Courting Trouble by Jenny Schwartz Read Free Book Online Page B

“If I find myself in possession of blueprints for a device designed to enable deaf people to appreciate music, I will forward them to you. You must supply me with your direction.”
    There was an electrifying pause, then Prasad smiled thinly. “I am staying at the Raj Hotel.”
    “It is very comfortable there,” Gupta said nervously.
    “As you say.” Prasad didn’t take his eyes off Jed.
    “You must excuse us now. Goodbye, sir.” Jed nodded, gripped Esme’s elbow and propelled her irresistibly toward the livery stables.
    She glanced back at Prasad. He stood rigidly, one hand clenched around his swagger stick and eyes narrowed as he observed them. Gupta and Lajli scurried in their wake, blocking her view.
    Had he or had he not just raised his hat in polite farewell? She turned her attention forward. Not that there was any need to watch where she trod. Jed’s grip brooked neither trip nor dispute. “Where are we going?” she asked him.
    “Home. You get your wish. Lajli’s going with you.”
    She contemplated his changed attitude and pronounced jawline. “Why?”
    “Because Lajli, at least, recognizes a snake when she sees one.”
    When she tried to dig in her heels, he simply swept her onwards. It was disconcerting to realize the power his casual good humor generally disguised. “Jed Reeve, this habit you’re developing of using your greater physical strength to win an argument is very annoying.”
    “I don’t trust that man. Music for the deaf to dance to. Pah.” A snort of disbelief.
    “A very worthwhile objective, one that sounded credible to me.”
    “So I noticed,” he grumbled. “A fussing dandy making sheep’s eyes at you.”
    “A socialist dandy,” she corrected him provokingly.
    He stopped dead at the corner of the livery stables. “Are you saying you like him?”
    “I’m just saying…” She saw Lajli trotting behind them. “Never mind.”
    But he caught the drift of her thinking. “In my book, an honest thief beats a lying anarchist any day.”
    Lajli nodded vigorously. “That Nazim is a very big liar.”
    “Takes one to know one,” Gupta said, sotto voce. Lajli elbowed him.
    Jed hired a carriage with a clipped efficiency that had grooms running to hitch the horse.
    “What about my bicycle?”
    “Gupta?” A flick of Jed’s head and the boy ran to fetch her bicycle.
    “I could have collected it myself.” It was her turn to grumble.
    “I want you where I can see you.”
    “Why?”
    “Do you really think your meeting with Nazim was a coincidence? He’s barely arrived in the colony and already he knows who Lajli’s allies are, who to undermine. I think I underestimated him—and the danger.”
    “If you imply I’m your weakness again, I’ll scream.”
    He glared at her, then smacked his fist against the wall of the stable. The corrugated iron vibrated. The stable cat that had been sunning itself on a feed bin vanished into the shadows of a cart in a corner of the yard.
    “What on earth?” His violence astonished her.
    “This is my fault,” he growled. “My own darn fault for being too darn clever.”
    “You’re not making any sense.”
    But he wasn’t listening to her. Gupta had returned with her bike and Jed lifted it into the carriage. Then he helped her and Lajli inside.
    “Jed, I insist you explain.”
    He looked pointedly at the back of the coachman’s head. “Later.”
    She folded her arms and contemplated his angry expression. The anger seemed self-directed, but she could see no reason for it. Lajli was waving regally at the people they passed. Whatever fears she’d had concerning Prasad-Nazim appeared forgotten.
    Realization struck Esme with the force of a lightning bolt. “Jed Reeve, you’ve landed me with a guardian-cum-chaperone.”
    “Good heavens.” Gupta clutched the side of the carriage, stunned by this new vision of his cousin.
    “As I said, at least she can recognize a snake. Just given the way you call him Prasad, you’re halfway to