eyes clear and focused. “I know this cymbidium, don’t I?”
“We searched for it together once, you and I,” Nick said gently.
Alice’s heart brimmed with pride as she watched father and son pore over the map.
The months-long voyage had brought back painful memories for Nick, but he’d been writing in a diary, observing the duke and recording their conversations.
For his part, Barrington was growing sharper and less confused every day. Hunting orchids was his favorite thing in life and it gave him a focus and purpose.
“Will it be blooming in winter?” Captain Lear asked, scratching Kali’s head. She was cradled in the crook of one of his arms with her head nestled against his chest and her hind legs spread in a thoroughly unladylike manner.
Nick nodded. “It’s a hardy plant adapted to mountain conditions. It’ll survive the voyage back to England.”
Kali squirmed out of Lear’s arms and jumped on the table to sniff the map. She’d proven a fearless companion on the voyage, and the sailors aboard The Huntress had adopted her as their ship’s cat, even making her a miniature berth and a tiny sailor’s cap to wear.
Captain Lear pushed back his long black hair, which he’d allowed to grow unchecked on the voyage. “My investors will care only for the beauty of the blooms, not its medicinal properties, I’m afraid.”
Nick drew Alice to him and wrapped an arm about her waist. “Oh, she’s a beauty, all right. Blooms in clusters on long, slender pendant stalks. Has small, perfect scarlet-and-cream petals with an hourglass mark in the center.”
He gave Alice’s waist a squeeze when he said the word hourglass. Why did everything he say have to sound so very suggestive?
Her heart skipped a beat recalling the wicked things she and Nick had done last night, and every sultry, languid night of the voyage. She was quite certain some of the things they’d done weren’t even described in the Kama Sutra.
“It must be nearly time,” she said to Nick.
They had an engagement today with the Sanskrit scholars from Fort William College. She was nervous about handing over her translation, even though she still intended to present it as Fred’s work.
Outside, the air was warm and humid and filled with the fragrance of the coconuts, pineapples and oranges being hawked by street vendors.
They didn’t need to take a carriage because Mr. Carey had suggested they meet at the nearby Government House, as the buildings housing the college were currently under renovation.
“How strange to think that it’s December, and our friends in London are huddled in front of their fireplaces,” Alice said.
“I never thought I’d leave England,” Nick said. “But now that I have... I’m not sure I want to go back.”
Alice smiled at him. “India is everything I dreamt it would be.”
A surfeit of new sights, smells, and sounds; a feast for her senses. Around the docks, Alice had caught snatches of German, French, Spanish, and Portuguese, and what she guessed had been Arabic and Chinese.
She’d dreamt of traveling for so long, picturing all the languages she would hear, and the new sights she would see.
But she’d never imagined the tall, handsome man walking next to her, carrying her valise filled with the ancient manuscripts she would donate to the college.
A companion on her journey. Someone to share the wonder of each new discovery.
Government House was an imposing, white colonnaded structure, built by Lord Wellesley in 1803 at great expense. The entrance on the north side had a handsome stone portico and Ionic white columns.
