Pachtal smiled. "Which means she will wish to leave Kartauk safe."
"It seems a reasonable surmise. So we stay very close and when the opportunity presents itself—"
"We scoop Kartauk up and bring him back to the palace."
"At last." His finger touched a golden drop of blood. "I cannot tolerate that fool of a Benares for much longer. Compared to Kartauk his skills are laughable." He smiled. "And since my father has no further use for the girl now that the railroad is completed, I believe we may also take her. Do you not think it fitting we let his little savior be Kartauk's first subject?"
"Scotland?" Kartauk frowned. "My mother told me it was a stark, cold country. An artist needs warmth and color to feed his soul. I like the sunlight."
"But I wager you like your hands better," Ruel said.
"True." He shrugged philosophically. "Perhaps I'll get used to the cold. Your brother will be my patron?"
"Ian can't afford to give you more than a roof over your head."
"No matter. I will find a patron for myself. Perhaps your Queen Victoria. I hear she has much gold."
"I'm sure she'll be delighted to know you have plans for it."
"Once she has seen my work, I'm sure she will also. Maybe I will even consent to do her head." He frowned. "Though I doubt it. Her face does not please me and I abhor double chins. I'll make her a salt cellar instead." He turned to Jane. "Where do you and Patrick go after you finish here?"
"Patrick doesn't have any offers of employment yet. He said we'll make a decision as soon as we get the money from the maharajah." She braced herself and turned to Li Sung. "I want your promise you won't leave the temple until the night we go to Narinth."
He gazed at her without expression. "No."
"Why not?"
"Why do you ask when you know the answer?"
"Li Sung, I told you what happened at Zabrie's."
"And I have not gone to her since that time."
"It's even more dangerous for you to go to her now."
"You do not know she betrayed you. She has given me gifts. It would not be proper for me to leave without saying goodbye." He didn't wait for a reply but walked out of the temple.
Jane's hands clenched into fists with frustration. She wanted to strike out at something.
"Li Sung is no fool. He won't betray us to the woman, Jane," Kartauk said quietly.
"Do you think I don't know that? I'm afraid for him. I wish I'd never given that woman one rupee."
"And why did you give her money, Jane?" Ruel asked softly.
"Because I was stupid. Because I never thought—"
"Because she has too much heart," Kartauk said. "She saw that Li Sung was hurting and tried to ease his hurt. Because of his race and his crippled leg, he was shunned by women, even the whores in houses like Zabrie's."
"So you went to Zabrie and paid her to make sure he was made to feel like a man, not a cripple," Ruel said.
"You're not to tell him," she said fiercely.
"I respect Li Sung. I wouldn't hurt him, Jane."
"Wouldn't you?" She strode across the room toward the temple entrance. "We'll leave the station for Narinth at seven two nights from now, Kartauk. Ruel thinks the safest place for you to wait for the train is on the other side of Lanpur Gorge. I'll come for you in the early afternoon of that day and take you to the gorge."
Ruel followed her out of the temple. "I'd better be the one to come for Kartauk. If Abdar's found out I've managed to buy Cinnidar from the maharajah, he'll know you're his only route to Kartauk and will be keeping a closer watch on you."
"You can't come here alone. You don't know the way."
"Yes, I do." He smiled as he saw her startled expression. "I could have led you here the last three times. I have a very good sense of direction and the maze you ran me was nothing compared to the sewers of London. Did I mention I was once a rat catcher?"
Her lips tightened. "So you made a fool of me again."
His smile vanished. "I could never make a fool of you, Jane. You have too much dignity and strength."
For the first time since he had arrived at the bungalow today, she really looked at him. The hardness that was so much a part of his expression was gone, she realized. No, perhaps not entirely gone, but the gentleness with which he was looking at her reminded her of Ian. Impossible, it had to be a trick. He was nothing like his brother. "Sweet words."
"True words." He glanced away from her. "I want to tell you something else." He paused before blurting out, "I'm . . . sorry."
"What?" she said blankly.
"You heard me. Don't ask me to repeat it." He strode on down the path, still not looking at her. "And I won't lie and tell you I wouldn't do the same thing again. I wanted you and I wanted Cinnidar and there's every chance I'd fall from grace."
"Then why apologize? Why this change?"
"You too? Why does everyone insist I've changed? I merely wanted to—"
"Why?" she repeated.
He was silent a moment and then finally said simply, "I think I'm happy. I don't ever remember being happy. I've been content, satisfied, but not happy. It's a very odd feeling."
"And now you're happy because you've got your Cinnidar?"
"It's more than Cinnidar. It's like . . ."
"What?"
"A new life, a chance to start over . . ." He grinned. "Like getting off the train at the last stop and knowing it's where you want to be. Does that make it clearer?"
"Yes." He was describing how she had felt when she left Frenchie's those many years ago, and she felt a sudden sense of kinship with him. "That makes it much clearer."
"Anyway, I wanted to tell you." He paused and then changed the subject. "You really think Li Sung will go to Zabrie?"
She nodded miserably. "He won't listen to me. I wanted him to be happy but—" She had to steady her voice. "He's always helped me and I wanted to help him too. Blast it, I should never have interfered."
"How did he help you?"
"So many ways."
"Tell me one."
"Books. He taught me to read and write and cipher. His father believed knowledge would save Li Sung from staying a common laborer and made him study every book he could get his hands on from the time he was a small child. What Li Sung didn't know, we learned together."
"Kartauk said you've been together a long time."
"He came to Frenchie's, the place I grew up, when he was twelve. His father had been killed and Li Sung's leg crushed in an accident a few months before. He was seventeen when we left with Patrick."
"What kind of accident?"
"His father was a brakeman and was training Li Sung to the trade." Her smile was bitter. "Li Sung was very proud of his father. Chinese were considered good enough to work the rails but not to be an engineer or fire a train, and even brakemen jobs were rare. His father could do all three and taught Li Sung. However, braking the train was his primary duty and one day he and Li Sung were both caught between two railroad cars and crushed."
Ruel's lips pursed in a low whistle.
"Oh, it wasn't an unusual accident. It happened all the time before Westinghouse invented the air brake that could be worked from the cab by the engineer. Before that a link-and-pin coupler fastened one car to another, and to work it a brakeman had to stand between the cars. If he didn't get the pin into the link at the right moment, the cars would come together and crush him." Her lips tightened. "Which may be why the honor of being a brakeman was given to a Chinese. Li Sung's father would probably never have been promoted to engineer."