‘It does,’ she replied in an even tone of voice and with as much dignity as she could muster.
‘That is a pity.’ Another of those smiles that never reached the eyes, giving her the impression that he was mocking her. ‘You may have heard that a widow is deemed a guilty woman. We consider it dishonourable for a woman to outlive her husband.’
He was playing cat and mouse and she swallowed rapidly. ‘A belief that is utterly ridiculous to my way of thinking.’
He ignored her comment. ‘It has come to my attention thatyouare a widow, Mrs Cavendish. These rumours do rather spread in our enclosed world.’
Her heart began to gallop, but as she opened her mouth to ask, he interrupted.
‘How I know is no concern of yours.’
‘I disagree.’
‘Well, be that as it may, the end result is that a woman like you cannot be allowed to move freely around. We believe contact with a widow to be extremely unlucky and few will wish to be in your company. To that end I, or one of my men, will accompany you everywhere and oversee all the pictures you intend to take, including the scrutiny of your contact prints. Anything I deem to be unsuitable will be destroyed. Is that clear?’
Fired by indignation she stood her ground. ‘Perfectly clear, though I think the British Resident may have something to say about it.’
‘I believe Mr Salter is currently in Calcutta and likely to be away for some weeks.’
‘Well, Prince Jay –’
‘Do not be misled. The Prince will have no option but to do as I say. It is the Maharajah’s order.’
‘You told him I was a widow.’
‘I know my duty. We believe in duty here, and the first duty of a wife is to keep her husband alive.’ He laughed a bitter laugh. ‘So there you have it.’
She turned away, but then twisted back and, sick of constantly wondering if she was imagining things, just came out with it. ‘Why are you having me followed?’
He smiled. ‘It is your imagination. You are not being followed, but, if you were, would it not be in your own interests to leave the castle now, before, shall we say, something worse were to unexpectedly occur? To you, or even to somebody else. These castles can be dangerous places.’
She shrank from the menace in his tone. ‘Why would anything happen?’
‘Just a figure of speech, Miss Fraser. But you saw what took place at the polo.’ He spread his hands and, with a look of mock desolation, shrugged.
This made Eliza feel certain Chatur had been the one behind Jay’s fall, and now the worry was not only for herself but for Jay too. Although defenceless, she could not allow Chatur the pleasure of seeing how much she was affected, so she did her best to swallow her fear. The veiled threat was bad, but also her movements would now be terribly restricted. Things couldn’t be any worse.
She wished Jayant would come home, and now that Chatur knew the truth, Laxmi would also know. Ashamed at concealing her true status, she fought to control her distress. What would Laxmi say? And with her every move under the scrutiny of Chatur, how safe would she be at the castle? Eyes smarting, hands sweating, she told herself not to be silly. Nothing worse would happen to her. He was just a bully, wasn’t he?
14
When Jay still did not return, Eliza knew her only ally was gone; the chattering concubines no longer called for her, and her access to the castle was severely restricted. She occasionally spotted Anish’s daughters roller-skating, but as she was always accompanied by a guard she dared not call out to them. It was clear the guards had been given orders to disrupt her plans and, feeling trapped and frustrated, time hung heavily. At times she felt she might drown in silence that was never truly silent.
As the images she was able to capture grew fewer and more formal, she began to feel she was destined to fail her brief. Her nightmares returned too, only now it was not only the terrible noise of a bomb exploding, the blast thundering over and over in her head, but also the smell of burning flesh in her face and in her hair. She woke scraping and scratching her skin. If not that, she would see her father’s face disintegrate before her eyes, to be replaced by the image of a funeral pyre, and then she would wake trembling, her nightdress sticking to her skin and her hair soaking wet.
Most of the time she was still aware of being followed, and frequently expected to come across someone lying in wait. But was she more afraid of actually being followed or of what was going on in her head at the thought of worse? She had to hope Chatur was all talk and that she wasn’t in any danger, but it was only human to consider packing up and leaving. And yet, if she were to leave, what would there be for her in England? She’d spent a great deal of her money on her equipment, relying on this project to lead to greater things. While she was being paid on a monthly basis, an unfinished project meant no lump sum at the end and a damaged reputation as a photographer.
She was walking along the corridor to her room planning her next batch of photographs when she froze and then quickly slipped into an alcove. She had spotted a man backing out of her bedroom surreptitiously and locking the door after him. When she was certain he had gone, she ran to her room, her hands shaking as she turned the key in the lock. Inside he’d done well to cover up his presence but, while everything was more or less in place, she could see that her belongings on the dressing table had been moved around. Now, faced with the evidence that she really was under observation, she felt scared and very angry. How dare they enter her room without permission? She was certain she had recognized the man as one of Chatur’s guards, so Chatur had to be behind it. She dragged a chair and leant it against the door. It wasn’t much of a deterrent.
The next morning, after a fearfully sleepless night, the guard left her alone outside. She sat on one of the giant swings, capable of accommodating four women at a time, and as she dragged her toes on the ground she heard a voice and looked up to see Indi walking towards her.
‘Did you tell them?’ she asked straight away. It stung to think Indi had given her secret away, and she couldn’t mask her annoyance.
Indi frowned.
Eliza raised her voice. ‘Did you tell them I’m a widow?’
‘Of course not.’
