Kate and Julia: Slave Girls of the Raj (17 page)

He laughed briefly. “Don’t worry, Penny. I’ve seen your tits already, and had your body too, remember? I don’t want it now, so relax.”

“Where are the girls? I want to see them,” she demanded, ignoring his embarrassing reminder of their affair.

He grinned. “Believe me, not after what you’ve just been through.

They’re a two-day horseback ride away in the mountains. Your backside wouldn’t like it.”

Biting back an angry retort, she forced herself to speak calmly. “I want them back, George. You had no right to take them. I must say I’m surprised an honourable man like you has taken up such a… profession.

I’m sure you could have found a respectable position after you finished with the army.”

“The army finished with me, Penny, as I’m sure you remember very well. There aren’t too many opportunities open to a cashiered and disgraced officer, and very few friends left to help him.” His face twisted for a second. “And
I
must say I’m surprised you have the impertinence to criticise me considering your own circumstances.”

She met his stare levelly, eyes narrowed. “I have no idea what you mean.”

He smiled, showing the edges of his teeth. “Of course you don’t.

But you see, Penny, I still have my honour in spite of what the army says.

I’m a man of my word and that’s good for business. And I’m good at my job. People trust me, and they like what I produce from my modest training establishment in the mountains. They’re prepared to pay very well for my slaves. You see? I have no qualms about calling them what they are. I deal in slave girls, specifically the kind that provide pleasure -

beautiful, obedient, always willing and very, very skilled at what they do.

You’re acquainted with some of them, I think. Intimately acquainted, Courtney says.”

A shiver ran through Penny as she recalled Courtney’s girls teasing her repeatedly to the verge of climax with their hands and tongues. She quashed the feeling before it could go any further and cleared her throat.

“Perhaps you’re unaware that the Prince of Dhokat has a particular interest in Kate and Julia,” she said. “Along with myself, they are to attend him at his celebration for the anniversary of him ascending the throne. That is in three days time, George. I understand your ‘modest establishment’ is not so very far from the border with Dhokat. Do you think it would be good for business if he learned you were responsible for preventing their appearance?” Penny held her breath. It was her only trump card. Had she played it at the right moment? To her intense disappointment and annoyance, Jefferson laughed.

“Excuse me, Penny. There is a certain irony in the situation you could only appreciate if you were in possession of the full facts.”

“Then please enlighten me,” she replied with mounting anger.

“Oh, I couldn’t do that. It would spoil it for you. Much better for you to find out for yourself. What if I offer a compromise?”

Penny reached into her handbag.

“I wouldn’t try to use the gun,” George said. “Courtney knew all about it. He took the precaution of removing all the bullets from the magazine.”

A small glow of satisfaction brought a smile to her lips for the first time since their conversation had begun. “I know, George. And I reloaded it. Didn’t you think I’d have the sense to check, or to bring spare ammunition?” As Penny spoke, she removed her cigarette case from her handbag and took out one of her Turkish cigarettes.

“Well, you did learn something from Tom after all,” Jefferson said with a wry smile. “All those years together weren’t entirely wasted.”

“As far as I’m concerned, none of them were,” Penny responded acidly. “Despite what you and everyone else seem to think, I loved and respected my husband, and when it really mattered I did not betray him.”

Jefferson’s smile faded. “Excuse me. I shouldn’t have brought the subject up.”

“Your compromise?” Penny asked impatiently.

“Ah, yes. Well, since the Prince of Dhokat seems to be involved in the matter anyway, why don’t we let him settle it? I am also invited for his anniversary. We can both turn up on the day and ask him to decide which of us gets the girls. I’ll ask Courtney to drive you. It’s a longer way round, but quicker and more comfortable than riding over the mountains.”

Penny saw the pitfalls at once. “And what’s to stop you bringing the girls here instead and selling them at the auction the next day? I couldn’t possibly get back from Dhokat in time to stop you.”

“Do you really think you could stop me if that’s what I decided to do? No, you’ll have to trust me, Penny. I can give you my word if you still think it has any value. Unless, of course, you have a better idea?”

Penny did not. Yet it seemed almost too good to be true. George had no reason to compromise when, as he had rightly pointed out, she had no power to stop him doing whatever he wanted with Julia and Kate.

Clearly he had been untroubled by her threat that the Prince could make life difficult for him, and he knew as well as she did that she would never use the gun except to protect her own life. But George was not aware of the true nature of her arrangement with the Prince, Penny realized, or that because of it he was bound to find in her favour. Of course, that was it!

A thrill of excitement ran through her, which she carefully concealed as she gave him her apparently grudging acceptance.

“Good, that’s settled then. No more need for any argument. Let’s have a drink.”

His obvious confidence that he was fully in control of the situation still made her a little uneasy, but then again, it always had. And this time he was in for a disappointment. The gin he handed her had the merest dash of tonic and ice she was sure came from another of Macdonald’s refrigerators. Penny would never be able to look at one of the contraptions again without shuddering. Because she remained standing, George did the same and lit her cigarette when she raised it to her lips.

He had not entirely lost the gentlemanly courtesies of the British officer he had once been, she thought, nor perhaps the sense of honour he had mentioned earlier. Neither had Penny. She had to tell him the truth about Tom.

“I… I have to say something. It… it’s only fair,” she began hesitantly. It’s about the… incident.” She faltered. It was going to be as difficult as she had always imagined it would be, not that she had ever really expected to have the chance to tell him face to face. Jefferson continued to look evenly at her, a brief flicker of his eyebrows the only evidence her words had had any effect.

Penny straightened her back. “Some time ago, Tom wrote a letter and locked it away to be opened only in the event of… of….” She drew on her cigarette. “It explains everything that happened that day and the reasons why.”

“Then it would have been very useful to have had it at my court martial,” Jefferson said dryly, lighting a cigarette of his own.

“Please, just listen and try to understand. Tom always had some doubts. About his… his courage, I mean. He wanted to test it, to be sure he was the man he thought he was. That’s why he transferred to the frontier. Only… only….”

“He
wasn’t
the man he thought he was,” George finished. “I’ve already worked it out for myself, Penny. God knows I’ve spent enough years thinking about it. There only ever could have been one reason why he didn’t bring his men up to support us – he was too afraid. So he left us there, pinned down in the defile while the Afghans picked us off one by one. Two thirds of my men were killed or wounded, Penny, while Tom sat with the mortars and machine guns that would have saved us and did nothing.” The ice cubes in his glass rattled suddenly, and he set it on the mantelpiece with an unsteady hand and paced the floor before turning to her. “At least I can understand that, if not forgive it. What I can’t understand is him lying at the court martial. What I can’t stomach is him sacrificing my honour and reputation to salvage his own. I thought he was a better man than that, and a better friend too.” He went back to his drink and gulped it. “I could never have lived with myself after such a betrayal, Penny.”

“Neither could Tom,” she said. It was all in the letter: the sniping in the defile on the mountain road, how Tom had ordered George forward with his men and the sniping had turned into an ambush. And how Tom had been unable to find the courage to lead his own men forward under fire to rescue those trapped. Only the arrival of a troop of armoured cars had finally extricated the survivors. In the confusion, George had lost his map case containing Tom’s written order to advance and Tom had destroyed his own copy. Without any other witnesses to the order ever having been given there was no one to refute Tom’s evidence at the court martial. Captain George Jefferson had been cashiered from the regiment in disgrace for attacking without orders. The trial had split the other regimental officers, some believing one version of events and some the other. Already tormented by his cowardice and what he had done to conceal it, Captain Thomas Winter had resigned and returned to England.

“Tom never left a note,” Penny said. “He just drove off like he did most nights, but that time he never came back. I don’t know if he deliberately took his own life. Perhaps he hadn’t the courage to do that either but his recklessness finally led to the outcome he wanted.” His letter had shown the torture he had gone through over his lies and betrayal, the shame and misery that had eventually destroyed him. Penny felt the sting of tears, and shook off the memory. “I’m sorry, George. I wish things could have been different.”

His laugh was bitter. “So do I, Penny. Believe me, so do I.”

A thought struck her. “I hope you don’t bear me any ill will over what happened.”

“Good Lord, no. You had no hand in it. But I will admit to being disappointed when you ended our little liaison so abruptly.” He smiled without warmth. “Though I understand why.”

A blush heated her cheeks. “That was some time ago. Surely we are both a little older and wiser now.”

“Yes indeed, a good deal wiser.”

“I still have the letter,” Penny said. “I would have sent it to you sooner but I had no idea where you were. The truth can’t hurt Tom now.

If you show it to the Colonel of the regiment you will be exonerated.

Perhaps you could even be reinstated.”

He seemed genuinely amused by her suggestion. “It’s much too late for that. Besides, I like my new job and the rewards are a lot better. I believe I’ve got what I wanted most, Penny; Tom’s acknowledgement of the wrong he did. I don’t need to see the letter. Your word it exists is good enough. And it was decent of you to speak up; surprisingly unselfish, in fact.”

Irked by his implication, she did not reply. He looked at his wristwatch.

“I have a long trek ahead of me if I’m to have those girls in Dhokat in time. There are still several hours of daylight left so I’ll get going today, though I’ve time for the late lunch Courtney promised me first.”

He gave her a big grin. “Don’t fret, Penny. You’ll meet your girls in the palace at Dhokat three days from now, I promise. And don’t go imagining there’s anything personal in any of this. Believe me, it’s purely business.”

He turned to the double doors dividing the parlour from the dining room as they opened. Courtney stood in the doorway, flanked by Ranee and another Indian slave girl. Penny gasped. Apart from their jewellery, both girls were entirely nude.

“Ah, Penelope, come and eat with us,” Courtney said. “You must be hungry. You missed breakfast and, as I recall, despite all your exertions yesterday all you had was a little milk.”

She winced.

“Yes, come on, Penny,” George said. “You needn’t worry we’ll make you strip and serve the meal. That’s what the slaves are for. And I’m sure Courtney has a soft cushion for your chair. Do join us.”

A twinge of pain shot through her rear even as he spoke, and Penny almost damned both men and stormed off to her room. But she
was
hungry and rather to her surprise believed what George had told her, even if he had made it sound like an order. She remembered how controlling he had been with her in the past, and she was relieved when no thrill of excitement teased between her legs. Maybe her treatment at Raham Dil’s hands had cured her of that, she thought hopefully.

She would eat with them, Penny decided. She needed her strength.

Only three more days and she would be in Dhokat. Once more, though George did not know it, she would be the one with the upper hand. At last Penny Winter would be back in control, her trials at an end and her future secure. The pleasant feeling of satisfaction the thought gave her just managed to take the edge off the discomfort in her backside as she sat down.

*

Jahngir Khan closed both hands around the rope and looked deep into Julia’s frightened eyes.

“I’ll give you one last chance,” he said. “You will humbly beg my pardon and promise to obey me, or I’ll flog you just as my grandfather flogged his slave girls, and with the implement you yourself chose.”

Julia was greatly regretting that foolhardy act of bravado as she felt the strain on her shoulders and upraised arms already beginning to make them ache. For half-an-hour he had made her kneel in silence beside him while he had oiled the whip’s stiff, ancient, plaited strands of dark-red leather until they became supple and pliant once more. She had hoped it would have been enough time for his temper to cool, at least sufficiently for him to exchange the whip for a switch instead, but he had shown no sign of relenting. Neither had Julia.

It had been obvious his purpose was to unnerve her into giving in.

It was plain that he was determined to force her to submit. She was equally determined she would not. Her heart was pounding madly and her gut churned incessantly with a fear bordering on terror. But it was not quite terror, nor blind panic either, and even though its grip was fierce Julia could feel her new-found strength flowing through her tautly-strung body as surely as she could the blood pumping rapidly through her veins.