Fever Quest: A Clean Historical Mystery set in England and India (The Isabella Rockwell Trilogy Book 2) by Hannah Parry Read Free Book Online Page B

this,
didn’t you? I know what you were looking for, too. Who do you think you are to
cause all this mess?”
    Midge laughed. “You’re not serious,” but as he gazed at
Isabella, his face grew still and the colour drained from it. He looked younger
than his eleven years. “Oh. You are serious.”
    There was an agonising pause. Midge’s eyes searched the
room.
    “Much as though you’d like it to be me, it wasn’t. If you
looked closely, you’d see someone’s been looking for something specific, else
why would they leave Alix’s ring and Abhaya’s medicine pouch? If it had been
me, I’d have taken those first, knowing how much they mean to you.”
    Midge’s face was empty of any emotion, dead and frozen.
    Isabella looked again. There, against the white
pillowcase, was Alix’s signet ring and next to it the picture Midge had drawn
of her in London, with a soldier’s hat on her head. He walked over to it,
picked it up and tore it into little pieces.
    “I never liked that picture. You don’t look like that any
more, anyway.” He shouldered his way through the crowd around the door and left
the room.
    Only Livia moved to go after him. Isabella stood, scarlet
with anger, in the middle of her destroyed room. The crew withdrew and Mrs
Rodriguez began to pick things up.
    Thirty minutes later, as she hung up the last of her
dresses, the prickle of Isabella’s conscience made her realise she was going to
have to find Midge and apologise. He was with some of the valets who were
sharing a smoke outside after dinner. The lower deck smelled of disinfectant
and tobacco.
    “Midge, I’m sorry. I was completely out of line.”
    Midge leaned over and took the cigarette from the fingers
of one of the valets and dragged deeply on it, blowing the smoke over towards
her where it hung in the humid air, as if it had nowhere else to go. He stuck
his chin out.
    “’S all right, Miss India. I’ve sorted myself out. I’ve
asked the Jefferies if they’d mind if I travelled with them to Rawalpindi. I think I need some time to meself.”
    Isabella’s heart sank.
    “But … why would you do that?”
    “I don’t want to travel with you. An’ it’s pretty clear
you don’t want to travel with me.”
    “That’s not true –”
    But Midge interrupted her and the valets watched her with
narrowed eyes.
    “No, you accused me of ruining your room without even
thinking about it. You didn’t even hesitate.” He passed the cigarette back to
one of the men and looked at her. “I don’t know who you are any more. The
Isabella I know would have delivered Al Hassan’s package. You remember Al
Hassan, the man who saved me from the noose and you from …” He paused.
“From yourself, I suppose.”
    His tone was biting and there was a roaring in her ears.
One of the valets sniggered and put the cigarette butt out on his palm.
    “Midge, it is just some seeds and some grey powder. It’s
not gold, or a diamond, or gunpowder or ammunition. There is no rush. And I will deliver it.”
    “Except he asked you to do it as soon as you arrived in India.”
    Isabella’s throat closed and she felt her face go hot.
    “I will do it –”
    “I’m not talking about it any more.” His voice was like
steel on stone and he ground his heel into the wood of the deck and walked back
inside.
    The valets looked at her. “Do you want a cigarette?” one
of them asked. She shook her head.
    A veil of cloud shrouded the moon so the starlit
night grew dark. Isabella went back to her cabin. There was nothing left to
say. She just had to hope he would change his mind.
    But he didn’t.
    The docks at the port of Masulipatam were thronged with
people. Isabella could smell the fish market, though she couldn’t see it, and
she could hear the marketers shouting out the prices of their wares. Despite
her sadness, to suddenly hear so many people speaking Hindi all around her was
lovely, as if some central spring in her, which had been wound tight,