‘Well, I’d better get along,’ Eliza said, as she took a step back towards the door. ‘Lots to do.’
‘Are you packing? Jay told me you were leaving.’
Eliza paused, not wanting her departure to be a subject of gossip, nor to make it real either. ‘Nothing is settled.’
‘Look, I have a bike of my own. Rode it here in fact. A bumpier ride than Jay’s and no sidecar, but if you’re willing to hang on, you could come with me to Jay’s palace. See if he’s there. Take some photographs of the progress.’
‘I’m not sure,’ Eliza said, hesitating, not wanting Jay to think she was chasing after him, but then she caught the memory of the scent of a desert morning and an irrational impulse took over – with nothing to lose, she found herself agreeing.
‘I’ll have to take the heavier Sanderson camera, plates and a tripod. It’s cumbersome and harder to use, but it might be best. Will there be room on the bike?’
‘We’ll strap it on.’
A couple of hours later, under a glittering sky, Eliza was clinging on as Dev rode far too fast along the dusty desert tracks and bumped over tussocks of grass amid the many thorn trees. After a mile or two she wrapped her scarf around her head, covering her mouth, and hoped to avoid the clouds of sand and dust. The bike was smaller than Jay’s and much noisier, and by the time they arrived at Jay’s palace, the sun was directly overhead and every bone in her body had been jolted. The building lay somnolent beneath the haze, silent and seemingly empty. She attempted to smooth down her tousled hair, aware that she must look a fright, and it made her think, once again, that this mightn’t have been such a good idea. She wondered at the dull thud of her heart, for her an obvious sign of unease – she had wanted to come and did not regret the impulse, but really, what would Jay think of her turning up like this?
‘Is it all right to have come here without asking first?’ she asked, trying not to sound pathetic.
He just laughed. ‘Come on. Let’s take a peek at the work in progress.’
‘Shouldn’t we find Jay first? Let him know?’
‘If Jay is here he’ll soon realize we’ve arrived.’
They walked round to where Eliza had sat with Jay all those months ago and, almost expecting to see him sitting there, she hardly knew how to cope. Was he really engaged or about to be? It made her feel a little sick that she had let him kiss her, had encouraged it even.
She followed Dev through the tangled gardens and then a small orchard, finally arriving at the place where a massive amount of work was already under way. Hundreds and hundreds of yards wide, an oblong pit had been partially dug out, although the rest remained clearly unfinished. Eliza looked at the rock-hard earth and was shocked by the enormity of the task. There was still masses of digging to complete and, soon enough, time would run out. She spotted that building work had been started close by: presumably one of the walls to keep the water from leaking. The pit was empty, of course, but with scant rain the previous two years Jay had to get this first lake finished.
‘He’ll need to get a move on if the reinforced banks are to be ready,’ Dev said. ‘Have you been here during a monsoon?’
‘When I was a child. I hardly remember.’
‘It’s wonderful. When the heavens open, there is wild laughter and joy. The end of suffocating heat.’
‘And water.’ She pointed at Jay’s dug-out lake. ‘He hopes to dam a small river and build a massive embankment with marble steps down to the water. But I know when that’s done there’s a much larger lake that he’s planning, half a mile wide and half a mile long.’
‘But nobody is working now?’ Dev said.
Eliza shook her head and, with a heavy heart, glanced at the steam-powered shovels lying abandoned. She struggled not to show how much she ached over what must be Jay’s bitter disappointment.
‘There’s been a funding delay,’ she said, once she had controlled her distress.
‘Just a minor delay?’
‘I don’t know. Shall we walk round?’
As they began to walk around the edge of the newly dug area, Dev appeared to be lost in thought. Eliza didn’t mind. She was thinking too, and wondering how it must feel for Jay to see the work lying abandoned like this. She longed to comfort him, but had a hollow sensation in the pit of her stomach when she thought she might bump into him at any turn.
‘Is it British funding that has dried up?’ Dev eventually said.
She nodded.
Dev stopped walking. ‘So who has been organizing it?’
‘Clifford Salter.’
Dev snorted and then gazed out at the empty pit. Eliza could feel that he was holding back whatever was going on inside him, perhaps in deference to her, but then the truth hit her.
‘You don’t like me, do you?’ she said.
