The Far Pavilions - Mary Margaret Kaye [171]
From now on he would let the pace slow down, and stay longer at each stopping place – a day or two at least, which alone would add several weeks to the journey. And in order to ensure that Juli should not avoid him he would take special care to make friends with Shushila, Jhoti and Kaka-ji, who would invite him to the durbar tent, where Juli would have to join them. For judging from her little sister's dependence upon her, she would find it hard to refuse – and harder still to find a valid reason for doing so, as somehow he did not think she would be prepared to explain the true circumstances to her sister, or anyone else.
‘Hai mai!’ sighed Ash, and he did not know that he had spoken aloud until Kaka-ji, who had drawn rein beside him, said: ‘What is it that troubles you?’
‘Nothing of any importance, Rao-Sahib,’ said Ash, flushing.
‘No? Kaka-ji's tone was gently teasing. ‘Now I would have said, from the signs, that you were in love and had left your heart behind in Rawalpindi. For thus do young men look and speak and sigh when they think of the beloved.’
‘You are too acute, Rao-Sahib,’ said Ash lightly.
‘Ah, but then I too have been young; though to look at me now, you might not believe that.’
Ash laughed and said: ‘Did you ever marry, Rao-Sahib? ’
‘Assuredly – and when I was far younger than you. But she died of the cholera five years later, having given me two daughters; and now I have seven grandchildren – all girls, alas; though doubtless they will in time give me many great-grandsons. I must hope so.’
‘You should have married again,’ said Ash severely.
‘So my friends said; and my family also. But at the time I was in no haste to add yet another woman to a household that seemed over-full of them. Then, later – much later – I fell in love…’
The last words had been spoken in such a lugubrious tone that Ash laughed again and said: ‘To hear you speak, anyone would think that was the greatest of misfortunes.’
‘To me, it was indeed so,’ sighed Kaka-ji, ‘for as she was not of my caste I knew that I should not think of her, and that my priests and my family would oppose it. But while I hesitated her father gave her in marriage to another man, who cared less for such matters than I; and afterwards… Afterwards I found that no other woman could take her place in my heart, or blot out her face from my mind. Therefore I could not bring myself to marry again, which was perhaps as well, for women can cause a great deal of trouble and noise, and when one is old, as I am, one requires peace and quiet.’
‘And leisure to go hawking,’ grinned Ash.
‘True, true. Though with age one's skill at such pursuits grows less. Let me see now how you shape, Sahib…’
They talked no more of love, and Ash turned his attention to hawking, and during the next hour or so won golden opinions from Kaka-ji for his handling of the merlin-falcon. The mid-day meal was served in a large grove of trees near the edge of a jheel, and when it was over the brides and their women retired to take an afternoon siesta in a makeshift tent, while the men disposed themselves comfortably in the shade and prepared to sleep away the hottest part of the day.
By now the fresh breeze of the morning had dwindled to a mere breath of air that whispered among the branches but did not stir the dust below, and the chattering of the saht-bai and the little striped squirrels was stilled. Somewhere out of sight a pair of ring-doves kept up a soft, monotonous cooing that blended pleasantly with the drowsy rustle of the leaves and an occasional tinkle of bells as a hawk stirred and shook itself in the shadows. The soft combination of