He retreated from the room and walked down the hall to the room assigned to Kavi and Udaya. The burly man would not appreciate the late night interruption, but Ridge wouldn’t sleep unless he knew for certain India was safe.
He knocked on the door, and almost immediately he heard feet hit the floor. Big feet.
The door flew open and Kavi stood in the doorway, a scowl on his face.
Ridge cleared his throat. “Is India with Udaya? She isn’t in her room.”
The scowl vanished from Kavi’s face. “No,Sahib, India took to her bed early last night.”
“What is the matter?” Udaya asked, pushing her way around Kavi.
Fear gripped Ridge’s heart. “India is not in her room. I had hoped she was with you.”
Kavi looked down at his feet then stepped back. “Perhaps this will explain her whereabouts,” he said as he bent to retrieve a folded piece of paper from the floor.
Udaya yanked the note from Kavi’s hand and hastened toward the burning candle. She opened it and scanned the contents, her brow furrowing as her eyes lowered over the page.
When she looked up, fear was vivid in her eyes. “I do not know what to say,Sahib. That she would do this...” Her voice trailed off, thick with sorrow.
She held out the letter and Ridge took it, dread knotting in his throat. Somehow he knew the news would not be good. He no longer feared India had come to harm. No, he feared what she haddone.
He would not allow these strangers, friends to India, to see him bleed. One more glance at Udaya’s fearful gaze, and he turned and walked out the door. Down the hall he walked, afraid to look, afraid that he made the biggest mistake of his life. Udaya’s expression had said it all.
In the confines of his room, he lit a candle and sat down on the edge of his bed. His hands shook as he opened the letter and focused on India’s neat script.
Ridge crumbled the note in his hand and threw it across the room. He shoved a hand in his hair and stood up, stalking to the window and resting his elbow on the cool panes. He cradled his forehead in his hand, his elbow digging painfully into the glass.
Damn her. Damn her conniving soul. She had pulled the wool completely over his eyes. Once again, he had been duped by a faithless woman. Would he ever learn?
She had lied to him from the very beginning. Her father wasn’t dead. He was very much alive, and apparently, had found his way to the city already.
Why hadn’t she confided in him? Did she think him such an ogre that he would refuse to help her recover her father? Or was there a much simpler reason?
She and her father had searched countless years for the city, and maybe, she had no intention of sharing that find with anyone else.
God. What a monumental misjudgment he had made about her. She hadn’t even addressed the letter to him. Was he that meaningless to her?
He groaned. All the things he had shared with her. He had bared his soul in a way he had never done. He had uttered things to her he had never said to another person.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Had she been laughing at him the entire time? This certainly explained the guilt he had seen flashing in her beautiful eyes on occasion.
He stared over the city, the moon illuminating the ruined remains of the burned out buildings, some in the process of rebuilding, others left in shambles. Much the way he felt at the moment. Complete shambles.
He hadn’t loved Lucinda. He knew that now. But India. He loved her in a way he hadn’t imagined being able to feel about another person. He had trusted her. Offered himself on a silver platter.
He turned from the window, rage building within him. Not only had she utterly betrayed his faith in her, but she had stolen his dream from him. Something he had thought little else about since his childhood.
How did he even know she was telling the truth about her father being alive? He paced back and forth in front of his bed, his fists clenched at his sides.
Why even leave a note of explanation? Why not just leave?
Tell Ridge I’m sorry.
“You can very well tell me yourself,” he ground out.
He wasn’t going to sit idly by while she reached the city. Maybe he had underestimated her, but he knew damn well she had underestimatedhim.
