‘Oh, no. I’m not letting you get away with that. This is different. Stealthy. And I saw somebody leaving my rooms.’
He smiled coldly. ‘One of the cleaning maids, no doubt.’
She held his gaze. ‘It was a man.’
‘You have a fertile imagination, Miss Fraser. If I were you I’d keep that in check. And remember, whatever you may think of me I am not a stupid man. Wild accusations won’t go down well with Anish, and if you go running with tittle-tattle you will not be believed. I shall make quite sure of that.’
‘Tittle-tattle!’
‘You don’t fool me. I know you have been placed here to watch us. Who are you really working for?’
Eliza almost laughed. ‘That is utterly ridiculous.’
‘Is it?’
‘Of course.’
‘Then ask yourself this: does your Mr Salter ask you detailed questions about our life here?’
She glanced at her feet but didn’t reply.
He raised his brows. ‘I think that rather proves my point. I hardly need to say we don’t take kindly to interlopers here. I advise you to watch your step. Good day, Miss Fraser.’
Eliza was fully aware that Chatur could be a danger, but as for his claim that he believed her to be a spy, it seemed like a nonsense concocted to undermine her. Should she speak to Laxmi about this? Maybe, but what if she wasn’t believed? What if Chatur was already spreading lies to undermine her? No. Better to hold her nerve and keep her suspicions to herself until she got the chance to speak to Clifford. In any case, she still needed to ask him to persuade Anish to allow her full access again, and as both he and Jay had been absent for some time it had left her feeling adrift. The trouble was, the thing that now stuck in her mind was that from the start Clifford really had asked detailed questions about what she’d seen at the castle.
As it turned out, it was Jay she told when he turned up unexpectedly later that day. He knocked on her door and when she opened up he was standing there, with a burgundy blanket loosely thrown over his shoulders and a friendly look in his eyes.
‘Pleased to see me?’ he said, and beamed at her.
She breathed a sigh of relief and had to hold on to the doorframe to stop her legs from trembling. ‘You have no idea.’
‘I’m not here for long. Shall we walk? In the town, I mean.’
‘I’d love to get out,’ she said. Anything would be preferable to staying at the castle at the moment. ‘Is it all right to just go?’
‘Absolutely, why wouldn’t it be? Just make sure you wrap up. There’s a real chill in the air.’ He laughed. ‘Though after Yorkshire it’s nothing.’
‘So you did go to England?’
He nodded, and held out an arm for her to pass on ahead.
In the town, winter, for what it was worth, had changed nothing. Stalls were still wide open on to the street and people milled about as usual, though now wrapped in blankets. Nobody appeared to be wearing a coat – mainly, she assumed, because there was no rain during this bright blue chilly time.
‘Chai?’ he offered, and brought two cups of the hot sweet drink over to her. ‘It always tastes better in the cold, I think.’
They drank their tea, then she stopped to examine some exquisite silk shawls in gorgeous reds, blues and golds. A deep peacock blue-green one caught her eye and she fingered its silky smooth texture. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Jay approach the trader and after a brief negotiation he came over to her. ‘It’s yours. Silk and cashmere, he said.’
‘Really, I can’t.’
‘Of course you can. Regard it as a token of my esteem.’ He gently wrapped it around her head and then touched her cheek. ‘Beautiful. Brings out the colour of your eyes.’
She felt her skin reddening but smiled up at him. ‘Thank you.’
‘So how have you been?’
She hesitated for a moment. ‘A lot has happened. Chatur has convinced Anish to restrict my movements, but the thing that has really worried me is that I saw a man leaving my rooms. I challenged Chatur, but he denied it and accused me of being some kind of spy. I ask you? How crazy is that?’
‘It is actually insufferable. But what triggered these restrictions?’
