Cecilia compressed her lips together to keep from laughing. From anyone else in society such a question would be the height of rudeness. Coming from Lady Oakley it was expected.
“No, sadly, not yet,” Cecilia answered. “But come, I should like to introduce you to my new friend, Miss Rangaswamy.”
Miss Rangaswamy rose from her seat and bobbed a curtsey.
Lady Oakley jutted her narrow chin forward as she studied her. “You’re Indian.”
“Yes, my lady,” Miss Rangaswamy said softly.
“And she had quite the adventure since arriving in London two days ago. We have a mystery, and I am hoping you can help us solve it.”
Lady Oakley brightened. “Sounds fun. Please tell me.”
“In just a moment,” Cecilia said. “Let’s all get settled, and we’ll have tea while we tell you particulars. It is so vexatious!” she said, as she rang the bell. After she’d requested tea brought in, she led her guest and Miss Rangaswamy to a small, cloth-covered round table at the right of the fireplace where four brown-velvet-covered Chippendale chairs were placed.
“Oh, this is lovely,” Lady Oakley said. “Much nicer than trying to speak to one another spread out, as we must be in the center of the room in sofas and chairs.”
“My thoughts, precisely,” said Cecilia. “Now, you know the Earl of Soothcoor.”
“Alastair Sedgewick? Since he was a baby, not that he would ever want to admit he was one. So dour he’s become in his middle years,” Lady Oakley said, pursing her lips as she frowned.
“And Alastair is his first name? All I’ve ever known him as is Soothcoor, though I knew Sedgewick was his family name.”
“Yes, he was named after his Scots grandfather. His mother was Scottish, you know.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Yes, indeed. But proceed, now that we have established I know him—and his family.”
“Then you know his half-brother Owen went to India some seven years ago.”
“It distressed his father, though everyone knew London weather aggravated his condition.”
“Hisarthritis deformans. Yes, and I understand from Miss Rangaswamy that he was doing well with only occasional terrible, painful spells. Aside from the weather, they have some medicines in India that did much to ease his suffering.”
“Yes, yes!” Rani said. “Some days you would not know he has the illness—” She paused, then admitted, “—unless you look at his fingers, for they are crooked.” She held her hands up, positioning her fingers in crooked angles to each other.
“And how do you know Owen Sedgewick, Miss Rangaswamy,” Lady Oakley asked, looking over the rim of her teacup.
“I—”
“Miss Rangaswamy was a close friend of his wife, who died a year ago. Now it appears Owen is dying, and he asked Miss Rangaswamy to bring his son to England.”
“Son!”
“Yes, he has a five-year-old son, Christopher Sedgewick, with his wife…” Cecilia looked at Miss Rangaswamy.
“Sushmita. Sushmita Dhar.”
“And you were close to this Sushmita Dhar?”
“Yes, yes! And she trust her son to me.”
“Do you have family in India, Miss Rangaswamy?”
She looked down. “My uncle, who raised me, has taken a vow of poverty. He is an ascetic and roams India.”
“How odd,” Lady Oakley said. “But one shouldn’t judge another culture by ours, or they should judge us and find us wanting, isn’t that correct, Cecilia?”
