“The gods smiled upon me when they put you in my path at the market.”
Sarla squeezed Will's hand. He returned the gesture before wrapping his arm around her waist. “Welcome to my family and my people, Will.”
“I love the family we shall make together, beginning with just us.”
The three couples were oblivious to anyone else despite the crowd that watched and cheered them on. The reception of sorts carried on throughout the day and well into the night, even after the three couples retreated to their chambers. As the final guests made their way home, Chandra and Surat stood together outside.
“I didn’t imagine this future for our girls, but they are as lucky as we are.” Chandra leaned against her husband.
“We didn’t have the freedom to choose as they did, but we share the same good fortune.”
“What will happen with the broken betrothal and rescinding the offers for Venita’s and Sarla’s hands?”
“I will sort it out. I will appease them. I care not anymore. Our daughters are happy with men who fill them with the same joy you have filled me with for more than twenty years. I regret the time we wasted in the beginning, but I wouldn’t change our lives or our family for anything. I love you.”
“I love you. I might wish that they had included us in their plans from the beginning, but I understand why they felt they couldn’t. But we’ve done well raising our daughters, and they’ve done well choosing their husbands.”
“It’s the best any parent could hope for. Now come inside, my darling. I think we shall celebrate our own love.”
“I’ll race you.” Chandra dashed toward their chamber, Surat close on her heels.
The couple celebrated a life spent together as their daughters and sons-in-law celebrated the lives they were beginning together.
Epilogue
Fifteen years later
“We shall miss you dreadfully,” Suniti whispered to her sisters as she fought back tears while they embraced. Rob’s arm wrapped around her, and she leaned into the shelter of his arms just as she had for more than a decade.
“We promise to visit,” Sarla swore. She clung to Suniti’s hands before yanking her sister back into her embrace. Rob let his wife go, understanding how painful the separation would be for the sisters.
“And you shall come visit us,” Vinita reminded her sister. Suniti nodded as she once again turned to Rob while Vinita welcomed Theo’s arms as safe harbor just like Sarla did Will’s embrace. The men had said their goodbyes the night before over several drams of whiskey. While it was masculine handshakes and slaps on the back today, it had been silent tears the night before. For nearly two decades, the friends had served together as East India Company men then business partners, and as brothers-in-law.
Now Theo and Vinita would return to Theo’s ancestral home near Polruan in Cornwall. His father had passed a month earlier, so Theo would bring his wife and children to their new home as he took his place as a baronet. It was only days after receiving that news that Will learned his own father had passed six weeks earlier. He would return with Sarla and their children to Lime Regis in Dorset and take up the mantle of baronet.
Only Rob and Suniti would remain in India with their two sons. As the second son, Rob could remain in India, unworried about inheriting his family’s earldom. All six of the adults knew this day would come, but none imagined it would take so many of them away at the same time.
The adults watched as their children said their goodbyes. Rob and Suniti’s younger son, Rajesh, stood with his hands on his hips as he looked at his younger cousins, Jemima and Lydia. Both girls were the spitting images of their mothers. Jemma crossed her arms and appeared exactly like Vinita while Lydia fingers knotted together in a single fist by her belly, a mannerism she’d inherited from Sarla.
“I can only imagine the lessons our son is imparting right now,” Rob chuckled.
“He’s likely commanding them to behave. Perhaps he shall have more luck than we do,” Will mused as Theo’s lips thinned. All their children were well brought up, but Jemma and Lydia had wild streaks in them that would put their fathers in early graves. Their mothers merely shrugged and reminded them that the sons in their family were no different from their fathers, so why should the daughters be any different from their mothers.
They continued to watch the children as Rajesh embraced Jemma and Lydia. They all knew it would be more difficult for Arjun and Rajesh, since they were the ones left behind. They had no new adventure to distract them from missing the cousins they’d seen every day. They were older than the others by a few years, and they’d always been protective of their younger relatives. But all the children already understood what duty meant since their grandfather was the maharaja.
It wasn’t long before two of the three young families boarded the ship that would take them to England and a new life. Rob and Suniti would begin the long carriage ride northeast back to their home three days’ travel from the coast.
“We’ve made a wonderful life for ourselves here, my darling. The children have grown up together and will always have memories of each other. I promise we will visit.” Rob kissed his wife before waving to his best friends, his sisters-in-law, and his nieces and nephews.
“I know, and I’m excited for them. But it doesn’t make it any easier. I wish my parents could be here, but it’s too great a journey for them to be away right now. With the unrest, Papa cannot leave Bikaner.”
Time had not improved relations between the East India Company and the people of India. The company acquired more land and more control by the day. They’d become the unofficial government in much of India, and it was no secret the leaders of the organization intended to oust any Indian official who didn’t pledge to support the English merchants. Rob, Theo, and Will no longer worked for the company, instead, doing their best to secretly thwart them.
“I know, but they are here in spirit.” Rob kissed her again, doing the same thing he’d just seen Will and Theo do with their wives.
“Goodbye!” Sarla’s voice carried to them as she stood beside her husband and behind her children. Neither Rob nor Suniti could hear what else she called to them, but they watched her cover her heart with her hands.
“We love you.” Vinita’s voice was but a murmur on the wind. It was the last thing Rob and Suniti heard before their family became specks on the horizon.
Rajesh and Arjun joined their parents. Rajesh’s earnest face turned up toward his parents before looking at the ship. When he shifted his focus back to his parents, he notched up his chin.
“I will gladly visit them, but I will never make my home in England. India is my home and always will be. It’s a good thing you’ll never inherit, Father. You’ve become more Indian than I will ever become English. Grandfather’s made it clear he will never welcome us like Uncle Will’s family and Uncle Theo’s family wish for them to return. I shall live a life of adventure here, perhaps even sail the seas. The only title anyone will call me is Captain. Mark my words. I shall be glad to never be an earl.”
A chance encounter leaves lasting memories for Charlotte Pedrick and Rajesh de Redvers, but neither believed they’d ever see the other again. It’s a shock to them both when Charlie arrives on Raj’s doorstep to apply for the position of governess to his two orphaned nieces. Discover what happens when an unwilling earl meets an unlikely governess in The Earl’s Governess.
