Page 35 of A Modest Independence

“Mr. Thornhill hasn’t spent very long trying to find him. Just since the business with Helena’s uncle was settled last October. The inquiry agent he hired hasn’t even traveled to India yet. And Mr. Thornhill himself has only written letters.”

“I wouldn’t say only. Those letters Thornhill wrote to his acquaintances in India produced the only creditable lead we have on the last days of the late earl.”

“You’re speaking of Colonel Anstruther? The officer who witnessed Giles’s death?”

“I assumed he’s the reason you’re so set on reaching Delhi.”

“He is. I mean to question him. To look him in the eye and ask him straight out what happened to Giles at the siege of Jhansi. After that, I intend to question anyone else I can find with a connection to the siege, all the way down to the officers’ batmen and servants. The only trouble will be in locating them all.”

“Anstruther might be of help in that regard.”

“And if he tells us nothing?”

“Someone else will. We’ve only to ask the right questions.”

“I don’t hold out a great deal of hope,” Jenny said. “But that won’t stop me from exhausting all of my efforts. Helena is so certain that her brother is alive. She says she’d know it if he were dead. That she’d feel it somehow.”

“What about you? Would you feel anything if Giles were dead?”

“I don’t see how I should.”

“You’ve kissed him.”

“He kissed me. And the experience was hardly enough to inspire an affinity for one another. Indeed, when the letter came with news of Giles’s death, I had no reason to doubt it. After all, why would Colonel Anstruther lie about such a thing? Unless he was confused or suffering some sort of injury himself. In which case—”

“Giles was rumored to be having an affair with Anstruther’s wife.”

“What?” She drew back from him. “Who told you that?”

“Thornhill. One of his friends in India wrote him with the local gossip. Apparently, there was no love lost between Giles and Anstruther. Whether that has any bearing on Anstruther reporting Giles dead, I have no idea. But it’s an interesting fact, nonetheless.”

“Helena never said anything.”

“Perhaps she was embarrassed? The tale doesn’t cast her brother in the best light.”

“You knew about it.”

“Only because Thornhill wished me to do what I could to find out if Giles might still be alive.”

“Did you discover anything that might be of use?”

“Regrettably no. I have little influence in India. My power—such that it is—reaches only so far as the English shore. And possibly into Le Havre.”

“Why Le Havre?”

“I had a case there once. A lengthy matter. I developed a dozen or so contacts in the area.” Tom frowned. “No. When it comes to India, it’s Thornhill who has the reach. And even that’s limited by the events of the uprising. He left Cawnpore with a black cloud over his head. I don’t expect he’ll ever go back.”

“He would if Helena asked him to.”

“Is she likely to do so?”

“No,” Jenny admitted with a sigh. “Not even for Giles. Which is why it’s up to me to discover what happened to him. There’s no one else to do it. No one who has the mettle—and who knew Giles as I did.”

“You needn’t look so oppressed. You’re well on your way.”

“Yes, but to what end?

“The truth, I trust. Whatever that may be.”