Tom Keeping came to the house.
He came face to face with us as Alice and I were preparing to take the children into the garden.
"Miss Philwright, Miss Delany," he cried, his face breaking into a delighted smile.
I was aware of Alice, a little tense beside me.
"I knew you were here," he went on. "It is a great pleasure to see you again. Are you well? Are you enjoying being here?"
I said we were and Alice agreed with me.
"I knew we should meet again sometime, and urgent business has brought me here."
"Shall you be staying?"
"That depends on many things. However, we shall be able to meet at times." He was looking at Alice. "You find it congenial?"
"Yes," she said. "I get on well with the children. Don't we?" she said, looking at Louise.
Louise nodded vigorously, staring up at Tom Keeping with interest.
"Me too," said Alan.
"Yes," said Alice, ruffling his hair. "You too, darling."
"I want to see Sir Fabian urgently," said Tom. "I am told he will be here this afternoon."
"We never know when he will be here," I told him.
"We should be getting along into the garden," said Alice.
Tom Keeping smiled. "We shall meet again soon. Au revoir," he said.
Dougal had appeared. He said, "Sir Fabian will be here very soon. In the meantime, come into the study and we can talk things over."
They left us and we went into the garden.
"What a surprise!" I said.
"Yes, but I suppose as he is employed by the Company ..." Alice's voice trailed off.
"He is such a nice man."
Alice was silent. She looked pink and flushed and younger; I noticed, too, that she was rather absentminded. I thought: It would be wonderful if he cared for her, but if he does not it would have been better if he had not come back.
Fabian returned later that day. He was closeted in his study with Dougal and Tom Keeping. They did not appear at dinner, but had something sent to the study.
Lavinia and I were alone.
"Thank goodness," she said. "I can't bear all this Company talk. You'd think there was nothing else in the world."
She chattered on about a certain young captain whom she had met the previous evening.
"So handsome, and married to the plainest girl ... I expect it was for her money. She doesn't even know how to make the best of herself. Fancy anyone with her dark skin wearing brown."
I could not give much attention to such matters. I was thinking about Alice and Tom Keeping.
The next day we took the children into the gardens. Tom Keeping joined us. I made an excuse and left him and Alice together. Alice looked a little alarmed, but I was firm. There was something I had to do for the Countess, I lied.
I could not help feeling that Tom Keeping was rather pleased.
On the way into the house I came face to face with Fabian.
He said, "Hello. Are you busy?"
"Not particularly."
"I'd like to have a talk."
"What about?" I asked.
"Things," he said.
"Where?"
"I think in my study."
I must have shown some apprehension. I had never forgotten that occasion when he had made some sort of advance when he had been under the impression that I was Fleur's mother. I could never be alone with him without wondering whether he was going to do the same again. He knew now that I was not a woman of easy virtue, but I fancied that would not prevent his belief that as a Framling and so much above me in the social scale, it would be in order to amuse himself with me for a while. Perhaps that was why I always seemed to be on the defensive. He was aware of this, I was sure. That was what was so disconcerting. He seemed to read my thoughts with ease. I had always felt that he was faintly attracted by me—not for my good looks, which were nonexistent, not for my feminine appeal, but because I was, as Lavinia had pointed out many times, prim, and a man such as he was would find it diverting to break through my armour and to see me submit to him.
I was determined not to show him that I felt excited as well as apprehensive.
He shut the door, his lips turning up at the corners. He held the chair for me and as I sat down his hand touched my shoulder. He took a chair by the table, which was between us.
"You know Tom Keeping is here," he said.
"Yes, he is in the garden with Miss Philwright and the children."
"I noticed the little charade. You discreetly left them together. Is there some relationship between Keeping and the nanny?"
"That is something you should ask them."
I saw the amused look in his eyes. It faded suddenly. "Drusilla," he said seriously, "you are a sensible girl. I wish I could say the same for my sister." He hesitated. "We are a little alarmed."
"About what?"
He waved his hands. "Everything," he said.
"I don't understand."
"I wish we did ... more fully. Tom Keeping has a special position in the Company. He travels around a great deal. He keeps an eye ... on things."
"You mean he is a sort of Company spy?"
"That is hardly the description I would use. You see the position we are in here. It is, after all, an alien country. Their customs are so different from ours. There are bound to be clashes. We think we could help improve conditions here. They are thinking we are an imperialistic conqueror. That is not so. We want the best for them ... providing it is also the best for ourselves. We have made good laws for them ... but they are our laws ... not theirs, and they often resent them."
"I know. You have told us."
"They act in defiance to us. That is the trouble. That is what Tom is here to talk about. There has been a rather bad outbreak of thuggery some thirty miles from here. A group of four travellers have been murdered. We recognize the methods. They had no enemies ... four innocuous men, travelling together for company. They have all been found dead in the forest near a certain inn. The innkeeper admits they stayed there. There were two men at the inn who dined with them. A few hours later the four travellers were found dead in the forest. They had died of poison, which must have been administered in some drink just before they left the inn. There was no reason for the deaths ... except to placate the bloodthirsty Kali. It seems to me that in defiance of our law there is a return to this old barbaric custom."
"How dreadful! Innocent travellers ... murdered by strangers!"
"That is the way of the Thagi. It makes me very uneasy. There have not been many cases lately and we were beginning to think we had wiped the whole thing out. It's a return to it ... a defiance ... That is what is so upsetting. Tom is investigating. If we could find the source of the trouble ... if we could find the murderers and where they come from we might be able to stamp it out, and we must stamp it out quickly. To allow it to go on would not only bring terror to countless Indians, but, worse still, it is an open defiance of British law."
"What are you going to do about it?"
"No doubt there is some sort of central control. These people have their meetings, you know. Wild ceremonies with blood offerings to Kali—strange oaths and so on. If we could find the leaders and root them out, we'd stop the whole thing. No sensible Indian would want to continue with that."
"But Dougal was saying that people value their independence more than anything. They don't want improvements if they are going to interfere with that."
"Oh, Dougal. He's a dreamer. We've got to find out what this means and root it out."
"Perhaps it could be explained to the people."
He looked at me in exasperation. "Drusilla, you are a child in these matters. The sentimental view will only make matters worse. We have to stamp out these evils if we are going to have a reasonable country here where we can live and work and bring benefits to them as well as to ourselves. If they won't accept this, we have to make them."