The Far Pavilions - Mary Margaret Kaye [246]
‘Arré-bap!’ exclaimed Kaka-ji, startled. ‘Get inside the ruth at once, my child.’ He hurried to help her dismount, and then turning to peer at Ash, took in for the first time the enormity of that tattered shirt.
‘It will be better,’ decided Kaka-ji, looking from one dishevelled figure to the other, ‘if we let it be supposed that we have all been together this past night. No' – he raised a peremptory hand to forestall any argument, and having bundled his niece into the ruth, turned to address the driver: ‘Budoo, should anyone inquire, you will say that the Sahib returned with the Rajkumari only a moment or two after the dust overtook us, and that she took refuge in the ruth while we three men together lay beneath it. That is an order. And if I hear that there has been any talk to the contrary, I shall know who has spoken – and whom to punish. Is it understood?’
‘Hukum hai, Rao-Sahib,’ murmured the driver placidly, lifting a curved palm to his forehead in salute. He was an elderly man who had been promoted to his present employment after the original driver had drowned in the river, and having been in the service of the family for many years, he could be trusted to obey an order and keep his mouth shut.
‘And you, Sahib,’ said Kaka-ji authoritively, turning back to Ash, ‘you will take off those rags and wear my shirt in their stead. There are shawls in the ruth that will serve to cover me, but it is not fit that you should ride into the camp half-naked. The less talk we occasion the better, so do not argue with me.’
Ash had no intention of arguing, and the transfer having been accomplished, Kaka-ji joined his niece in the ruth and ordered the driver to proceed. The bullocks ceased chewing the cud and trotted obediently forward, while Ash took the mare on a leading-rein and followed behind, keeping well to one side and out of the dust; and as he listened to the rise and fall of Kaka-ji's voice re-telling the events of the past night to Juli, he realized that they were doubly fortunate, in that the old man was far more interested in his own experiences than in theirs.
Kaka-ji had accepted a brief and colourless account of their adventures without question, and embarked with enthusiasm on a description of his own trials, which had lost nothing in the telling. It seemed that neither he nor Mulraj, nor Shushila either, had noticed the approaching storm for some time; and when they did, it was only because Mulraj, like Ash, had happened to glance over his shoulder and seen that the sky behind them had become a dingy brown. The escort and the driver of the ruth were equally ignorant, for they were squatting in a shallow cleft among the rocks smoking and gossiping, facing an unclouded sky and well shielded from the wind and all view of the eastern horizon. At that time the storm was still some way off, but anyone could see that it was racing towards them with such alarming swiftness that if they hoped to get back to the camp before it struck, there was no time to be lost – and certainly no time to go chasing after the other two members of the riding party.
Kaka-ji had not actually said so in so many words, but it was perfectly clear to Ash that when the chips were down there was only one bride whose safety and well-being were vital to both Karidkote and Bhithor: young, lovely Shu-shu, whose beauty would compensate the Rana (together with that substantial bribe) for having to wed her plain, part-foreign half-sister as well. Neither Nandu nor the Rana was likely to lose much sleep over the loss of Kairi-Bai, but the loss of Shushila would spell disaster for them all, because even if Kairi-Bai survived, the Rana would never accept her in her sister's stead.
There would be no marriage, and the enormous sums that Nandu had spent on gifts and bribes and baksheesh, on clothes and jewels for his sisters' trousseaux and on the absurdly extravagant escort that he had sent to accompany them south would all have been wasted, and he would be mad with rage. Many heads would fall and both Mulraj and Kaka-ji knew