Chapter 18
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Eighteen
Ellie’s muscles balked at the unaccustomed effort of the ride as the day drifted toward afternoon.
Sitting on top of an animal that did all the walking for you really oughtn’t be so strenuous—or unsettling.
Ellie was uncomfortably conscious of just how far the ground was and how easily she might land there if the horse grew irritated with her.
She glanced back at Constance and Neil. They had fallen a little behind, out of earshot but still comfortably within view.
“Worrying about your brother?” Adam asked.
He was perfectly at ease riding beside her, his borrowed Winchester slung over his shoulder.
Unsurprisingly, he had shucked out of his jacket the moment they’d left the palace.
It was slung across the back of his saddle, where he would likely be perfectly happy to lose it forever.
The sleeves of his shirt were pushed up to expose his tanned forearms.
Vanika bounced ahead of them on her mule, Kalb trotting happily at her side.
“There are so many ways this pretend engagement of theirs could go wrong,” Ellie admitted.
Adam shot her a thoughtful look. “You haven’t wondered…”
“Wondered what?” Ellie pressed when he trailed off.
“Whether there might actually be something going on between those two.”
“Neil and Constance?” Ellie echoed uncomfortably. “My stick-in-the-mud brother and the girl who spent most of our childhood finding creative ways to torment him?”
“She’s not a kid anymore,” Adam pointed out.
Ellie raised her brows.
His blue gaze sparked with warm humor. “Don’t worry, Princess. I’ve only got eyes for one set of trousers around here.”
Her cheeks flushed.
“So?” he prompted.
“Don’t be silly,” Ellie quickly answered.
“You saying that because you’re sure? Or because the idea gives you the willies?”
Ellie shot him a glare. “Constance and Neil are two grown adults perfectly capable of making their own decisions in life. Why should I have the ‘willies’ about whatever they choose to do with each other?”
“No idea,” Adam replied innocently.
“Not that they have chosen anything of the sort,” Ellie continued.
“They have both made it quite clear this engagement is nothing but another of Constance’s mad schemes.
Why, Neil spent most of breakfast looking as though he was about to lose his tea.
That’s hardly what one would expect from someone harboring a secret tendre. ”
Adam’s mouth quirked with mischief. “Wanna bet?”
“Bet?” Ellie echoed indignantly.
“Wager,” Adam elaborated. “Gamble.”
“I know what a bet is.”
“You win, and I won’t smoke anything for the rest of the month,” Adam vowed.
“The rest of the month?” Ellie pressed back dryly.
He shifted uncomfortably in the saddle. “The year?”
Ellie considered this narrowly. “It’s July.”
“That’s still five months.”
“It’s not that I disapprove on moral or hygienic grounds,” she quickly went on. “I don’t even mind the smell, really.”
Adam grinned at her wickedly. “How about the taste?”
Ellie had admittedly become quite familiar with the flavor of tobacco when Adam’s tongue had explored her mouth.
“I should say that depends upon the particular blend,” she answered carefully, conscious of the twelve-year-old girl riding a short distance ahead of them.
Adam laughed, deep and rollicking. Vanika twisted in her saddle to look back at them.
“It’s only that some physicians have suggested there might be a link between tobacco use and certain ailments of the lungs,” Ellie continued, lowering her voice.
“I only do it every once in a while.”
“We don’t know what frequency might expose you to risk!”
Adam brushed his knuckles along the line of her cheek. “Interested in keeping me around, huh?”
Ellie tilted up her chin. “I should think that I have made that rather clear by now.”
Adam’s attention drifted lazily to where her trouser-clad legs hugged the saddle. “I can think of a few ways you’ve gotten the point across.”
The heat seemed to rise—which ought to have been impossible as it was already sweltering.
“A full year,” Adam declared. “July to July.”
“A full year?” Ellie tried to disguise her interest. “With no tobacco whatsoever?”
“Or any of the other stuff they smoke around here,” Adam solemnly promised.
Ellie’s curiosity sparked. “Are there other things they smoke in India?”
“Your turn,” Adam ordered instead of answering.
Behind them, Constance was cheerfully rattling on at Ellie’s brother, who looked hot and tired.
All of that was perfectly normal… except that her brother was actually listening.
Ten years ago, he would have been exasperatedly waiting for Constance to leave him alone or reeling with bewilderment at her flood of commentary on something he couldn’t begin to understand because it didn’t involve ancient history or dead languages.
Neil and Constance were adults now. Why wouldn’t he listen to her? That was what friends did—and they were friends, weren’t they?
It was all perfectly friendly.
Neil loosened the button at his collar, searching for relief from the heat.
Constance’s attention dropped to the hollow at the base of his throat—and held there for a long moment.
A nagging unease darted through Ellie.
“So? What are you going to wager?” Adam prompted.
“Nothing,” Ellie blurted out.
Adam cocked an eyebrow.
“I mean—I’m not a gambler,” Ellie quickly corrected. “I haven’t the foggiest idea.”
“You could let him get another dog!” Vanika sang out—incidentally proving that she could hear them perfectly well.
At her side, Kalb barked loudly at a passing crow. The dog jumped as though trying to snatch it out of the air… not that the beast would have any notion of what to do with the bird if he succeeded.
Ellie felt her face drain. “Absolutely not.”
“What? Don’t think you’ll win?” Adam challenged.
“That is not what I am saying at all. I mean only that gambling is a terrible habit that we should certainly not encourage around impressionable young people.”
“She does not think she will win,” Vanika translated cheerfully. “I do not blame her. When the lady came outside, Dr. Fairfax spent far too much time looking at her trousers.”
“He was only surprised that she was wearing them!” Ellie countered stoutly.
“Oh? I am sure that is all it was, then,” Vanika conceded breezily.
The girl turned around again, whistling a cheerful tune.
?
The electric green fields gave way to steep, rolling hills where low scrub grew over red earth.
Thickets of brush framed the trail, chirping and buzzing with birds and insects.
The afternoon was high, and the heat thickened despite the steady gray cover overhead.
Ellie gripped the pommel of her horse as she rode up a sharply inclined path.
They crested the hill—and the forest sprawled out before them. The thick green blanket covered a landscape of verdant mountain peaks dazzled here and there with rays of sun that broke through the gaps in the monsoon.
Ellie was stunned with wonder. This was the Dandakaranya, the mythical wilderness of Rama’s exile.
Where the dry red earth gave way to the shadowed beauty of the legendary forest, great black birds wheeled over the view like dark slashes against the gray sky. Ellie recognized them as vultures.
There had been vultures in the Ramayana. Their king had sacrificed himself to try to save Sita from being kidnapped by Ravana.
The ones circling through the sky in front of them felt like guardians of a barrier she was poised to cross.
The feeling shattered into alarm as four men slipped from the rocks to either side and leveled muskets at their party.
The weapons qualified as antiques but were oiled and well cared for—which left Ellie with no doubt as to their ability to fire. Even if a musket could take only a single shot before reloading, that was four shots too many for their current circumstances.
Adam made a similar calculation. He slowly raised his hands, leaving the Winchester untouched on his back. Neil did the same—then grabbed at the reins as his horse shied beneath him.
The men on the other side of the weapons wore homespun shirts and dhotis. Their feet were bare, and their expressions were watchful.
An older gentleman stepped out to join them. A white lungi circled his waist like a kilt, and his chest was bare. The cropped, curling hair of his head and beard were richly streaked with silver.
He held a bow and arrow with casual readiness in his wiry arms, his amber eyes steady—until they dropped to Kalb as the dog plopped down at his feet.
Kalb panted up at the warrior as though hoping for a treat. And why wouldn’t he, Ellie thought irritably.
“Jignesh!” Vanika shouted happily.
The girl leaped off her mule and ran up to the older man, throwing her arms around his chest. She let off a quick stream of words in an unfamiliar language. Ellie assumed it was Kuvi, based on the very limited reading she had done about the Khond.
Vanika’s tone turned from affectionate to chiding as she waved her hands from the armed men to Ellie and the rest of her party.
“Hao, hao!” the older warrior protested, separating his arrow from his bow and holding them up with an air of tired conciliation.
Vanika turned back with a smug air, casually scratching Kalb between his ears. “I told Jignesh that he can’t shoot any of you.”
Neil looked quietly alarmed. “Would he have shot us if she hadn’t told him not to?” he asked under his breath.
Adam regarded the men thoughtfully. “I’m guessing these folks have good reason to want to know who’s coming to visit.”
Vanika led them forward, Kalb trotting at her heels. Jignesh dismissed his men and joined them, his long legs easily keeping up with the tranquil pace of the horses.