Revolutionary Hearts (12 page)

“It’s safe now.” He reached for Parineeta’s hand and turned back around. “They’re out there. We need to…”

His blood froze.

She stood before him, shaking in her sandals. A man in a British soldier’s uniform and a droopy mustache pressed the barrel of his gun against her forehead, a crazed look in his eyes. Warren swallowed hard. He recognized the soldier. This man had been one of his own troops while undercover at the fort.

The soldier cocked his head in the direction of a door leading to the next train compartment. “Got in while you were looking outside. All the men know about your treachery,
General
,” the man spat. His upper lip curled in disgust as he pressed the barrel against her head, harder.

She winced. Warren’s stomach plummeted.

“Put your gun down. She’s innocent.” He tried to keep his voice even, his gaze darting back and forth between his former soldier and his current love. “I said, put your gun down.”

The soldier’s whole hand shook, including his finger over the trigger. “You’re all brigands! You and your savage Indian gang of dacoits!”

“Not brigands. Revolutionaries.”

“Why stick your neck out for a little coolie?” The man took his pistol away from Parineeta and turned it toward Warren. The barrel was aimed directly at the middle of his forehead.

“She’s not a coolie.” All Warren could think about was landing his right fist across the hollow of the soldier’s cheek and watching his body wipe the floor clean.

“Then what is she?” The soldier sneered. He cocked the barrel of his revolver. “You going to marry her,
General
? You going to actually give this darkie the time of day?”

Warren tried not to look at her. If this was where he was to die, he couldn’t bear to see the look in her eyes when this man pulled the trigger. “She has a name. And your blood is no better than hers.”

“Ha! Then you deserve to…”

BANG!

The man’s eyes widened suddenly. He dropped his gun and, with a low groan, crumpled to the ground. His legs splayed out behind him, while a fresh wound oozed from the lower part of his back. Blood was everywhere, covering the walls of the compartment and splattering a red design on Warren’s beige shirt.

Parineeta’s eyes were wide, and her jaw had dropped, as if she was surprised at what had happened herself. The revolver she held in her hands was still shaking, from the force of a fatal bullet this time.

“
Bhagwan
.” Her hand shook. The revolver dropped from her hands and clattered to the floor. She gasped, holding her face in her hands. “What have I done? Oh, what have I done?”

He stepped around the man and pulled her into his arms. He shushed her, attempting to soothe her by running his hands over her wavy hair. She leaned her head against him, shuddering as the tears streamed down her cheeks and onto his kameez.

“I killed him, Warren, I killed him.” She chanted it over and over like a mantra, until she broke out into a fresh sob.

He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “You had no other choice. He would have killed us otherwise.”

Parineeta then stood still, as if considering his words.

“You saved my life,” he whispered.

She looked up. The corners of her eyes were still wet with tears, but her gaze had refocused. Her tone became firm once more. “And you were willing to save mine.”

“Guess we’re even now.” His heart constricted in his chest at the petite girl in his arms. She was stronger than he ever knew was possible. He dipped his head toward hers, edging closer to her lips.

Ashfaqulla appeared in the entrance of the doorway. He held no guns, only a crowbar he’d managed to acquire somewhere. “Raj has the money. We need to go,
now
!”

Warren stepped away from Parineeta, even as Ashfaqulla sped away from them. He rubbed the back of his neck, and she coughed. His eyes darted from the metal walls of the compartment behind her to her arms folded over her chest. Her shoulders slumped forward, but a smile remained on her features.

Raj waited outside in a clearing, along with the others. Her brother and several other men carried sacks over their shoulders, which jingled with coins as they ran away from the train. Several men had bundled the money in old rugs.

“
Inquilab zindabad
!” Raj chanted as they fled.

The others chanted after him. The daylight had faded into the darker shades of evening, but Warren still saw the triumphant expressions of each of the men.

A grin spread out across his own face.
Inquilab zindabad
—Long live the revolution.

He grabbed Parineeta’s hand. She looked up sharply then toward the direction of the others. He felt her grip relax in his hand when she realized no one had seen them.

The men ran slightly ahead of them, whooping for joy as they carried away their loot. Some of the men swung the bags at their sides, while others placed them over their shoulders. A kind of fever had swept over the whole group, consuming in its power and addictive in its rush as the unison chant formed a song in his soul. He felt the revolutionary spirit thrumming through his body, coursing through his veins.

She squeezed his hand, and the two of them chanted together. “
Inquilab zindabad! Inquilab zindabad!
”

• • •

They’d continued their journey for several hours before they stopped for a break. The men convinced Warren to help them distribute the sacks and rugs of money before they carried them into Lucknow.

Raj set his bag down, and his friends set about reallocating the funds into different sacks. Ashfaqulla knew of a safe house waiting for them in Lucknow; they could store the loot there and rest for the night.

Parineeta intended to help them until her brother stepped in front of her. Both of his hands were thrust into the length of his pockets, and his gaze considered her beneath arched brows.

She gulped. “Hello, Raj.”

“I am starting to wonder why you helped this American.” He spoke with slow deliberation, as if each word had a separate purpose.

The hairs on the back of her neck bristled. “I already told you. Once we reach Lucknow, he will tell me of how the British view our Hindustan Republican Association. He said he will tell me any information I ask of him.”

“And then?”

Parineeta felt the pointed edge of her brother’s question. The two words stung more than salt sprinkled over a fresh wound. She knew what he was implying, yet she remained silent. How was she supposed to answer a question she didn’t even dare ask herself?

“I said, what happens after he gives you the information?”

She swallowed hard. “He can do whatever he wishes.”

“You want him to stay.” It was a statement, not a question. Her brother searched her gaze. She had no doubt he would find the answer he’d already suspected. “You’re hoping he decides to stay with us.”

“He has no reason to.” She felt a lump rise in her throat. In all likelihood Warren would leave, travel back to America, and serve another mission somewhere else in the world.

“You could ask him to stay.”

Her cheeks flushed. “Beg? Never.” She could not implore him to stay with her, not the same way she’d heard her mother had begged of her father. Even the possibility of it made her toes curl within her sandals. She may have lost her heart, but she wasn’t going to lose her dignity.

“No one said anything about begging,
didi.
” Raj sighed.

“Mother begged. Look what good it did her.” She hadn’t wanted her tone to sound so bitter, yet the callousness was unmistakable. “I swore to myself I would never be in her position.”

“Warren and your father are not the same person. Mother made mistakes, but she was never afraid of love.”

“I am not afraid.”

Her brother looked skyward, as if the heavens would give him the right words. “No one can be strong all the time.”

So what if she felt a tiny ounce of fear? And what if she was terrified of asking Warren to stay and hearing him reject her? “We agreed to only accompany each other to Lucknow and then part ways. That was the end of our bargain.”

“Dev told me you turned down his marriage proposal earlier today. He sounded disappointed.”

She could hardly call his statement a proposal. No man so fixated on the purity of her blood could offer a happily married life to a woman. “Most men possess an idea of me as half-caste and undesirable. Dev cannot see past my birth.”

“Why do you sound so calm?” Her brother furrowed his brow. “Admitting your half-caste status always seemed such a burden to you. You told me once that it was a source of shame, did you not? That it caused you to suddenly be aware of how different you were from everyone else.”

She remembered that confession. She’d shared the insecurity with her brother years ago, after another woman in the village had told her that she didn’t belong anywhere. Dev had brought up her birth as if she’d no other choice but to marry him. “I used to think no man could look past my heritage. It’s never been a source of pride for me, brother. But now it is no longer a weakness.”

He nodded. “You are right. Dev, maybe. But not all men see you in that way.”

His next unspoken words hung in the air between them.
Not all men … not Warren.
Raj turned back to the other revolutionaries, leaving Parineeta alone with her thoughts.

Danger.
The word had never scared her before. She’d welcomed all types of danger, from lying to her grandmother about where she was to listening in on her brother’s meetings to spying on the (supposed) British general. But one look at Warren set off warning alarms through her mind. One look at him convinced her that danger could be terrifying after all.

She caught Warren’s eye. He stopped talking to Ashfaqulla to meet her gaze, and Ashfaqulla backed away as soon as she began walking forward. The second she reached him, she threw her arms around him without a word. The security she felt in his embrace almost took her breath away each time he held her. All these years she’d spent searching for a place she belonged. That old woman from her past was wrong. Parineeta did belong somewhere. But it was with a person, not a place.

He stepped backward at the sudden force around his waist. “What’s all this for? What did your brother say?”

The urge to ask him to stay tugged at the end of her tongue. She tried to will the question out of her, to finally make itself known. Here was her chance!

“Are you all right?”

She nodded against his arm. Something was lodged in her throat, preventing the query from surfacing. Wrapping her arms around Warren to prevent him from letting her go was one matter, but begging him out loud to stay with her was another. How could she keep him from his own destiny?

“Good. Ashfaqulla told me we could reach Lucknow within the hour if we hurried.”

She held him tighter. “That is wonderful,” she lied.

The hour to Lucknow was the fastest Parineeta had ever experienced. Every step seemed to move more quickly than the one before it, and the minutes blended together until she spotted the winding streets and bustle of the Lucknow market.

The boys finished packaging the money into the safe house while she stood on guard outside. No British soldiers had reached the city yet or at least none that they had seen. She knew if they were lucky, they would be able to escape early tomorrow morning without being noticed.

After the last of the bags were placed inside the house, she went inside to check on the boys. Dev, Ashfaqulla, Bismil, and the others seemed content. Even with the afternoon sun still hanging in the sky, a few had begun napping. Her brother and another boy sat in one corner of the warehouse, polishing their guns next to the money bags while their friends slept.

Yet there was no sign of Warren.

Parineeta tried to ignore the alarm bells ringing in her head. She started in the direction of her brother, her heart weighing heavier with each step she took. “Have you seen Warren?”

Raj shook his head. He said nothing, but his features softened. She didn’t have to be a psychic to know he didn’t expect Warren to return.

His friend next to him pointed to the large wooden door where she had entered. “He left about an hour ago. Didn’t say why, just left. I thought he went out to say something to you.”

She resisted the urge to sink to her knees. Instead, she raced back outside. She scanned the end of the street from both sides. Maybe he’d stayed in the area. She dashed around the corner, checking the next avenue. Still no sign of him.

She sighed. Her sandals dragged against the paved road and through the dizzying maze of alleys. Perhaps if she just kept looking, perhaps he was standing on the next corner…

She shut her eyes against the last rays of the sun. He hadn’t even said goodbye. She swore she would never be her mother; she would never allow herself to love a man who would leave her.

Then why did she feel so abandoned?

• • •

NBCI operative Jerry Albright spun the globe with a single flick of his thumb and forefinger. The world beneath his hand twirled around on its axis, changing direction at his command with a simple tap of his finger.

“You could go anywhere now, Warren.” Jerry’s voice sounded light. He continued to spin the globe in an absentminded manner. The coffee on his oak desk was forgotten at the prospect of new adventures. “God knows I’m dying to get out of here. Moscow was better. I can stand the cold, you know. Humidity? Not so much.”

“This country suited me just fine.” Warren set his jaw and leaned back against the hard-backed chair. “I don’t think I’ll be doing any more traveling.”

The globe stopped spinning. “Can’t change that. They’ll reassign you.”

“Who’s ‘they’?”

“The FBI. NBCI underwent some changes last year. Less focus on anarchists, more focus on investigation back home.”

“There won’t be any more reassigning for me, I’m afraid. I’m staying in India.”

“Just because your identity was discovered doesn’t mean the FBI no longer wants you.” Jerry shrugged. “All that matters is that you made it out alive. Identity exposure happens to all of us at some point.”