Eliza flinched visibly.
‘Sorry.’
‘No. Go on.’
‘I don’t remember him.’
‘And your mother?’
‘I last saw her when I was not even three years old. I think she was a dancer but my grandmother would never speak of her. Said she had disgraced the family. I was fortunate my grandmother accepted me.’
Another awkward silence. It seemed that neither woman was finding this an easy conversation, and though Eliza needed to be here, at the same time she wished herself miles away. Anywhere would do, anywhere she didn’t have to face the truth.
‘So,’ Eliza said, ‘will you stay on here?’
‘I won’t go back to the village.’
‘Jay will allow you to stay on?’ There, she had spoken his name, without a trace of emotion. Neutral.
‘Well, I suppose the answer is yes.’
Eliza shrugged, the pity she had fleetingly felt giving way to resentment again. ‘There’s something I wanted to ask,’ she said, changing the subject. ‘That stolen bottle of pyro. You didn’t … well, what I mean is, you didn’t have anything to do with Anish’s death?’
Indi’s eyes widened for a few seconds and then she burst out laughing. ‘You mean did I kill Anish so that Jay would become Maharajah and you and Jay would be over?’
Indi’s forthright reaction made Eliza feel a little ashamed at even having had such a thought.
Indi shook her head, the tears of laughter filling her eyes. ‘I am not a murderer, Eliza. I may be many things but I am not that. I do have to admit I broke your camera.’
Eliza gasped. ‘You really hurt me.’
‘I’m very sorry for it. I thought it might encourage you to leave.’
‘I thought we were friends.’
‘I’m sorry.’ She glanced down for a second. ‘I didn’t know who you were then.’
‘So it was all right to hurt someone who wasn’t your –’ She stopped, couldn’t say the word. ‘But you did steal the pyro?’
‘Chatur asked me to.’
‘But why?’
‘To make trouble for you. To make it seem like you’d be a risk to us all.’
‘So Chatur did that.’
Indi nodded.
‘I have very little power here, you know. I needed Chatur. I’m so sorry about not telling Jay. And now Priya has designs on him …’
Eliza was stunned. ‘Priya?’
‘She is accustomed to being a powerful woman at court, and it’s quite normal for a Maharani to marry her dead husband’s brother.’
‘My God! I never knew. But he loathes her.’
‘You still don’t get it? Despite his vigour and strength, for us marriage has nothing to do with falling in love, as you call it – here it’s about duty and family. Our marriages are arranged.’
