‘I don’t think I can.’
‘Not willing to, more like. I don’t blame you, honestly I don’t. It must be irresistibly exciting, but he will never marry you. He’ll marry one of his own kind.’
‘I’m not so sure.’
‘I am, and it will leave you with a tarnished reputation.’
‘But I’ve already been married. I’m hardly a virgin.’
Dottie came across to sit beside Eliza on the sofa and took hold of her hand. ‘People forgive a dead husband but they don’t forgive a woman who has been cast aside, especially if the man concerned is not one of us.’
Eliza sighed. This was not what she wanted to hear.
‘Honestly, darling. Put a stop to it, and soon.’
Jay had given Eliza the key to his study so that she could use it whenever she wished, either to take pictures of people, or to sort out papers for him when he wasn’t there. She thought she might take individual shots of each member of the family, plus a few other individuals, though really the best shots she’d taken of people had always been out in the town or in the desert itself. Something about the wild seemed to make a person stand out in such sharp relief.
Indi had returned from her grandmother’s, and Eliza was relieved that the old lady’s dash across the desert on a motorbike hadn’t left her more fragile than before.
‘You must be happy,’ Eliza said, as she set up her field camera on the tripod in the study ready to photograph Indi. The Rolleiflex still wasn’t back.
‘I hated to see Grandmother fading like that,’ Indi said. ‘If I am honest I don’t think she really is better. She is putting on a brave face, but she hardly eats a thing.’
‘Didn’t you want to stay on?’
‘She insisted I came back here … So?’ Indi said, after a short pause. ‘You’ve been away for ages.’
Eliza thought about Jay and also her conversation with Dottie and managed to keep a composed face. ‘I’ve been helping Jay with the water project. Some papers still need signing by the new investor before the funding can be released. It’ll be any day now, and then the work will have to really pick up speed.’
‘I’d love to see the progress.’
‘I’m sure Jay would take you. Now, could you sit on the desk?’
‘On the desk?’
‘I’m after a relaxed shot.’
Indi went to perch on the edge of the desk. ‘How about if I pretend to be reading a book?’
‘Good idea.’
Indi picked up a book that had been lying open on Jay’s desk and made a good fist of being absorbed in it.
‘Now look up at me and smile.’
Indi did as she was asked and Eliza was astonished once again by the girl’s beauty. Part of her wanted to raise the issue of Indi’s relationship with Chatur, but as Jay had already dealt with it she decided to let sleeping dogs lie.
‘Would you like one of me standing too?’ Indi was saying.
‘Maybe another with the book in your hand first.’
‘He bhagavana,’ Indi said as she turned the page, ‘why is Jay reading about toxic chemicals?’
‘No idea,’ Eliza said and changed the subject. ‘Did you know your grandmother came to help when I was bitten?’
‘She told me. It was odd, actually; she spoke a lot about you. But why all the fuss – people rarely die from a black widow’s bite.’
‘I think I had an extreme reaction. Jay was wonderful.’ Eliza couldn’t help but grin at the memory of his gentle care and consideration while she’d been ill.
