Jay looked at the ground before answering, then raised his head and met Anish’s furious glare. ‘I knew where she kept the keys to the jewel safe.’
‘And the mortgage you raised on these family jewels?Myinheritance, not to put too fine a point on it. Not yours.’
Priya made a sharp tutting noise, but Anish held up his hand as if to warn her to keep silent. If looks could kill, Priya’s face would have had Anish dead on the spot.
Laxmi’s shoulders heaved. ‘It was I who suggested it. It is not Jayant’s fault.’
Priya stood suddenly. ‘Say that again!’
Laxmi squared her shoulders and stared at her daughter-in-law. ‘I gave him the key! It was my idea to mortgage the jewels. The irrigation of our lands is crucial if the people are to survive another drought. You, Anish, were doing nothing. Your father would be ashamed of you. Don’t you realize the British will accuse you of misrule unless you act, and then we’ll lose everything.’
‘Mother!’ Anish said in a shocked tone.
‘Mother,’ Jay repeated, but more sadly. ‘I can’t let you take the blame.’
Priya sat down. ‘Send her away. Do it, Anish.’
Laxmi stood her ground. ‘I’ve warned you about this, Anish. You haven’t gone far enough to reform the land revenue systems, nor have you agreed a fairer arrangement for land management. The people will rise up against us if we do nothing to help. You know the States Subject Conference is there purely to undermine the Princes.’
Anish looked at his hands and fiddled with the rings he wore, at least two on each finger. Priya glared at him with a sourer face than you could imagine, and that made Eliza feel sorry for Anish. He was weak and his wife despised him for it. He was also incredibly effeminate, and Priya did not give the appearance of a satisfied woman.
‘You want the peasants to turn to the British instead of to us?’ Laxmi said.
‘Nonsense, mother. You’re getting worked up over nothing,’ Anish said. ‘And of course you weren’t to blame for the theft of the jewels. This is Jay’s responsibility, not yours.’
Priya snorted, loudly enough for them all to hear, and then spoke. ‘So when will this so-called mortgage be repaid?’
‘We had to extend when the first British investors dropped out, but we have others on board and the papers are due to be signed in a few days’ time,’ Jay confirmed.
‘And how much do you owe?’
Jay swallowed visibly. ‘Thousands, brother, thousands.’
Anish spluttered. He had turned bright red and then, clutching his chest, he winced as if in pain. Laxmi took a step forward but Priya stopped her before speaking bitterly.
‘It has happened before. It will pass. That British doctor the Resident sent was useless. And your Mr Hopkins told my husband to lose weight and take more exercise. We wanted medicine.’
‘Do not over-excite yourself, my son,’ Laxmi said, with a sad shake of her head.
While Eliza watched, Anish turned a normal colour again and began to look better. She realized that Clifford must have assumed Anish would support Jay’s arrest for stealing the jewels. That was what it had to have been about, not seditious papers at all, and Eliza worried that Anish would, indeed, press charges. But she didn’t understand why Clifford had wanted to use Jay’s typewriter to type a paragraph about Kent, and if it was about the jewels, why had Clifford spoken of disloyalty to the Crown?
Anish pointed at Jay. ‘I hold you responsible and you alone. What does a woman know about these things? If the mortgage is repaid by the end of the week then I will overlook this, but if it is not I will divest you of your lands in return for the loss of the jewels. Is that clear?’
Eliza held her breath as Jay gave a sharp nod and then spoke. ‘Why did you bring Eliza in here?’
‘Because she is at the bottom of all this,’ Priya said.
Anish ignored her. ‘Because I need her to witness the papers I have had drawn up explaining what will happen if your mortgage is not repaid in time. Chatur will sign too.’
Eliza had been uncomfortable throughout the entire exchange of words but now let out her breath. The papers for the loans only had to be signed on time and then the mortgage would be repaid and all would be well. She glanced at Jay as if to say, should I sign? He simply nodded his assent and looked away.
Chatur smiled at Eliza, but it was a smile that left her with a chill in her blood.
26
Eliza was gazing out of the window hoping to see the courier arrive with her finished photographic prints from Delhi. It was already sweltering, but she loved seeing the monkeys leaping from tree to tree, and the vista across the flat rooftops of the gilded city still took her breath away, just as it always did. The cubic houses, close to the fortress walls, almost bleached of colour now, shimmered in the heat, and in the silver sky drifts of bright green parakeets swooped and dived.
She spotted a convoy of cars snaking up the hill. When the first car hooted its horn and halted, Clifford and another man climbed out, both of them wearing dark formal-looking suits. The car behind drew up and two British army officers climbed out of that one, both of them wiping their brows with white handkerchiefs. Whoever was in the third car remained in the car. Eliza watched a little longer as the men disappeared from view when they entered the castle, but then, puzzled, she ran down the main staircase, almost falling as she reached the last three steps.
