Once into the village, they came to a halt outside a simple hut with a small courtyard and one scrawny rose bush. The Thakur called and a fierce-looking older woman with greying hair stepped out as if expecting them. She pulled her scarf over her hair and did not smile.
‘She doesn’t speak English. Will you understand enough?’ Jay said.
‘I’ll let you know if I can’t.’
Eliza concentrated as Jay and the Thakur spoke to the woman. She mainly wanted to know that Indira was well and happy and seemed pleased with their replies, visibly relaxing. But when Eliza heard her own name mentioned, the woman stared at her fixedly and asked Jay to repeat what he’d said.
‘Eliza Fraser,’ he said.
The woman’s face closed up and she quickly took a few steps back, then as suddenly as she had appeared she had gone again and the entire exchange was over. Jay and the Thakur exchanged glances.
‘What was that about?’ she asked, standing awkwardly and struggling to know how to feel.
‘I’m sure it’s nothing that need concern you,’ Jay said.
She accepted what he’d said with no comment, but felt there had to be more to it. The Thakur stepped in to smooth things over. ‘Let me tell you about the revenues. They come from the land as they have always done. The farmers cultivate the fields for me and in return receive a part of the harvest. The shepherds are allowed to let their animals graze on the land in return for a share of their herd.’
‘My friend Devdan would have something to say about that,’ Jay said with a smile.
The Thakur raised his hands in an attitude of alarm. ‘Remember I’ve met your friend. He’s a revolutionary, is he not? Dangerous sort of a chap. Abadmash.’
‘He’s not a bad character really. Just full of talk.’
‘Well, I’d keep a careful watch on him. But now I must take my leave. Lovely to meet you, Miss Fraser.’ And with that he again took Jay aside for a few private words.
Afterwards Jay and Eliza walked around the further reaches of the village. He was quieter than before and Eliza didn’t know why, though she couldn’t help but think it was something to do with her, and with that thought a prickle of alarm raised the hairs on the back of her neck. But because she had her hands full – a roll of film only allowed for six photographs, so Eliza kept having to duck into dark places to change the roll beneath a dark bag – she didn’t ask what was wrong. Then, as they went deeper into the narrow alleyways and she saw the rudimentary ways in which the people lived in this barren place, she felt shock at the extreme poverty. How could it be right for the castle to become so wealthy while these people languished in utter penury? In these alleys some of the children were completely naked, and she could only just avoid walking in the stream of filthy water that ran in a ditch in the middle of the path. Here the people were thinner, with misery etched into the lines of their faces, and when she saw the difference between this part of the village and the other she fell rather quiet. There was nothing romantic about it, but she took photographs of it all: the poor, the lost and the seemingly forgotten. And it entered her head that by recording the plight of the poor she might be able to find a way to give voice to the voiceless.
As she climbed back into the sidecar, Jay asked if she’d like to go to a bazaar a few miles away where she’d be able to buy fabric printed with hand-carved wooden printing blocks. He had a bit of business to see to as well.
‘It’s a remote, little-visited place. For authentic Rajputana you can’t do better.’
It was a friendly suggestion, though Jay’s voice was solemn and there was a sharpness to it she hadn’t noticed before. As he drove along the bumpiest road yet, Eliza thought about Indi’s grandmother and decided to ask Jay to tell her more about Indi.
Jay pulled up the motorcycle for a moment, as if deciding on the way ahead.
‘You said something earlier about the old ways having gone underground and you mentioned Indi. What was the connection?’ She hoped he might be ready to say more now.
He sighed deeply. ‘You must have noticed Indi is different. She is a little lighter-skinned than the rest of us and doesn’t know who her father was. Added to that, her mother deserted her. Although she comes from a long line of Rajput warriors, on her mother’s side that is, she suffers the disgrace of her lost parents. Blood ties are everything to us.’
‘The poor girl,’ she said, knowing it had been bad enough growing up without a father. Being without a father and a mother must have left Indi feeling terribly adrift, and the sense of isolation must have been awful. Hardly any wonder if the girl had become emotionally attached to Jay.
They had grown quiet, and when she glanced across at Jay he turned to look at her briefly.
‘What?’ he said.
‘Are you so blind you don’t realize she’s in love with you?’
He looked blank, then drew his brows together and spoke almost as if she wasn’t there. ‘Nonsense. She’s like a sister to me.’
Eliza made a gentle snorting sound.
There was a prickly silence for a moment.
‘The Thakur’s interest set her apart from the other villagers, and if it wasn’t for his and her grandmother’s protection, she would have been marked out as adakan.’
‘And that is?’
He gave her a look as if he was judging her reaction.
