Nizams Daughters

too — no doubt induced by the late confusions, but in periodic deliriums nevertheless.

Hervey had on his straw hat, but though it kept off the sun its leather brow-band made his forehead permanently moist. He took it off and wiped his brow with his sleeve for a third time. Emma Lucie, in a white cotton frock and a broad straw hat with a trailing silk band, looked for all the world as if she might have been in his father’s garden at Horningsham. Years of acquaintance with the climate had conditioned her very comfortably to this spring season. As they reached the most active of the fountains Hervey stopped and bade her sit on its wall, for here he could be sure that noone might overhear them against the sound of falling water.

‘The rajah has asked me to take command of the Company’s subsidiary force when the treaty is signed.’ His tone was less than resolute.

‘You seem uncertain, Captain Hervey. I should have thought it a splendid thing for an officer.’

‘I am anxious that it intrudes on the purpose for which I was sent to India.’

‘To study the lance? Surely this would be a most opportune commission?’ she replied, puzzled.

‘Yes,’ he nodded, not wishing to pursue it, for she was acute enough to conclude there was more to it than a bamboo pole. ‘Quite so. The command is in any case to be a limited commission — until such time that the rajah gains more confidence in the Company.’

‘And a good command, I imagine — rather bigger than has been yours hitherto?’

He smiled. ‘I had the regiment for a day or so after Waterloo, but this would be the best part of a brigade — a thousand infantry, three hundred cavalry and a field battery. Yes, an exceptional command for a halfcolonel, let alone a captain.’

‘Let us call it a handsome command, then!’

‘Not enough cavalry, though,’ he mused aloud, as if he had already accepted the commission. ‘Only rapid manoeuvre could make up for numbers if it comes to a fight. We should need to bustle troops from one end of Chintal to the other.’

‘Then it seems doubly suited to a young head.’

‘Positions can come early in India, Mr Selden always said — in the military as well as the civil. Your own brother has great responsibility, and the collector.’

‘Positions come early, often as not,’ she smiled, ‘because men die younger or take their fortunes early and go to Cheltenham!’

Hervey made a sort of resigned shrug, and smiled too. Emma Lucie was no mere Madras hostess.

‘So shall you accept the offer? Mr Somervile told me the rajah would not conclude a treaty unless you were to have the command.’

Hervey took off his hat and wiped his forehead again. ‘As I was saying, Miss Lucie, my first duty is to the Duke of Wellington.’

She tilted her head.

No — it would not do. He had better place his trust entirely in his own judgement or else speak now to this woman who had, it seemed, wits, an understanding of the country and discretion. ‘Miss Lucie, I must speak straight with you—’

‘Speak that or not at all!’

‘Yes, I am sorry. In truth, my mission here is more to do with the nizam than the lance.’

She drew back, as if suspecting some treachery.

‘No, don’t misunderstand me, madam,’ he assured her hastily. ‘The duke has need of knowing — and I beg you do not ask me why — how faithful and effective an ally the nizam might be in any future scheme of the Company’s. You will see, therefore, that if I take this command — albeit for a short time until the rajah’s confidence is won by the Company’s nomination, a Colonel Forster — I may find myself set against the very man I am meant to be treating with.’

She thought awhile before replying. ‘I see your dilemma,’ she conceded. ‘But why are you here in Chintal? Is it merely to reacquaint yourself with Mr Selden?’

‘I beg you do not press me for an answer there either. I may assure you there is nothing dishonourable in it.’

‘Oh, Captain Hervey! I did not suppose you capable of a dishonourable thing if your life depended on it!’

‘I’m obliged, madam. And the more so for your hearing me now.’

‘I do know a little about Company affairs,’ she began tentatively. ‘One is not always obliged to leave the table as the more interesting talk of an evening begins. You spoke of things coming to a fight, needing more horse than you have. But I thought the very presence of a subsidiary force would be enough to deter the nizam from any adventure. For those are the conditions under which his own treaty of alliance is concluded, surely?’

She was right. She knew exactly how the subsidiary alliance system worked. ‘I am certain the nizam would be deterred — yes. But not the Pindarees, and it seems there may be some surrogation on the part of Haidarabad.’

She appeared to be contemplating the distinction.

‘And what place do the rajah’s soldiers have in your command?’

That, he was not sure. He knew it was the rajah’s wish that he should also take command of his regiments, for since the mutiny there was little confidence in their loyalty, except the sowars and Rajpoots. But he was less inclined to take it. ‘Its troubles are best dealt with from within.’

‘Is there any danger from within?’

He was unsure of her meaning.

‘Do you not think that until the cause of the mutiny is established—’

‘Oh, but it has been established,’ he replied confidently. ‘The rajah explained last night — the withholding of batta, the sepoys’ allowances?’

‘Yes, yes, that much I am aware of, Captain Hervey, but to what purpose was the money misappropriated — and by whom?’

He had never been inclined to underestimate Emma Lucie, but he was surprised nevertheless by her inclination to question. ‘I think it widely known that an official called Kunal Verma, the dewan, appropriated the money. Mr Selden, at least, is satisfied of his guilt.’

‘His sole guilt?’

He made no reply.

‘You had not considered the possibility that Mr Selden himself might somehow be implicated?’ she said, her eyebrows arching.

‘In no manner, madam!’ The suggestion was outrageous.

‘Captain Hervey, I have been in Chintal but a short time, and yet I have heard whispers—’

‘You may always hear whispers. I have shared too many billets in Spain with Selden to believe him capable of anything so base!’

Emma Lucie arched her eyebrows again and waved away a persistent hornet. ‘And the raj kumari?’

He was just as astounded. ‘Why should the raj kumari rob her father’s own sepoys?’

‘Ah,’ she replied, smiling. ‘Now at least you are considering motives. Why, indeed, should she do so? But the material point is that someone must have been in league with Kunal Verma — or else his death was a most curious concurrence.’

Hervey had to concede her point. ‘Miss Lucie, you have been here scarcely one whole day. The suggestion that the raj kumari—’

‘I have not met the lady,’ she agreed, ‘and my knowledge of affairs is, I admit, principally that of the rajah’s table last night, but I hear such whispers against her — beginning even on the Godavari. More, certainly, than against Mr Selden.’

‘And of whom else have you heard accusations?’ he asked, after a moment’s contemplation.

‘No-one,’ she replied. ‘Is that not, perhaps, indicative?’

He confided that he had earlier suspected the white officers — perhaps even the Germans, for they had escaped the mutiny. And, indeed, Captain Steuben’s death had been without adequate witnesses.

She took off her hat and fanned herself for a few moments. ‘Strangely enough, Captain Hervey, you are the first King’s officer I have known. I have met one or two, yes, but I don’t believe I have ever spoken more than formalities. I will not say that Company officers are without loyalty, for they are fiercely loyal to their sepoys often enough.’ She spoke with apparent authority. ‘But in the end they serve a commercial