Monsoon Mists (34 page)

‘We serve Bijal, the Grand Vizier of the Rajah of Nadhur.’

That didn’t really answer the question as such. Still, Jamie doubted he had a choice here. He pulled the fake talisman out of his belt and held it out. ‘I think this is what you’re after?’ He nodded towards William. ‘Please feel free to take him with you. He was lying.’

The man moved forward and took the packet, unwrapping it to check the contents. When the fake talisman was revealed, he nodded as if satisfied, then turned to a group of men who had followed him into the room. ‘Bring them,’ he ordered. ‘All of them.’

‘Now hold on a moment,’ Jamie protested. ‘Miller is the man you want. We were just trying to make him return the stolen item. This is nothing to do with us.’

‘That’s for the Rajah to decide. Now either you come of your own accord, or we can make you. Your choice.’

‘But you came for Miller. He was the one who was hired by the thief to sell the jewel abroad.’ Jamie reckoned that as they’d been asking for William by name, they must know he was the go-between.

The leader of the group shrugged. ‘The Rajah wants the truth. You had his sacred object so you are as much a thief as the others. I’m sure he will wish to hear your explanation.’

Jamie gave up. It would seem they had no choice but to try to appeal to the Rajah himself. ‘Very well.’

Evans tried to protest in his turn, but received a cuff on the back of the head for his trouble. After that, he kept quiet, although he obviously had no idea what was going on.

Jamie tried to send Zar a reassuring glance, but could see that she was terrified. He took her hand and squeezed it, trying to imbue her with courage, and she nodded as if she understood. To the Rajah’s man he nodded at Kamal and added, ‘This man is but my servant. He knows nothing of the other matter. May he stay here to safeguard my wife’s possessions until our return?’

They both knew there may not be a return, but it wasn’t something Jamie wanted to say out loud.

‘Yes, yes.’ The man nodded impatiently. ‘Now hurry. The Rajah is waiting.’

Jamie seemed taken aback to find elephants waiting outside the house, but Zar was relieved they wouldn’t have to walk at least. It was still raining and the roads a muddy mess.

‘Climb up,’ they were ordered, as the elephants obediently bowed their front legs to allow them access to the seating platform mounted on their backs. Unfortunately it wasn’t a proper
howdah
with a canopy, but just two seats.

Jamie held out his hand to help Zar and then scrambled up himself to sit beside her. She had been wearing a large shawl and pulled it up over her head now, as well as around herself. Then she clung to the sides of the seat for dear life when the elephant followed the instructions of its
mahout
and got to its feet. She’d been on one before, but didn’t like the swaying sensation and the fact that she was so far off the ground. But she trusted the handler, who sat just behind the large beast’s ears, to get them to their destination safely.

Sanjiv and William were on the animal in front of them, with her father next to one of the Rajah’s men behind them. The strange procession made its way through the dark streets and out of one of the city’s gates, which appeared to be opened especially for them. Zar guessed someone had been bribed for this purpose.

It felt strange to ride through the silent night. There was no moon as the rain was falling steadily and the wind was up, but Zar could still make out the fields and tree groves by the sides of the road. Jamie took her hand and held it tight. Even though they were both soon wet through, his palm felt warm and solid as always. Safe.
But they were anything but safe at the moment.

‘Will the Rajah believe us?’ she whispered.

‘I hope so, but not if he arranged the theft himself. In that case, he’ll be looking for scapegoats.’ Zar shivered and Jamie continued, ‘But I have a feeling he’s not the one who sent for us. I doubt the Rajah knows anything about the Surat connection, so someone else must be the criminal.’

‘I don’t understand.’ Zar tried to look at Jamie, but could only make out his profile.

‘Think about it – unless the Rajah has found out who stole the talisman in the first place, he won’t know it’s been sent to Surat. The only one who does is the original thief. Now everything has gone wrong and he may have given up on the idea of selling the jewel. Instead, he’ll try to curry favour by being the one to find it and return it. That’s what I would do, if I were in his shoes.’

‘Of course, that makes sense. But who is he?’

‘The man behind us said he was acting on the orders of the Grand Vizier. That sounds like a person who might have access to the Rajah’s private quarters. I’d wager it could be him.’

‘But we can’t prove that. We can’t prove it’s anyone other than ourselves.’ Zar felt despair engulf her. How could they possibly come out of this alive? ‘And now they have the talisman too.’

She heard Jamie chuckle softly. ‘No they don’t. I do.’

‘Oh, you mean …?’

‘I gave them the fake. Now all we have to do is try and guess who the real thief is and then unmask him.’ Jamie squeezed her hand. ‘I’ll need your help. Listen carefully now, this is what I want you to do …’

Some considerable time later, they arrived at a high wall that proved to enclose a large, sprawling building in the Indian style surrounded by trees and ornamental gardens. It was just after dawn and grey light seeped in through the many windows and doorways and highlighted the high cupolas of the roofs. A walkway surrounded by ornate pillars ran along the front of the building, with a large entrance in the middle. Massive double doors opened to reveal a courtyard, where everyone dismounted. Once inside the palace itself, the ‘guests’ found themselves led through a series of corridors. Finally, they arrived outside another formidable set of doors, which their lead captor knocked on.

‘Enter,’ came from inside, and they were ushered in, followed by their guards.

Zar made sure she was walking next to Jamie. He still held her hand and it was comforting, but inside she was quaking. What if his ruse didn’t work? Were they all going to die this day?

At the end of the room was a dais and here a man sat waiting. Zar almost gasped when she caught sight of him, as she’d never seen such magnificence. He was dressed almost exclusively in white, but the material was embroidered with gold and silver thread that sparkled in the light of several candelabras as he moved. A sash of purple silk was tied round his waist, with the hilt of a bejewelled dagger sticking out at the top. This too flashed and glittered, as did a large ornament of precious stones fastened to the front of his turban. Not as big as the talisman, but a costly object nonetheless. Underneath was the handsome face of a man in his prime, perhaps mid to late twenties. His expression was haughty, but to Zar it looked as though he had an intelligent gaze that missed nothing.

The Rajah, for it couldn’t be anyone else, was surrounded by guards and courtiers. One stood further forward and Zar guessed he might be the vizier as he had an air of authority about him. His demeanour was calm, but a watchful look in his eyes told her he didn’t miss anything either. If anyone threatened his master, this man would know about it instantly, she was sure. The Rajah regarded them from under hooded eyes as they all bowed and put their hands together in the traditional greeting. He didn’t reciprocate, but then they hadn’t expected him to.

The possible vizier bowed to his master and said, ‘Highness, once again, I apologise for waking you so early, but I believe this is a pressing matter. I present to you the thieves who have stolen the sacred talisman. My spies found them at last.’

‘Thank you, Bijal. So finally I meet the people responsible for stealing my most treasured object,’ the Rajah said. ‘Is there no end to your greed, foreigners?’

One of the men near the dais translated the Rajah’s words into accented English, but soon found there was no need.

‘I’m afraid we are being wrongly accused, Highness,’ Jamie replied in near-perfect Hindi. The Rajah’s eyebrows rose slightly in surprise at such fluency, but he waited while Jamie continued. ‘Only one of us was acting as an accomplice.’ He pointed at William. ‘The rest of us were forced to help through blackmail.’

‘And why should I believe you? Accused men will say anything to save their skins.’

‘Of course,’ Jamie acknowledged. ‘But in this case it may be in your best interest to believe us because if we speak the truth, there is a traitor in your midst. Someone who will no doubt try to harm you again in future if he or she isn’t caught now.’

All the people clustered round the Rajah
began to look at each other as if they worried they’d be accused next. Everyone except the man called Bijal, who kept his gaze on them while his mouth curved into a small smile.

‘Well said, foreigner, but still a futile attempt. No one here will believe you as it is well known your people want only riches,’ said Bijal.

‘And you don’t?’ Jamie challenged.

The vizier scowled at him, his eyes flashing with dark fire. ‘I have all the riches I need in the service of His Highness.’

‘Ah, so you’re only a servant.’ Jamie nodded, as if he understood the position now, which seemed to anger the man further.

‘I am the Grand Vizier, I’ll have you know.’

Jamie shrugged. ‘A servant nonetheless.’ He turned towards Zar and nodded in the vizier’s direction, winking at her surreptitiously. She understood and spoke up.

‘Well, we’re going to end up as servants too, husband, thanks to you and your little intrigues,’ she said loudly and angrily, pushing at Jamie with both hands on his chest.

‘Watch your tongue, wife.’ Jamie pretended to scold her. ‘I’ll not have a shrew in my household, I’ve told you.’

‘I will not! Not this time. I’m used to having my own servants, not serving others, and now see what you’ve done. It’s unbearable, I tell you. What were you thinking?’

On the final word, she shoved him again, as hard as she could, in the direction of the vizier. Jamie stumbled backwards and into the man, treading on his toes. So off-balance did he seem to be that he had to grab hold of the vizier’s belt to right himself, and the man snarled furiously and tried to free himself from Jamie’s grip.

‘How dare you? Get your filthy hands off me!’

‘Sorry, sorry,’ Jamie smiled apologetically. ‘Women, eh? Such temper, some of them.’ He turned back to Zar and spread his palms. ‘None of this is my fault, surely you can see that? It’s all William’s. He’s the one you should be berating.’

William, who’d been standing just behind them, seemed to have his own agenda. Without warning, he sprang into action and tried to attack the man holding his wrist in a firm grip. He swung his fists in all directions, catching the man a blow and making him let go. Then he tried to fight off another guard, who’d come to his comrade’s assistance. ‘I’m not taking the blame for this, I was but the go-between!’ he shouted. ‘Mansukh told me who was really responsible. He told me—’

‘Silence, prisoner!’ the Grand Vizier had moved to stand before William. ‘One more word out of you and you will die immediately.’

Zar tried to signal to William to calm down, but all that had happened during the night seemed to have tipped him over the edge into near insanity. William managed to free himself yet again, and lashed out at the vizier, striking the man’s nose. A gasp went up from the assembled company and in the next moment Zar saw a flash of metal, then William sank to the floor with a strangled noise.

‘No!’ she cried out, and would have gone to her stepson, but Jamie held her back.

The vizier straightened up and she could see that in his hand he held a
katar
, a strange type of push dagger, which had an H-shaped handle above a short, almost triangular blade. The tip was dripping with blood. William’s blood. Zar felt faint and leaned against Jamie for a moment.

‘No one strikes a vizier,’ Bijal announced in grand tones, and glided back to his original position as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

Zar glanced at her father, who hadn’t said a word so far, and whose expression was as shocked as she herself felt. He must be regretting coming back to Surat. But then it served him right. He should have stayed in England. Why would he think she’d welcome his help with trading? No, it had to be a ruse for getting his hands on some of her fortune. Well, he wasn’t having so much as a rupee. Zar had earned it and she felt sure Francis had paid him enough for her already.

Returning her thoughts to the here and now, she stared as William’s lifeless body was removed by the efficient guards and someone cleaned up the mess on the floor. Within a very short time, it was as if William had never been there.

Was that going to be their fate too?

She stared at the only thing in her life that seemed to be stable at the moment – her pretend husband.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Jamie took a deep breath and tried to concentrate on the matter at hand. He could think about William later. Right now, he had to extricate the rest of them from this mess.

Bijal, the vizier, had signalled for the man who’d captured them to go to his side. ‘Tufan, you have the object, I take it?’ The man nodded and handed over the pouch containing the fake talisman. Bijal extracted the exquisite jewel and placed it across the palms of his hands before bowing and holding it out to his master.

‘Highness, your talisman.’

The Rajah took it from him, seemingly pleased at first, but then he frowned. ‘But how is this? It still has its feathers. That means the ones in Dev’s box were fake, doesn’t it? So he had nothing to do with the theft.’

Jamie didn’t know what this comment referred to, but saw the vizier’s smile falter for an instant before he replied smoothly, ‘No doubt the thieves saw fit to add new ones. If they were planning to sell it, they could hardly do so with bits missing.’

That’s my cue
. Jamie cleared his throat. ‘Excuse me, Highness, but there may be another explanation.’

‘Silence!’ the vizier hissed. ‘You will speak only when spoken to.’