Chapter 24: Chapter 24

With no further ill-effects from the spider bite and full of her love for Jay, Eliza was soon back at the Juraipore castle. Dottie had heard that she had been unwell and eventually plucked up courage to call at the castle, entering Eliza's rooms carrying a bouquet of flowers. 'I must say you look wonderful. I'd expected you to look pale and peaky.' Eliza grinned and leant back against the sofa, feeling blissful. Dottie stared at her. 'Oh Lor'! Has Clifford proposed?' 'Clifford?' Dottie laid the flowers down on a side table. 'You have the look of a woman who has just said yes.' 'No.' 'Then what?' She lowered her voice. 'Or should I say who?' There was a brief pause, then her hand flew to her mouth. 'You haven't, have you?' Eliza didn't reply. 'You've fallen for one of them. That's it, isn't it?' Eliza grinned helplessly and nodded. 'It's Jay.' Dottie stood and stared, hands on both hips. 'Well, that'll put the cat among the proverbial pigeons. On both sides.' 'Can't you be a little happy for me?' Dottie moved over to the window and gazed out before turning back to Eliza. 'It will end in tears, my love. This sort of thing always does. Though I imagine it must be deliciously romantic.' She had spoken the last sentence in a wistful tone of voice. 'Would you talk to Clifford to smooth the waters?' Eliza asked. Dottie shook her head. 'No, darling, I really can't. My advice is to put a stop to this before it goes any further.' '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.' ' Hē bhagavāna ,' 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. 'Oh, he would be,' Indi said, and gave a chilly smile that didn't reach her eyes. 'Indi, I –' 'Oh, don't worry; I can see it in your eyes. His too for that matter. But be warned, if I can see it, everyone else will too.' 'I'm sorry. We just started out as friends.' 'Don't be. I'm over it. But I wouldn't fall in love with him. You're not the first, Eliza, not by a long way. And Laxmi won't like it at all.' 'She doesn't know,' Eliza said, as calmly as her thumping heart would allow. In her mind she was remembering his legs tangled with her own, so dark against the white of the sheets. Indi pulled a face, then shook her head. 'She may seem all kindness to you, but when it comes to her darling sons, they can do no wrong. Make no mistake, she will not allow it to continue. You'd better watch your step.' Eliza examined her nails but didn't reply for a moment. When she spoke it was in a small tight voice. 'You mean not the first English woman?' 'Of course. But he must have told you about them. Isn't that what lovers do? Tell each other. And you're not a virgin anyway, so what does it matter? He usually likes the married ones. Over soonest.' Eliza swallowed hard. How many had there been? 'Is that why Jay was reading about toxic chemicals?' Indi said. 'I don't follow?' 'To poison Laxmi.' She threw back her head and laughed, but Eliza was horrified. Jay had probably just been reading up on pyro. At that moment Jay walked in. Eliza saw the anxiety in his eyes when he caught sight of her face. 'It's a joke, Eliza, just a joke,' Indi said. 'Something wrong?' he said, looking from one to the other. Eliza shook her head. 'Just a joke I didn't get.' He frowned. 'That's all?' 'Relax,' Indi piped up. 'Gosh, you're tense. Been doing something you shouldn't have, Jay?' 'Indira knows about us,' Eliza said, thinking it best to just come out with it. He shrugged. 'It was bound to happen. Now, Eliza, where do you want me?' he said, as he turned away from Indi. 'Sitting at the desk. Is that OK?' 'Good idea,' Indi said. 'The Prince at his desk. The British will love it.' Jay laughed, but Eliza knew exactly what he was recalling in his mind's eye. Just before they had left his palace to come back here she had found him pacing his study. He'd asked her to come to help with the papers that lay all over the room, but when she took a few steps towards him he'd picked her up and sat her on the desk. Then he'd kissed her neck. 'I thought you needed me,' she'd said, glancing at the papers. 'I do need you, more than you know.' She laughed as he undid her blouse and then lifted up her skirt. 'Glad you're not wearing trousers,' he said. She helped him slip off her underwear and then he removed his trousers. He bent his head and kissed her stomach. She threw back her head and gazed at the ceiling, no thoughts in her mind at all, just the sensation of his lips brushing her skin and his hands on her breasts. When it got too much to bear, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him to her. The papers went flying and ended strewn across the floor as they made love. When it was over they were both so damp they'd gone to her room and she had wiped the moisture from his skin. Then he had done the same for her, although it hadn't ended there. He had washed her hair, gently massaging her skull afterwards. Indian head massage, he'd said. He had made her sit on a stool and had spent ages massaging her head, neck and shoulders until she felt as if her muscles were made of liquid. Then he'd carried her to the bed, where they'd made love again, although this time so slowly Eliza felt she had slipped outside herself. She was in the process of learning what he liked, how he sighed when she touched him, how he liked her to move with him inside her, but he seemed to already know exactly what she wanted, even before she knew herself. For those last few days at his palace they hadn't been able to stop themselves. They had lived in their own world, safe from everything that might hurt them, and it had made everything beautiful. The sunsets were especially splendid, the dawns heart-breaking, the wind had carried the fragrance of frangipani and jasmine and the sun had shone. Her love for him, and her love for life and his beautiful palace, had expanded until that was all there was and all there would ever be. 'What is this?' she'd said. He'd replied that it was a result of his terror of losing her after she'd been bitten. He had to make her truly his. 'And you mine,' she'd said. ' Hamesha .' 'Always,' he echoed. Now, standing in the room with Indi and Jay, Eliza came to with a jolt. She knew she was reddening at the memory and wondered if she could ever look at a desk in quite the same way. Jay had spotted the colour on her face and winked, but Indi had seen it too. 'For goodness' sake. If you want to keep it secret, no more lingering looks.' Eliza had not been aware of lingering looks, but of course that was the thing about being in love. The sparkly sweet-scented madness that rendered you helpless – so wrapped up in that one person you became oblivious to everyone and everything else. Even though Eliza knew it was lunacy, she did not want it to stop. Not ever. She decided she must practise being more discreet, though at the back of her mind she wasn't really sure she wanted it to remain a secret. Surely if they explained that they loved each other Laxmi would understand? Then Indi's earlier remarks about Jay's previous love affairs came racing back. Was he really the type who fell in love at the drop of a hat and then got bored? As she asked herself that question, she looked at him and the love in his eyes shone out. No. He couldn't be that kind of man.