—37— #2
“Similar, Rajkumar, as I am a son.” He offered his hand for an English greeting. “But perhaps you might call me Tanveer in this casual instance.”
Peter was charmed, shaking his hand with a smile. “I shall, then. And now I’ll leave you two old friends to catch up.”
As he moved away, Tanveer stepped close and took my hand, raising it to his lips. “Your eyes truly are shining. Like beacons.”
“Because I wanted you to come over here. I was feeling terribly impatient.”
“As was—”
A great crack of thunder rattled the glass in the room and made everyone duck, as if something were falling from the sky. The lights blinked out, all at once.
“Oh, dear. That won’t be good,” Nina cried. “Peter, will you find Mr. Richards? He’ll know what to do.”
He saluted her and left the room.
Tanveer rubbed his thumb over the center of my palm, and as if all the electricity now flowed through him, into me, I felt quite wildly aroused. “You must stop that.” I drew my hand away, and instantly wanted to offer it back.
“Your cheeks are flushed.”
I clapped my hands to my face, and I could feel the heat in them. “I hardly know how to stand here with you.” I found my eyes on his mouth, framed so artfully by his beard, and wanted only to sink into them.
He turned to stand beside me, looking toward the room, and our arms pressed close. In Hindustani he said, “I have been useless to my father. All I think of is kissing you.” He glanced at me sideways. “Your mouth. Your neck.”
I laughed, grabbing his arm. “Stop!” I said, “Nina put you in the room next to mine.”
“Well done, Nina,” he said in English. He looked at me. “It will be an eon until then.”
I blushed. “Are we terribly wicked?”
“Are we?”
“I don’t know.” I suddenly felt shy and girlish and foolish, as if I were tumbling heedlessly into some mire I could prevent if I would only halt now. “We shall never be friends again, will we?”
“We will always be friends, meri jaan.” He captured my hand against his thigh in the shadows.
“And we will be lovers, too.” He used the Hindustani word, hum-rooh, which translated more closely to soul mates than lovers, and this time, his face was quite serious.
“But I am patient. If you are feeling frightened, I am in no hurry.” He smiled a little.
“Well, I am. But I am more patient than hurried.”
I suddenly imagined sleeping alone in my room tonight with him on the other side of the wall, and all the time that would be wasted by that. “No. An hour is too far away.”
Rocky arrived in our realm then, and Grayson beside him. To Tanveer, he said, “The artists here all want to paint you, good man.”
“I am afraid I am a subject for only one artist.”
Rocky laughed. “Wonderful.” He looked at me with a glitter in his eye. “Wonderful.”
We ate dinner by candlelight at a rough wooden table in the kitchen.
Nina had separated Tanveer and me, placing him between herself and Lady Diana.
Rocky was next to me on one side, the husband of the couple on the other.
His name was Jameson, and he turned out to be a writer working on his first novel, and not the bore I’d feared.
We feasted on roast trout and new potatoes and fresh green beans, with a strawberry tart and cream for dinner.
The storm and good food created a festive mood, and we laughed at the stories Grayson told.
Even Jonathan, Nina’s most recent beau, who was a serious sort, laughed at his witty tales.
Tanveer listened more than spoke, although he and Lady Diana shared tales of the Punjab, which she’d left as a girl.
The spiritualist watched everything with eyes too big for her face.
It bothered me that she was here, and I found myself remembering the seer from the maharaja’s birthday, predicting dire things for my future.
What madness to worry about such a thing? My life had unfolded quite intriguingly since then.
But of course Henny had to read her cards in the flickering candlelight of the salon after dinner. Nina, always one to underline the drama settled in front of her. “What do you need from us, darling? One at a time? Will you read for the group?”
The girl shuffled her cards, worn soft from use, looking from person to person. “I’ll do a general reading for the group, and then one at a time for whoever wishes it.”
“Goody.” Nina leaned back, candlelight shimmering over her dress, in waves of shape, breasts, hips, knees. Diana stood behind her, smirking as ever, but in one little brush of her hand, I saw her sweep Nina’s hair from her shoulder, linger on the bare skin there for a moment.
Ah.
Tanveer, freed of the regulation of dinner, sat next to me on the divan. “What do we think,” he said in Urdu. “Is she a fortune teller or an imposter?”
“It’s hard to know yet, isn’t it? She does have the eyes of a medium.”
“Mmm. I do not want her to read for me.” He looked at me, eyes quite serious. “Or you.”
All at once, I was aware of his size, so much more adult than it had been.
His thigh leaned against mine, his shoulders broad above my own.
That hint of sandalwood wafted through my body, whispering delights.
I found my eyes on his throat and imagined myself kissing there.
I said, “‘Hum apnī taqdīr khud likh?gē, yahā?. Ek bistar, do khwāb, kyā ?hūb hai, wahā??’” We’ll write our own fates, just us, right here—one bed, two dreams—what bliss draws near?
This time, his cheekbones flushed. He took a moment, then said, “‘Zamāne kā kyā gham? Chupke se keh ha, ishq kī rāt hai, roshanī kahā??’” Why fear the world? Just whisper yes—this night is love’s; who needs the rest?
I leaned against him.
Nearby, Diana said in Urdu with a droll tone, “‘All lovers recite the same old lore—After tea, that tale behind closed doors.’”
I looked up at her and laughed. “Well done, you.”
“Oh, share it with the rest of us,” Grayson called out.
“It is only an old game from childhood,” Tanveer said smoothly. “Of no interest without the context.”
The girl divided her cards and divided them again, and began to lay them out in a cross.
We all watched as she carefully placed them, one and another and another.
A shadow darkened her face, and she paused for a moment, looking at the cards with concern.
She held the other cards in her hands. Her gaze flickered up, caught on mine, then on Nina’s. A strange hush filled the room.
“Don’t frighten us,” Diana said, and laughed.
The girl raised her enormous eyes. “Perhaps I should—”
“Oh, no!” Rocky cried, his face flushed with gin. “We’re all caught in your web now. You must go on, girl. You must!”
She looked at her hands, at the cards spread in front of her, and then laid out three more. Her mouth did not change, and I thought for a moment that she might weep.
I almost spoke up to say, “Never mind, darling—” when she began to speak.
She pointed to the first card, which showed a sun.
“This is the current moment,” she said. “A time of innocence and the illusion of safety. Happiness,” she added.
She took a breath, as if settling into herself.
“But it will not last. There is a time of challenge and great darkness coming, and it is very nearby.”
Grayson made a little noise. “You heard us talking about the war, I’m sure. That’s convenient.”
“I did hear you,” she said with great calm. “And that might be what is coming. The card”—she pointed to a card with a tower and fire and a man falling from the turret—“says everything will change. All of you will change.”
Glances flew around the little group. Tanveer rested his forearm on his leg, close to mine in my lap, and the warmth gave me a sense of grounding.
Henny continued, “This is coming about from the old systems, greed and moral rot that must be broken.” She pointed to another card. “Justice asks to be considered, but it will not come cleanly.”
The writer spoke up. “‘Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven.’”
I suddenly had a sense of a miasma entering the room, like a dark fog flowing along the floor, a presentiment of my own. “Oh, let’s not be so dour!”
Rocky said, “No, please, Henny, do go on.”
She frowned, looking at the cards with great concern. “I don’t think anything is going to be the same. A great deal of death and sorrow is showing here, and—” Suddenly, she swept the cards into a heap, mixing them up emphatically.
“Wait, you didn’t read the rest!”
She stood up. “I do not wish to finish. My apologies.” Scooping up her cards, she hurried to collect them. One fell on the floor, the same that had been at the end. I reached out and picked it up. “What is this one?”
She bowed her head, taking it from me. “The world. Reversed.” She shook her head. “Good night.”
In the aftermath of her retreat, a vast silence dropped into the room. “That was grim,” Rocky said, and tossed back his drink.
Nina clapped her hands. “Never mind,” she cried, standing. “Let’s dance!”
“Not I,” Tanveer said, standing. “I’ll take my leave of you good people.”
A rush of sweet anticipation pooled in my belly, and I forgot the strange psychic. Rocky also gave his leave, and I waited until Peter followed, then floated up the stairs.