She nodded.
‘Perhaps my brother, then?’
‘It sounded a bit as if they were planning something against the British.’
‘Sounds like Dev. Though I thought he’d given up pushing.’
‘Pushing?’
‘For a way to change the minds of the people.’
‘I sometimes think it would be better if the people did rise up against the British.’
He smiled. ‘Well! That’s rather unpatriotic, isn’t it?’
She shrugged. ‘I just don’t like the way Clifford and his kind talk.’
Eliza followed Jay to Laxmi’s apartment and, as they passed through the sandalwood doors and entered the jasmine-scented room, the gleaming mirrored space took her breath away, as it had before. She saw Anish, Priya, Laxmi, Clifford and another man, the one she’d spotted earlier with the roll of papers. These were now spread out on a large table.
Laxmi smiled. ‘I’m so glad you could join us, Eliza.’
Eliza smiled back, though she did not enjoy feeling so exposed now that Laxmi and the others knew about her, but she was glad Chatur had not been included.
‘So why the sudden move?’ Anish demanded, clearly irritated by the change of room. ‘What is the mystery?’
‘No mystery,’ Jay said. ‘I spotted that the table in my study wasn’t wide enough for all the drawings.’
‘And why is the Englishwoman here?’ Priya asked, displaying her usual arrogant attitude.
‘It was her idea in the first place,’ Laxmi said, smiling warmly at Eliza.
‘You’re allowing an English widow to dictate what we do?’ Priya snorted dismissively, and then a stream of words followed, far too rapidly for Eliza to follow, though she managed to pick up the gist of Priya’s disapproval.
‘As I recall, you are capable of a vigorous amount of dictating yourself,’ Laxmi replied. And this Eliza did understand.
She smiled inwardly, sensing that there were unsettled scores between the two women, but that Laxmi would always have the upper hand. She wondered about the source of the woman’s inner strength.
‘Mother. Priya,’ Anish said. ‘Let us put our personal differences aside and discuss the plans.’
The engineer stepped forward. ‘My name is Andrew Sharma. I was trained in London and have worked on several irrigation projects across the Indian Empire.’
‘Rajputana isn’t like anywhere else,’ Anish said, his voice expressionless.
The young man bowed. ‘Indeed it is not, sir, but I’ve taken everything into account.’
Anish smiled indulgently. ‘As you know, many projects have already failed. Why should yours be any different?’
As a gust of wind blew in the fragrance from the gardens and something more, Eliza thought she caught the scents from the desert and tried smiling at Priya. The woman only raised her brow and smirked before turning away.
The young man glanced at Clifford, who nodded. ‘With respect, they failed mainly through ignoring the knowledge of local people. In sounding out the locals I’ve discovered exactly where the lakes should be dug, how deep they should be and how to deal with the slope of the Prince’s land. Eventually we’ll be able to move on to the damming of a river, but for now we’re keeping it simple. These people know so much about the weaknesses in the land and where there need to be walls to prevent seepage. My plans take all of that into account.’
‘Why waste all this time and money on a few peasants?’ Priya said. ‘I don’t see the point.’
Eliza laced her fingers behind her back as Anish turned to Jay. ‘And you are prepared to assume total responsibility for the project?’
Jay nodded. ‘I am.’
‘And if it fails?’
