Before the Rains by Dinah Jefferies

Author:Dinah Jefferies [Jefferies, Dinah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780241978825
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2017-02-22T18:30:00+00:00

19

Eliza’s mood had altered drastically since her talk with Laxmi. What a fool she had been to indulge in such hopeless romanticism. From now on her relationship with Jay must remain on strictly formal grounds and, when she passed him leaving the entrance to her part of the building, she merely gave him a curt nod and then hurried past and up her staircase. She hadn’t paused to see what his reaction might have been and, once in her own room, she locked the door, her heart pounding against her ribs. She felt out of breath, even though she hadn’t been running, but, thinking about what had happened, realized that beneath the dignity Laxmi embodied there lay a will of steel.

Perhaps Laxmi was right? Maybe the best thing she could do was to wind up this entire project as quickly as possible. Call it six months in Juraipore and then get out of this godforsaken castle once and for all. Dottie would agree with that, she felt sure. She would just take a few more shots of the royal family and some more in the old city, though of course she’d have to use her Sanderson.

In fact Clifford had organized a picnic beside the lake just outside the town, and there she would tell him that she wanted to speed things up. As for Jay’s irrigation plans? He’d have to continue without her help.

Nothing truly good lasts, she whispered, thinking of when she and her mother had left India to live at James Langton’s place in Gloucestershire. She’d thought he had wanted her there, that he’d welcomed having a child about the place, but then she’d been sent away to a third-class boarding school and she’d always believed it had been because he’d wanted her out of the way.

Thinking of Clifford’s picnic brought back another memory. She recalled that it had happened just before she’d been sent away.

The only time James Langton had accompanied Eliza and Anna on a little outing, they’d walked through sun-drenched fields with him carrying a picnic basket. It was early spring, and Eliza had felt so happy that he was so unusually joining them. But he hadn’t liked the chicken pies her mother had made, and when he accidentally sat on a cowpat, Eliza had laughed. He’d taken hold of her by the elbow, pulled her from the rug she was sitting on, and smacked her hard. She must have been almost thirteen and had found the episode utterly humiliating. She had run back home, crying all the way, and Anna had eventually returned home over an hour later, hair dishevelled and with the buttons on her dress awry. Just when she’d needed her mother’s love and consolation, Anna had taken Langton’s side; it had been a bitter betrayal.

Eliza wasn’t in the mood for a picnic, but had dressed in a full-skirted fine lawn dress in palest green with a wide-brimmed straw hat. Several of Clifford’s acquaintances were to join them, and Eliza mentally prepared herself for an afternoon of small talk.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.