Chapter 9 Alex
Alex
Alex was midway through a yawn when Savi’s bedroom door opened. He straightened in his seat, glancing down the Lakenheath private railway carriage to see her walking towards him, her skirts swaying with her movements. “Good morning, Savi.”
“Morning,” she grumbled, her voice still edged with the rasp of sleep.
The delicate scent of her perfume permeated around them as she took the seat opposite, her hands resting on the small wooden table between them.
She gestured towards the window, where the fields and forests of England whizzed past in a great green blur. “Where are we?”
“The last station I could catch the name of was Knebworth. That was perhaps ten minutes ago.” At her blank expression, he explained, “It’s in Hertfordshire. I’d guess we’re about half an hour from arriving.”
Her deep brown eyes lit up with delight. “How convenient. So we board the train at Edinburgh station just before midnight, and wake up in London.”
“Effectively. I always try and book overnight journeys whenever possible. It doesn’t feel quite so convenient during the daytime.”
“No.” Savi laughed, shifting her hair off her shoulder. “I imagine the eight-hour journey is quite tedious if you’re awake.”
“You don’t know the half of it.” Especially when they were children.
Stuck in a windowless carriage whilst Ben and Lily argued was a particular kind of torture.
His eyes were drawn to a large silver necklace hanging around her neck, showing a naked woman holding a sword.
“That’s the same necklace you wore on our wedding day. ”
Savi winced as though he’d chided her. “I probably shouldn’t have worn it on our wedding day.”
“Why not?”
Her left eyebrow jumped up. “She’s wearing a necklace of human heads, Alex.”
An unexpected snort of laughter overtook him at her blunt phrasing. “Whilst I admit it’s an unusual choice for wedding jewellery, it was your wedding. You were free to wear whatever you wanted.”
Savi’s upper teeth bit into her bottom lip as her focus drifted from him, her brows pinching together.
“What’s wrong?”
Her gaze jumped back to him. “I didn’t wear what I wanted. Not really.”
“How so?” he murmured softly.
“My father picked out my wedding dress—and everything that went with it. The ridiculous, characterless gown. The most uncomfortable shoes I’ve ever worn in my life. The only thing I asked for in return was that he bring my mother’s jewellery for me to wear.”
Alex could see where this was going. “But he didn’t?”
Savi shook her head. “Instead, he brought a box full of diamond-encrusted pieces I’d never seen before. He said that the pieces I’d wanted would have made him look like a beggar. Because that’s all Raj cares about: his reputation.”
“So you wore your own necklace instead,” he concluded, leaning back in his chair.
“Precisely,” she said, without a trace of regret.
“I’ve never been a lover of jewellery. The few pieces I do own are those with history.
This amulet is several hundred years old, whilst the tikli I wore was bought by my mother for a few shillings in the oddities’ shop I mentioned—Hugger all Alex had needed to do was apply a bit of persuasion before Chamberlain agreed that Raj’s company would be perfect to deliver the latest round of smallpox vaccinations the government was rolling out.
With another man, Alex would have doubted he’d actually make good on his word, but he had a feeling Chamberlain was suggestible enough to follow through.
Leaning back in his chair, Alex finished the last of his sherry.
He’d also never been to a christening that was so sodding exhausting—or one that played on his conscience this much.
Was Raj’s company excellent at what it did?
Absolutely. But did that mean it was the best one to award the government contract to? Not necessarily.