It may be less than ideal, but I can’t keep wandering around the city alone and penniless.Nor can I piss off a queen.“Thank you for your honesty.I won’t leave you behind.”
Anne finishes getting me ready, picking the least conspicuous dress she can.Sure, it’s made of silk, but it’s gray and only has a little bit of lace.And it’s the best I’m getting in this palace.
“Is Lord Basildon one of the visitors?”I ask while Anne’s distracted by making me presentable.
“He’s not among those in the drawing room.”
Well, good.That’s what I want.I hope he’s off charming some woman’s bank account.And that it’s going well for him, so he can live the outrageously spoiled lifestyle he’s grown accustomed to.
True to her word, Anne sneaks me through the backstairs and other secret passages until I’m out in the British sun, this time in the front of Buckingham Palace.I only take a minute breathing in the atmosphere, because along with the morning air, there’s the strong smell of coal, horse poop and sewage.The trifecta of Victorian London smells.
A very real, but less glamorous, part of history.
Smarter than the last time I did this, I turn to head to the stables, but Anne clears her throat and looks in the opposite direction.“Why don’t we go this way?”
“But can’t we use one of the queen’s…” Then I see Leo, leaning against his carriage.
Today he’s wearing a black suit, a green vest and a black coat showing the shape of his tapered torso.He leans nonchalantly, like he doesn’t have anything else to do but wait for me, when I know for a fact he does.
“I thought you said he wasn’t here,” I murmur to Anne.
“I said he wasn’t in the drawing room.He wanted to surprise you.”I can tell by her affectionate tone that she thinks it’s the height of romance.And since I can’t exactly run around the gated area yelling “It’s all a ruse!”I guess I’ll have to play charmed courtee.
“Hi, Leo.Ur, I mean Lord Basildon,” I say when we’re close enough that I don’t have to yell anymore.This title thing takes a long time to get used to, especially since I’ve been using his first name in my head this entire time.
“Good morning, Your Royal Highness.But you know you can call me Leo if you want.”Oh good; we’ve kissed and now we can move on to a first name basis.Even though we’ll probably cause a scandal with all our public first-naming.
“Call me Meera, then.What are you doing here?I thought you were going to bebusierfrom now on.”I put emphasis onbusier, because we both know what he should be doing.
“What kind of man would I be if I left the woman I was courting to the wilds of London with no guide?”He winks at me.He’s recovered from me being a future-lady rather well.Or he just doesn’t believe me.
“I don’t know if either of you want to go where I’m going today,” I say.“And there’s no use in stopping me; I need to go.”
“I had a nice outing planned as well, but we can do what you would like.Where to?”Leo asks while he helps me up into the carriage.
“Limehouse, please,” I say once I’m in.I don’t acknowledge the shock that my words cause.Leo stops in the process of helping Anne in, and she stops with one foot on the stair and the other hovering just off the ground.
“Devil take it, we cannot possibly go there,” Leo says.Anne cuts grateful eyes over to him, glad to have an ally in controlling me and my wild ideas.
“I assure you, we can.We just take the Strand or Embankment and then just keep going east past the Tower until we hit it.Simple, really.”
“Pedantic,” Leo says through gritted teeth.“Butwhywould we go there?”
“I have to see it.”I have relatives, great-great-whatever-greats-relatives who came to London.As lascars; not as pretend or real nobility.They didn’t stay, making the voyage back and forth as often as they could to make a living as sailors.And the British sure did make it unnecessarily hard to get back by making laws that said crews leaving had to be a certain percent English, before India was under the British Raj.
But when they were here, they probably lived in Limehouse.It would have been crowded and hard, in a climate they weren’t used to, abandoned with too little money after they did the hard work required of the voyage over.A very different experience than the many Indian upper- and middle-class scholars or dignitaries who came to England for advancement, education or fun.But an equally important one.
And I have to see it.Experience it.Document it.For the historian in me, but also for the child of Indian immigrants.
“It is not safe,” Leo says.
“Neither is a country estate for a governess, yet they keep going there.”
“Fair point.But this isreallynot safe.”
I roll my eyes.“We’ll be fine.Because it won’t be the first set of curious aristocrats coming to get something there they can’t in West London.Or the first set of reformers trying to help without understanding any of the root causes of the problems, which spoiler alert, are policy based.They’re used to you people.”
“This is a bad idea.”
