Page 107 of A Modest Independence

She allowed Mira to help her up and assist her in straightening her tangled gown. “How long ago did they leave?”

“Shortly after tiffin.” Mira tugged Jenny’s skirts into order. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here when you returned from your outing.”

“What?” Jenny cast Mira a distracted glance. “Oh, yes. I hadn’t thought. Where had you gone? Shopping, or—”

“Not shopping.” Mira’s mouth turned down at the corners. “I went to see the place where I lived with my mother before I was brought to England. I expected to be back before you returned, but…I got lost in the city. Ahmad found me.”

A flicker of alarm sounded at the back of Jenny’s brain. “Goodness, Mira. You should have taken him with you to begin with. Anything might happen to a young woman wandering about a strange city.”

“I was safe.”

“You just said you got lost. If Ahmad hadn’t found you—”

“But he did. He always knows where I am. He’d let no harm come to me.”

Jenny felt somewhat mollified. A little jealous as well. Her own brothers had never done much to protect her. “You’re very close with him, aren’t you?”

“He’s the only family I have now. There is no one left. No one who remembers me.” Mira smoothed a self-conscious hand over her own fashionable bodice and skirts. Fashionable because Mira altered them herself. “The neighbors didn’t recognize me.”

“Did you remember them?”

“Not very well.”

Jenny nodded in understanding. “England is your home now.”

Mira’s face tightened almost imperceptibly. “England isn’t my home. I thought Delhi was. That I would feel something for the place and for the people. I don’t feel anything. It isn’t at all like what I dreamed of.”

Jenny contemplated her maid with a furrowed brow. “I shouldn’t have brought you here, should I? It’s only made you unhappy. It’s made all of us unhappy. Better we had stayed in Calcutta. Or better still, that we remained in Egypt. We didn’t spend near enough time in Cairo. We didn’t even get to see the pyramids. Not properly anyway.” The prospect of a new adventure perked her spirits a little. “Would you like to go back to Cairo? We could take a house there for a while. There must be something suitable to let at this time of year.”

“If it pleases you, madam.”

“You don’t have any preference at all?”

“So long as Ahmad and I remain together, I shall be content.”

“Of course you’ll remain together. I wouldn’t employ one of you without the other. You must put that worry straight out of your head.”

Mira smiled. “You are very kind.”

“Rubbish,” Jenny scoffed. She gave another tug to her dress before abandoning her efforts. “It’s no use, Mira. It’s wrinkled beyond repair. I’d better change into something else.” Her fingers worked at the hooks of her bodice. “Do you suppose it’s too late to have a bath before dinner?”

Mira helped her to strip off her sleeves and then to unfasten her skirts. “There’s time. Shall I call for hot water?”

“Yes, if you—”

A brisk knock sounded at the door.

Jenny’s hands froze on the tapes of her crinoline. It was Tom. It must be.

Mira hurried to the door and cracked it open. She exchanged words with whoever was on the other side in murmured Hindustani.

Not Tom, then.

“Who is it?” Jenny asked when Mira shut the door. “Someone from the hotel?”

“Yes, madam. He says I’m to tell you that a lady has come calling. She requests an audience with you here in your room.”

“Here?” Jenny’s brows lifted. “Did this lady give a name?”