THE PLANTER'S BRIDE: A story of intrigue and passion: sequel to THE TEA PLANTER'S DAUGHTER (India Tea Series Book 2) by Janet MacLeod Trotter

Author:Janet MacLeod Trotter [Trotter, Janet MacLeod]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: MacLeod Trotter Books
Published: 2014-02-12T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

Tilly was in shock at India. Calcutta had assaulted her senses like a cyclone; the noise, the flood of people, cattle and traffic, the smells of stagnant water and open sewers, the opulence of colonial buildings next to people sleeping on canvas beds in the street. The stench of the streets made her pregnancy sickness worse.

‘Where do these people live?’ she asked in bewilderment.

‘Just where you see them,’ said Clarrie, clutching a wide-eyed Adela on her lap as they rode in a tonga to their hotel.

Tilly gaped at limbless beggars who looked no older than twelve, and lean mustard-coloured dogs running between bicycles with their tongues lolling. She had seen poverty and stray dogs in Newcastle – she’d helped out at a mission in the West End one summer with her brother Johnny and his friend Will – but never such precarious living on this scale.

But once within the walls of the hotel garden, there was birdsong and the clink of china cups on saucers, murmured conversation and polite servants padding silently on bare feet. Tilly felt guilty relief at such an oasis and refused the Robsons’ offer to take her shopping or see the sights.

‘And Clarrie told me you were such a city girl,’ Wesley teased as he swung Adela onto his shoulders. ‘Last chance to see a proper shop.’

‘Thanks but I’m too tired.’ Tilly waved them away and retreated to the garden with the first volume of the Forsyte Saga from the hotel library.

She didn’t need shops, she just wanted to get up country and join James. Now she knew how frustrating it had been for Sophie not having Tam there to meet her from the boat; there had been a telegram from James asking Wesley to accompany Tilly upriver to a steamer port in Assam. Unavoidably delayed please bring Tilly to Gowhatty regards James.

Wesley had business to attend to in Calcutta so Tilly had worked her way through the whole of the Forsyte Saga and taught Clarrie to play Mah jong by the time they made their onward journey. The Robsons were kind and good company – Adela was an enchanting chatterbox – but Tilly itched to be reunited with James and prepare for their first Christmas together. The only good thing about the delay was that Muriel Percy-Barratt had arranged to go on ahead.

‘P.B. wants me back at once,’ Muriel announced to the whole dining-room, ‘I’ve been away for so long, you see. And as the Robsons have been chosen to deliver you to James, I don’t see the point in hanging around Calcutta, do you?’

Tilly had agreed quickly which seemed to annoy Muriel all the more.

‘I think I was supposed to beg her to stay with me,’ Tilly said later to Clarrie.

‘Don’t worry about her,’ Clarrie laughed, ‘she didn’t want the expense of a week’s hotel bills so you were doing her a favour. Our Muriel hates spending money – unless it’s someone else’s.’

Tilly was surprised at Clarrie’s view. ‘She was generous to me and Sophie on the voyage out – gave us spending money in Port Said too.

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