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on.’ She left the room with a rustling of skirts.
    Isadora’s tantrum only lasted a few moments, as the ayah stroked her head, and arms, soothing her, then hummed a melancholy, high-pitched tune. She looked young, barely eighteen, Lily guessed, but there was something full-figured and mature about her. As she stroked Isadora’s head, the silver bangles on her arm gave off musical little jangling sounds. Now her mistress had left she seemed to feel free to speak. She turned and smiled sweetly at Lily.
    ‘ Missy-baba is getting upset sometime. She like me to sing to her.’
    ‘You’re good with her. She likes you,’ Lily said, admiringly. It was clear that the girl’s mother had little affection for her and no idea how to behave towards her and it seemed very sad. Instead, Isadora had attached herself to this loving young girl who would give her affection.
    ‘She is good girl,’ the ayah said. She had warm, friendly eyes and Lily smiled back, feeling she had found a friend in this chilly household. ‘What is your name?’ she enquired shyly.
    With a pretty incline of her head, the girl said, ‘I am Srimala. You are Miss Waters?’
    ‘Oh, do call me Lily.’
    A second later, Cosmo, very emphatically, echoed, ‘Lily.’
    And the two young women smiled at each other.
    When she met Captain Fairford later that day, he came as a surprise. After meeting his wife, she had somehow expected a loud, overbearing man with blond hair like Cosmo’s and a stiff, military bearing, like the portraits she had seen hanging in the hall. Instead, when she and the ayah took the children down after their tea, she met a lean, slender man with a gentle expression and brown hair, which, though cropped short, threatened to break into curls. He wore a neat little moustache which seemed to smile along with his lips, and his eyes were warm and welcoming.
    ‘How very nice to meet you, Miss Waters.’ His tone balanced charm and formality in equal measure.
    Her hand was taken in a manly grip for a moment and quickly released, but his eyes lingered on her face with a kind look, so that she was startled to find tears prickling in her eyes. She was tired, she told herself, and more emotional than usual.
    ‘I trust you had a good journey? Quite an experience, first time in India, I should imagine?’ His voice was soft and beautifully spoken.
    She was nodding a reply, a lump still in her throat at being treated so kindly, but he went on, ‘Cosmo, I’m sure, has given you a warm welcome. He likes people, I’m happy to say. Not shy or retiring.’
    ‘He’s a lovely boy,’ she said carefully.
    ‘Oh yes!’ he laughed, bashfully. ‘Quite so. Grow up to be a credit, I’m sure. Fine chap . . .’
    ‘Perhaps you’d like to go to your room now,’ Mrs Fairford interrupted. ‘Your supper will be brought to you.’
    Lily nodded obediently. It was a relief to her to learn that, as she fitted neither into the category of family nor one of the large retinue of native servants, she would eat on her own in the evening. At the moment, since she was so used to faring for herself, that felt by far the least nerve-racking solution. That night she was longing to be alone.
    One of the servants had brought a tray to her room with chicken stew and vegetables, and afterwards she prepared herself for bed and lay with all the new impressions of the day seething in her mind. She wasn’t sure about Susan Fairford at all yet – the woman made her nervous. But the captain was much nicer than she expected, even if she wouldn’t have a great deal to do with him. Srimala seemed very easy to get along with. And then there was Cosmo – adorable, loving Cosmo. A smile spread over her face in the darkness. She had done the right thing coming here, she knew.

 
Chapter Six
     
    Lily found Cosmo blissful from the start. She had never expected to experience such a deep attachment so quickly, but the feeling had been instant and only increased over the following days and