Adali’s eyes grew round with importance. “The lord high steward brings you greetings from our master, the lord Akbar. The little girls are to be your handmaidens. They are identical but for one thing. Toramalli has a birthmark by the corner of her right eye, and Rohana has the mark by the corner of her left eye.”
He was positively puffed up with new importance, Velvet noted with amusement.
Shooing everyone but the handmaidens from the room, he presented Velvet with the reed basket. “This is something that the lord Akbar thought you might particularly enjoy,” Adali said.
Velvet lifted the lid of the basket, and then her mouth formed a small O of delight. “It’s a kitten!” she said, smiling delightedly. “Oh, Adali, look! A kitten!” She lifted from the basket a tiny, long-haired black kitten with just the teeniest bit of white at the very tip of its tail. “Is it a male or a female?” she asked the eunuch.
“It is a gentleman cat, I am told, my princess.”
For a moment the kitten looked about, wide-eyed, at his new surroundings, then he leaped from the bed, and with his tiny tail swishing gracefully set about to explore the room.
“I shall call him Banner,” Velvet said, “for his little tail with its white tip is just like a floating banner.”
The eunuch nodded with a smile. “Perfect,” he agreed.
Suddenly Velvet realized that it was close to midmorning, and she had not yet been to visit poor Pansy. How frightened and confused her faithful tiring woman would be waking up in this palace and not knowing where she was. “Adali! My poor maid will wonder where I am. Give me something to wear! I must go immediately to her!”
As Adali had predicted, Velvet on this her second day in Fatehpur-Sikri was no longer concerned about his gender or rather lack of it. Her mind was on Pansy, and, leaping from the bed, she accepted the clothing he handed her, slipping her feet into the delicate sandals Toramalli and Rohana held out for her. Then with Adali bustling after her she hurried from her chamber and down the corridor to Pansy’s quarters.
As Velvet entered the room Pansy’s eyes lit up with relief, and she smiled weakly. “M’lady! Oh, thank God!”
Velvet bent to hug her maid, and then sat down on the edge of the girl’s bed. “Pansy, why didn’t you tell me that you were with child? It’s Dugald’s child, isn’t it?”
Pansy looked very shamefaced. “How did you find out, m’lady?”
“The physician who examined you to determine your illness told me. You’ll have to remain in bed for a while, for it is the babe and the heat that have caused your fever and the swelling. You’ll both be all right, however, if you’ll abide by the physician’s instructions.”
Pansy looked relieved. “That’s a mercy,” she said, and then, “I didn’t tell you because I didn’t know until we were well at sea that I was with child. At first I didn’t believe it myself, for Dugald and me was only together once, on Twelfth Night. In the beginning when me moon link was broken I thought that it was perhaps because of the great upset we suffered leaving England. By the time I realized that it wasn’t that at all, I was too ashamed to tell you, and I didn’t seem to be showing so I kept it to myself.”
“Did I not warn you about Dugald, Pansy? Your mother and father will not be very happy when they learn about this. I thought you meant to save yourself until you and Dugald were married. A man will not buy the cow if he can obtain the cream for free, as Dame Cecily has so often said,” Velvet scolded.
“Dugald and me pledged ourselves in handfast before the earl’s men on Twelfth Night, m’lady. He said that in Scotland ’twas legal, and since you and the earl had done it, and we were going to live in Scotland, too, ’twould be all right. He promised me a church wedding when we got toDun Broc.I was only with him that one time, for it seemed a shame to deny him his wedding night, but afterwards I told him we’d cuddle and grope no more until we had stood before a proper preacher.”
Velvet sighed. That devil, Dugald! she thought. Well, there was no help for it now, and she didn’t want to fret Pansy about it further. She patted her tiring woman’s hand. “It will be all right, and our main concern must now be your safety and the baby’s.”
The tension drained from Pansy’s face. “Where are we?” she said.
“We are in the royal city of Fatehpur-Sikri, Pansy, and I have met the Grand Mughal himself. He is a kind and good man.”
“How long have we been here, m’lady?”
“Just since yesterday,” Velvet answered. “When Zafar Singh, the physician, says you are well enough, you must come with me to my apartment. It is only one room, but it is enormous, and there is a lovely terrace that is mine. The Mughal has given me a eunuch named Adali, who is kind and funny, and two dear little girls, Toramalli and Rohana, for maidservants.”
Pansy looked somewhat put out. “There’ll not be much for me to do then, will there, m’lady, with all your new servants.”
“Oh, Pansy, no one can take care of me like you!” Velvet protested. “As Daisy is to my mother, so are you to me, but don’t forget that in less than two months you’ll have a child to care for, and then you’ll have little time for me.”
“You’re me mistress,” said Pansy in an aggrieved tone. “I’ll nurse my babe, but I’ll let one of the others care for it so that I may care for you. ’Tis my duty, and me ma would have my head if I acted otherwise!”
“We’ll all take turns with the baby, Pansy,” soothed Velvet.
“What’s to become of us, m’lady?” Pansy suddenly asked. “Will we ever go home? This place is so very, very hot. Does it never get cool?”
“I don’t know if it ever does,” was Velvet’s answer. “I am trying not to think about it. I’ll ask Adali about the weather. Surely it won’t be this stifling all the year round.” She smiled encouragingly at Pansy.
“But when are we going home?” Pansy repeated.
“I don’t know,” said Velvet. “I have not had the opportunity to speak with the lord Akbar about it, but I will. You can’t leave now, Pansy. You must first finish your confinement, and then we must be certain that the baby is strong enough to make such a long trip. I am afraid that it will be several months before we can even consider leaving India.”
