‘And what did you make of that sourness at the end – summoning the nautch girl.’

‘I wondered for whose benefit she spoke.’

‘Did you indeed?’

Hervey lapsed into thought.

‘Papa, where is Mr St Alban?’

It was a simple question, and a welcome one therefore. ‘He’s visiting with Colonel Bell, who was here when last I was. Or rather, he’s trying to discover his situation, for I wish to visit with him too.’

Granite started to prance. Georgiana settled him with a check to the reins and more leg, wishing she could do so from astride rather than in this antiquated side-saddle. ‘He does that when there’s a snake.’

‘How do you know?’

‘Malik said, and he’s the best of syces. And a krait just slid into the grass there.’ She nodded to their right, perfectly calmly.

‘Miss Hervey is excessively observant,’ said Fairbrother, smiling broadly.

‘How do you know it was a krait?’

‘It’s always a krait, says Malik.’

Hervey frowned. Was every Indian a fatalist?

At three o’clock Georgiana and Annie went to the zenana to take tea with the ladies of the court. It was a cool, quiet place about the size of a tennis court, set well apart, high-ceilinged and with trickling water to fill the silences, for it was not a place entirely of chatter. It was a place of domestic industry. The ladies were indeed skilled at embroidery. They showed their visitors their work and gave them samplers to demonstrate their own. Few words were necessary, and both Georgiana and Annie were sparing in what they revealed of their Hindoostanee. The ladies themselves spoke almost no English, except for Mira Bai, wife of Colonel Bell – tall, handsome, the image of a high-born Rajpoot, and about forty or forty-five years old. The others deferred to her, as if she had seniority beyond her years.

There were many easy smiles and gestures, and many expressions of pleasure that hardly needed translating. An hour and more passed agreeably for all, and then jasmine tea was brought, and sweetmeats – too sweet, indeed, for Georgiana’s or Annie’s taste, but which they accepted with many a ‘mehrbanee’. Mira Bai slipped out as the tea was poured, which put Georgiana on her guard, but after ten minutes she returned – with the Ranee.

They stood and made namaskar, Georgiana and Annie curtsying. The ladies of the court looked troubled, however, eyes lowered as if anxious not to meet the Ranee’s. All except Mira Bai. She beckoned to Georgiana.

Georgiana approached the Ranee and curtsied again, Annie likewise, but the Ranee brushed her away roughly, which her ladies saw (and looked away even more nervously).

Georgiana held her countenance nevertheless. The Ranee’s manner softened somewhat, and she asked her to sit with her by the trickling pool in the corner. Mira Bai withdrew with Annie to join the ladies of the court, who’d taken up their sewing again. ‘All is well,’ she said to her, softly.

The Ranee sat by the edge of the pool and bid Georgiana do the same. ‘Why is Colonel Hervey’s wife, your mother, not here with you?’