‘Now? You have to go now?’
He nodded glumly.
‘But you’ll be back?’
‘Let’s sit down.’
‘No, tell me.’
‘As you have just read, Anish is dead and I have no choice but to go. Do you understand?’
‘Of course,’ she said, but knew she sounded like a sullen child.
‘I may have to take the throne as quickly as possible.’
‘But you’ll come back?’
He shook his head again. ‘I’m not sure I’ll be able to. At least not immediately.’
‘What about me?’
‘We’ll sort something out.’ He put a wallet on the bedside table. ‘In case you need money.’
‘What? Sort out what?’ she said, ignoring the money.
‘Eliza, I don’t know yet. All I know is there is a horse waiting for me and I must go.’
‘You aren’t going to ride in this weather?’
‘Safer than the bike.’
‘Safer?’
She sat down on the chair in the window and could hardly believe this had happened. ‘You have lost your brother, and your mother and Priya must be terribly upset. I understand they need you.’
‘It isn’t just that,’ he continued. ‘If I don’t do this the British will take over our kingdom. They have been itching to get rid of Anish and this may well be their chance.’ As he began quickly to dress she watched numbly, knowing he was right and there was nothing she could do.
‘And us?’
‘Let’s just see how the land lies. I’ll arrange for a car to take you to my palace as soon as the weather allows. It’s best you go there for now while things are in so much upheaval.’
‘And then you’ll come?’
‘For a while, but I may have to live at the Juraipore castle, at least at first.’
‘Will I go there too?’
He closed his eyes for a moment and didn’t speak.
‘Jay?’
He came over to her and held her tight but she pushed him away. ‘You mean we won’t even be able to live together. You will marry some Princess or other?’
Again he didn’t reply.
She stared at him, horrified by what all this might mean, and longing for some words of comfort. Despite the pity she felt for his loss, a burst of anger shook her to the core.
When he still didn’t speak, she turned and ran from the room and from the fort, but most of all from Jay. In blinding rain, she strode along the hilltop and, as tears scalded her cheeks, she did not care that she could barely see the ground before her. Lost in the darkness of the raging storm, she turned her anger against herself. What a naïve idiot she had been to have been seduced by a romantic location.
