Keeping Bad Company Read Online Free PDF Page B

since Burton died. Things move slowly between England and India. And yet your brain doesn’t move slowly, does it, Miss Lane? I have a distinct impression that there are things you’d like to ask me.’
    â€˜You told Tom that the diamond hawk belonged to a lady. How did you know that?’
    He’d invited questions but this one surprised him. His eyebrows went up.
    â€˜I’d seen a lady wearing it a long time ago.’
    â€˜How long ago?’
    â€˜Twenty years.’
    â€˜May I ask who the lady was?’
    â€˜Her identity is irrelevant to any of this. Twenty years is a long time ago to most people.’
    The barrier was polite, but firm. No progress down that path.
    â€˜So how did it come into Mr McPherson’s possession?’
    â€˜I don’t know.’
    â€˜Was it one of the jewels his assistant was bringing him?’
    â€˜So we’re led to believe. I believe your brother has told you the sequence of events. He discovered the hawk on my desk. We took it to the Governor. McPherson later identified it as one of the collection that Burton would have been carrying.’
    His eyes were on me, waiting for the next question. For all his courtly politeness, I had an idea that he was testing me.
    â€˜Is there any reason to doubt that it was?’ I said.
    â€˜I know of none.’
    â€˜Does it strike you as strange that Mr McPherson should have left his assistant to carry a valuable consignment of jewels by road?’
    An emphatic nod.
    â€˜Very strange. Most people thought so.’
    â€˜Shouldn’t they have expected an attack by bandits?’
    â€˜Possibly, yes. Though the roads of India are safer on the whole than you might imagine. That’s one of the achievements of the Company. Still, in a country where wealth is so unequal, men will try to cure their poverty by violent means.’
    â€˜Did Mr Burton have an armed guard?’
    â€˜No. Only half a dozen servants. There was some sense in that. If you were moving something valuable by road, it might be safest not to draw attention to it. Safety in few, rather than safety in numbers.’
    â€˜Only they weren’t safe. Somebody knew about the jewels,’ I said.
    From where I was sitting I could see Tom on the garden path. He stood, trying to see into the room to find out if we were still in conversation. Griffiths didn’t notice him. After a while he walked away, presumably to make a few more circuits of the Green.
    â€˜Somebody would have known,’ Griffiths said. ‘I want to explain something about India, if I may, without trespassing on your patience. Every European there, even the most humble, is surrounded by an army of servants. Even his servants have servants. Your
mali
, your gardener, will have a boy to carry the watering cans and that boy will give another boy a few mouthfuls of chapatti to fill the cans for him. Your syce will have three or four boys at least to do the hard work around the horses that’s beneath his dignity. The kitchen of even a single man will employ enough people to staff a fair-sized inn in England. Mostly, they’re invisible to Europeans.’
    â€˜Not noticed because there are so many?’
    â€˜Exactly. Fine people in England make an affectation of not noticing their servants but in India it’s truly the case. If we even began to think about all those people we depend on for our daily lives we might lose our confidence altogether, and that wouldn’t do, would it.’
    â€˜So you think McPherson’s or Burton’s servants would know about the jewels being transported?’
    â€˜That’s what most people thought, yes. Apart from the poor man killed, the other servants with Burton ran away and were never found. A lot of people concluded they were in league with the robbers.’
    â€˜And yet you’ve come under suspicion for having something to do with it.’
    He might well have taken offence, but his