It was a landslide. A mass of loose soil had come crashing down, into the space they had vacated just a few seconds earlier. Even as Athreya watched, another rumble shook the ground. More soil and rocks slammed down on top of the existing heap. The new mass engulfed the road and poured down the hillside beyond. Two tall trees tumbled down into the gloom and crashed on to the road a dozen yards behind them.
‘Move!’ Manu hissed. ‘Move, Dora! Not a second to lose.’
Even in his urgency, Manu had possessed the presence of mind to not shout. Raised voices and loud sounds, Athreya recalled reading somewhere, were best avoided around avalanches and landslides.
‘It is dangerous to hang around a fresh landslide,’ Manu explained as the jeep leapt forward. ‘There is no telling when it will widen and take you with it. Every landslide unsettles the soil around it, making the area vulnerable. Until it settles down, it’s best not to go near the site.’
‘How bad is it, Manu?’ Dora asked without turning her head. They were pulling away from the devastation. ‘The noise was deafening.’
‘It’s a big one, Dora. The largest I’ve seen in a while. It’s going to take a couple of days at least to clear it up and reopen the road. Thank God it missed us.’
‘Yes, thank God it came down after we passed the spot. Greybrooke Manor is going to be cut off for a few days. But at least all of us will be there.’
Ten minutes later, they turned off of the tar-topped road on to a mud road that led into the valley they had seen from the hilltop. Darkness had all but descended upon the hills, and the valley looked all the greyer for it. Everywhere around them was mist, which seemed to have thickened with the onset of dusk. The nip in the air reminded Athreya of his jacket again.
Presently, a huge iron gate loomed ahead of them, its black-painted bars gleaming with dew. With surprise, Athreya noted the total absence of light at the gate and the gatehouse beyond, and wondered why that was so. On either side were tall eucalyptus trees, standing like silent sentinels in the night. Beyond the gate was a gravel driveway, which vanished into the misty gloom, past the reach of the jeep’s headlights.
A Gurkha guard materialized in the spill of light from the jeep and opened one of the gates. He cracked a crooked grin and threw them a salute as the vehicle rolled up to him, shouting, ‘Namaskar, saab! Namaskar, madam!’
Dora stopped the jeep briefly as Manu told the guard about the landslide and enquired if everyone else was home. Satisfied that everyone was, Dora let in the clutch. The guard, who had answered to the name of Bahadur, shut the gate behind them with a heavy clang.
The gravel driveway, now hemmed in by trees on both sides, curved to the left. Lamp posts bordering the driveway stood dark, making Athreya wonder again at the absence of lighting.
‘Power cut,’ Manu explained, as if reading his mind. ‘A couple of power lines snapped in the deluge we had last week. They are yet to restore them. We have been having long power cuts and low voltage for a week.’
‘Don’t worry, we have a generator,’ Dora interposed, as if to mitigate the shortcoming. ‘But it can’t take the load of the entire estate. We just have to be selective about what lights we turn on. Outdoor lights are the first to get the axe.’
As the jeep took the curve in the path, a massive grey edifice loomed ahead. Greybrooke Manor turned out to be a two-storey mansion of stone, topped by a sloping shingled roof. The nearest outer wall, which was one of the shorter sides of the rectangular mansion, was covered with dark-green ivy that looked almost black in the diffused light from the jeep. Neat rectangular openings in the ivy marked the windows and doors.
Light spilled out from a pair of wide French windows on the ground floor and a smaller window. A solitary figure stood behind the French windows, peering out at the jeep. On the floor above, three curtained windows remained dark. To the left of the windows was a wide porch that housed the front door to the mansion.
The porch lights came on as the jeep approached the mansion, and the wide front door swung open to let out a patch of light into the night. A man appeared at the doorway and stood silhouetted against the glow.
‘Welcome to Greybrooke Manor, Mr Athreya,’ Dora said lightly as she brought the jeep to a halt. ‘It may not look like much in the dark, but it is a comfortable place. It’s actually quite nice-looking in the day.’
She jumped out of her seat as Manu unwound himself at the rear of the vehicle. Athreya took a moment to stir, then stepped out cautiously on to the gravel. As the silhouette at the doorway came down the front steps to greet them, a boy darted out from behind him to take Athreya’s bag and some other packages from the jeep.
The silhouette that had come down the steps turned out to be that of a straight-spined, sharp-featured, middle-aged man of quiet bearing. He was dressed simply in a pair of dark trousers and a light-coloured shirt.
‘Welcome to Greybrooke Manor, sir,’ he said genially, with a welcoming smile and a slight, old-fashioned bow. ‘I hope you had a comfortable journey?’
‘Yes, thank you,’ Athreya replied, noting that the man hadn’t offered a handshake. He reasoned that this was perhaps Sebastian, Bhaskar Fernandez’s caregiver, secretary and major-domo.
‘My name is Sebastian,’ the man confirmed as he ushered Athreya through the porch and up the front steps. ‘Your room is two doors away, and is ready. Would you like a drink now, or would you rather freshen up first?’
‘I’m sufficiently refreshed after riding in an open jeep late in the evening!’
‘Very good. Shall I take you to
