‘I want to touch you first.’
She closed her eyes as his fingertips moved so, so gently over her skin, starting at her toes and ending with her eyelids, the sensation so exquisite she became completely lost in it. There was something about Jay that was eternal, like the land he came from, and, when she was with him like this, she felt drawn into his world, as if she too belonged in this space of everlasting moments and no time.
After she had undressed him, they made love. It was long and slow and Eliza had no idea how much time had elapsed. Outside the thunder crashed, providing a backdrop to her thumping heart, and when it was over she lay next to Jay, both of them sticky with sweat. She wondered if she needed to say something, but felt her love for him so intensely she dared not speak for fear of ruining the dizzy moment.
They were to make love more than once that night. As the storm continued to rage and the wind blew rain even through the edges of the window frames, they became urgent, and with the flavour of him on her tongue Eliza decided that these were the most exciting and beautiful moments of her entire life. The sounds they made could never be heard on the outside, consumed as it was by the monsoon, but she wouldn’t have cared if the ear of the world had been on them. She thought of the people in the city below, all of them smiling with relief and delight that the rains had come, and wondered how many babies would have been made that night.
The next day, during a more prolonged lull, Jay took her down into the old city. She was amazed by how much the water had risen as they walked along the eastern shore of Lake Pichola, surrounded as it was by palaces, temples, bathingghatsand the soft ochres and purples of the wooded Aravalli hills.
But it wasn’t just the lake. Rivers of water streamed down the narrow gullies and lanes that led down to the lake; everything was wet and glittering in the morning sunshine. He explained that the city was often referred to as the Venice of the East, and that its usually tranquil lakes were surrounded by gorgeous gardens.
‘It’s magnificent during the monsoon season and, as Udaipore has five major lakes, they all fill up. As you can see, the palaces look sparkling too.’
‘This has to be the most romantic setting in all of India.’
He laughed and reached for her hand. ‘We’re in the right place then.’
‘Is it all right to walk like this in public?’
‘You care what people think?’
‘I meant that it’s different here. You’re not supposed to, are you?’
‘I don’t think anyone cares. Once the rain comes a kind of wildness rises in the people. It gets into the blood and all the usual constraints fly out of the window.’
‘I’m glad it’s so much cooler now.’
He made a sweeping movement with his right arm. ‘Look at it. This city was founded by the Rajput king Maharana Udai Singh II in 1559.’
‘It is wonderful, but is that it?’ she asked. ‘Is the rain over?’
He looked surprised. ‘I should certainly hope not. We need considerably more. This is just enough to rejuvenate the hills and turn them green, but we need to fill up our new lake at home.’
‘Gosh, I’d almost forgotten.’
And he was right. The monsoon rains began to fall again and that second evening she noticed how much it had lightened his state of mind. How could she not have realized how worried he must have been that the rains might not come at all? Accustomed, as she was, to England’s perpetual rainfall, it was so easy to forget that here it could signal the difference between life and death.
They passed another wonderful night together and spent much of it talking in the dark, the way that lovers do in the exploratory stage of a love affair. It was different to the way it had been when they had last been together at his own palace. This time they opened themselves up to more honesty than ever before. He told her how as a child in England he had cried into his pillow at night, how he had hated the bland English food and the terrible British snobbery. And he told her how sad they had all been when Laxmi lost her little girl, their sister.
‘I think that’s why we all became so fond of Indi. Not that she could ever take my sister’s place. It was hard for Laxmi. Your child is an actual part of you. What do you do with the part that is lost?’
‘I don’t know if my mother ever felt like that,’ she said.
She told him that she had never thought her mother loved her. And she told him that she had never enjoyed one moment of intimacy with Oliver and that she had dreaded going to bed at night. Once Oliver was asleep she used to go to the living room, where she sat up most of the night, and then she’d sleep in the day when he was gone. She cried and said she hadn’t known it could be so different, and then, with the constant sound of the rain in the background, Eliza fell asleep.
They were interrupted early the next morning by loud knocking on their bedroom door.
Jay climbed out of bed, grabbed a robe and as he opened the door Eliza pulled the sheet over her head. She had never been so happy, but it was one thing for the servants to be aware of their relationship and quite another for one of them to see her undressed and lying in Jay’s bed. She heard the door close and then Jay’s footsteps. She was surprised when he didn’t come back over to the bed, so she pulled the sheet from her face, only to see him standing stiffly at the window and staring out at the view in silence.
‘What is it?’ she said, her stomach tightening and her voice revealing a trace of anxiety.
He twisted back to her and held out a sheet of paper. ‘Here,’ he said in a dull voice. ‘Read it.’
She slid out of bed and went over to take it from him, and then she read, hardly able to comprehend what this might mean for them.
‘I’m so sorry,’ she said.
‘I have to go.’ He looked at her so sadly a chill ran through her.
