The Serpent's Shadow

for a moment that I didn't know that was part of the reason you came here. Tell your friends that it's no use. My father was in the Army; I have a pistol. He taught me how to shoot it as soon as I could hold it. I've killed a tiger and dozens of cobras. It would be no challenge to shoot a thief. What's more, I'll make a point to shoot out the legs of any intruder, then call the police to deal with them.'

The girl's eyes kept widening. This was clearly not what she had expected.

'If I don't happen to be here, I have two men-servants with me here who used to be Gurkhas, and they have no compunction about slitting English throats.' A lie on both counts, but one Indian looked like another to most Englishmen, and the Gurkhas had a fearsome reputation that reached even the illiterate and impoverished. Maya took a step nearer, towering over the girl. 'In fact, I think they might enjoy it. Now, is that a fair bargain for what you've gotten tonight?'

She stuck out her hand. The girl looked at it dubiously, swallowed hard, then rubbed her own grubby palm over the equally grubby fabric of her dress and shook it solemnly. 'Yes'm,' she said slowly. 'Cor, but yer a 'ard 'un!'

'I had to be; I still have to be,' Maya replied, preferring that the girl use her own imagination to figure how Maya got to be so 'hard.'

'Reckon there's a chance Oi'll get some kicks an' curses from me man an' his mates, but fair's fair,' the girl continued, then shivered. 'There's stories about them Tndoo 'eathen, an' once they settle, 'spect they'll see it moi way. How'd ye know Oi was on the ket-chin' lay?'

'Silk kerchief,' Maya said, and got a wince in return. 'One more thing. This isn't a charity clinic, and I don't have to answer to anyone in a dog collar for what I do. I don't ask if people are deserving before I treat them.'

The girl flashed her a conspiratorial look. ' 'Appen some'un shows up on the step some noight?' she suggested coyly.

'Any woman, but only men who are sick, not drunk,' Maya said adamantly. 'If they're wounded, I'll see them only if it's something that won't involve the police. If I lose my licenses, I can't help anyone. It's my clinic, and I can make the rules here.'

The girl took the words philosophically. ' 'Appen we're nearer the Fleet, anyroad, an' they ain't too curious there,' she replied, and stood up, the pamphlets vanishing somewhere inside her shawls. Maya noticed that her cough had vanished, too. It had probably been part of her habitual disguise, intended to garner sympathy while at the same time discouraging too close contact. 'Thenkee,' she said, as Maya opened the outer door for her. 'Oi'll keep my side uv this.' Maya saw her out, then closed and locked the front door for the night, leaning her back against it as she exhaled a sigh. Well! From Amelia to a cutpurse, I've had quite an assortment tonight.

There might still be calls tonight, but those would be emergencies; at this point she was probably free for the evening. With an effort, she pushed her hands against the door and levered herself up. The garden would be the best place to settle her mind before she went on her nightly round before bed.

Charan might have been waiting for her to appear, and Sia and Singhe as well; they all ran to her, Charan springing up onto her shoulder and the mongooses winding around her ankles until she settled into her favorite chair. Sia and Singhe coiled around her feet, pinning her to the spot, while Charan dropped down off her shoulder into her lap, chittering up into her face.

'You don't say?' she responded indulgently, as if she were having a conversation with the little monkey. 'Well, I'm glad you approve of my handling of the situation.'

Charan shoved his head under her hand to be scratched. Obedient to his wishes, she obliged him. He was the most fastidious monkey she had ever seen; most of his tribe were filthy little wretches, but Charan was cleanly to a fault, bathing every day in the pool, and depositing his droppings in the same box of sand that the mongooses used. She had never seen so much as a single flea on any of them, which was nothing short of astonishing.

What were you to Mother? she wondered, not for the first time. You were more than mere pets, that much I know, but what? Charan looked up at her as if hearing her thoughts, and chittered softly.

She gathered him closely, like a child, and he nestled into her arms. Surya had had so many secrets, but surely she could have divulged this one.

Maya stared into the shadows, compulsively searching for a slim, slithering one, a shadow that slipped from shade to shade. Blood of your blood, Mother. Why couldn't you have trusted me? I might have been able to protect Father, if only you had trusted me. . . .

Two hot tears ran down her cheeks, and dropped into Charan's fur.

But perhaps not. Maybe everyone was right, that her father had been so distraught by her mother's death that he had been careless.

Maybe he wanted to die. That was something she hadn't wanted to consider, but it was an inescapable thought. And an uncomfortable one—not just that he had wanted to die, but that he had not loved her, his own daughter, enough to live.