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

can’t you?”
    “Yes.” Isabella nodded.
    Eloise sat back, as if it were all settled, but Rose still
sat forward.
    “What happened to the girl? Did Abhaya give her the
potion?”
    “Yes, but the marriage didn’t last and the girl left the
camp one night. No one ever found out where she had gone. She just
disappeared.”
    “Did Abhaya put a curse on her?”
    Isabella laughed and the carriage drew to a halt beside a
squat white building with minarets.
    “No, Abhaya wasn’t like that, but she knew the girl was
bad news. That’s why she didn’t want to give her the love potion. She knew she
wouldn’t use it properly.”
    “ How did she know, though?” Rose persisted as they
got down from the carriage and walked through a cloud of hookah smoke into the
bazaar.
    Isabella closed her parasol. “I don’t know. I suppose she
was like a witch in the way she knew things about people, often before they
knew it themselves.”
    Mrs Rodriguez and Lady Denier walked towards them.
    “Now then, dear.” Isabella could hear Mrs Rodriguez reassuring
Lady Denier. “They will be quite safe. Look, Moses is waiting for us. He’ll
take good care of them.” Moses was one of the ship’s sailors, an African who
looked as if he’d been hewn from granite. He didn’t speak but moved next to the
girls. Lady Denier’s face was relieved.
    “Thank heavens for Moses,” Livia whispered. “Mama would
never have let me go to the apothecary with just you and Rose. And especially
not with Eloise.”
    Isabella looked up ahead at Eloise who was drawing
attention to herself by tossing her yellow hair and laughing too loudly.
    “But will Moses let us go in?” whispered Isabella.
    Livia laughed. “Of course. Why wouldn’t he? As long as
Mama isn’t behind him watching.”
    Isabella pulled her dress up a little where it was sagging
at the front and tried to rub a scuff of dirt off her black boot. In front of
her, Livia, Eloise and Rose walked together, their dresses swaying like
different-coloured petals of the same flower.
    What was she doing here?
    She felt she had to pinch herself. For all of the trip,
she’d been hoping to make friends with someone – anyone, really, other than
Midge – and now she found herself out for the day with the three most popular
girls on the boat. She knew it was only because she could replicate Abhaya’s
potion, but she would enjoy it while it lasted.
    Livia turned, her hair a shower of silver. She picked her
way back to Isabella and took her arm.
    “Can’t have you getting lost now, can we?”
    The bustle of the bazaar wound its way around them like a
golden thread, drawing them further and further into its heart. It wasn’t like
the markets in London, or India for that matter, which were built and taken
down every day. This was a permanent market and had been for hundreds of years,
so it was like a city within a city, with its own meandering alleys and dead
ends. The bazaar’s roof was covered with billowing pieces of white fabric to
keep the sun at bay, and at its centre a path sloped downwards and an
underground world of stalls opened up, cool in the shaded earth.
    The four girls started by looking at the pretty ivory and
lace at the stalls around the market’s edge and then found the food stalls
where giant fish and cow’s heads lay on slabs of marble in an effort to keep
them cool. Here the stench and the flies were unbearable.
    “Let’s go down here,” said Livia, her face even paler than
usual, and she hurried down into the part of the bazaar that was underground.
    “Livia, Mama said we’re not allowed down here.” Eloise’s
face was anxious.
    “You’re the one who wants the love potion,” teased Livia.
    “Shhh,” hissed Eloise, throwing a look towards Moses. But
Moses had stopped and was now talking to someone he knew. He threw back his
giant head, laughing at a joke.
    “Now! Quick.” Like a silverfish, Livia slipped off down an
alleyway leaving the girls no choice but to