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huge animal’s reins with wrists of steel. “Not at all, ma’am. They need the exercise, and I can see you’re well accustomed to riding.”
    My horse was a well-behaved animal with a springy step, indicating good feeding and care. I loved to ride, relishing the freedom it gave me.
    We followed the path out of the stables that led away from the house, heading for the gates and the outside road. Concentration was needed to avoid overhanging branches and avoid the occasional pothole. When we reached the gates, we turned on to the main road outside with some relief, as even this was in better condition than those within the estate. We could ride abreast and converse, something we had been unable to do on the narrow, rutted path inside the Abbey grounds.
    Lizzie began with an easy gambit. “Is India so very hot?”
    “Indeed it is,” Mr. Kerre replied. I mentally castigated my sister for an idiot, for asking such a stupid question, but he didn’t seem to mind. “It’s hot enough to kill many Europeans. I saw many diseases caused by the heat out there. It is, however, a country of many changing scenes and very beautiful, indeed.”
    “Why did you leave it, then, sir?” I knew what Lizzie meant: wasn’t it time he came home and found himself a wife?
    “I thought I should come back and make my peace, and I think India had finished with me. My last venture was none too successful. Once I made myself a competence, the challenge went out of it.”
    His description of this country genuinely interested me, besides the differences between India and England. “Where did you stay, sir?”
    “Calcutta, mostly. It’s in the north, but still very hot.” He looked into the distance, as though thinking of that hot country, and all the colour he had left behind, only to return to this pale day, in this bleak part of the world.
    I almost forgot my manners, strangely, at ease with this man. “When did you leave, sir?”
    “Last year.” He didn’t look at me. As he swayed easily with his horse’s walk, he continued, “I’d done enough.”
    “There has been trouble there recently, but anything I know about it I read in the newspapers. I really know very little of India.”
    “Very interesting it proved to be.” He glanced at me, and gave me one of his easy smiles. “I arrived in ‘46, just as the French captured Madras. They returned it in ‘48, but they’re still jockeying for position out there. There are riches enough for everyone, for an enterprising person, but governments think otherwise. Still, I have every trust in Robert Clive, who seems to have the situation in control for the Company.”
    Such conversation fascinated me, but I heard so little of it back home. Devonshire people were more concerned with local matters. “Is Mr. Clive a great man?”
    “I couldn’t say for sure, ma’am. I’ve not met him above half a dozen times, but he seems to be the right man in the right place.”
    “Will you go back?” Lizzie asked.
    He didn’t answer immediately, but controlled his horse. The great animal fretted for a gallop, shifting restlessly. Mr. Kerre seemed to find the stallion easy to control. “I don’t think so. India is for young, ambitious men. The climate is unhealthy for the English, and every day is a gamble, with health and with the financial ventures. I left while I was still winning.”
    These enquiries satisfied Lizzie for the present. Lord Strang’s betrothal put him out of the picture, so his brother was the only eligible male in the party. If I knew my sister, she would try to make the most of it. His manners were so unaffected that he put me at my ease as few other men outside my own family had. I liked him, his easy manner, and his lack of condescension, but bitter experience had showed me that men looked on me as a friend, and a way to approach the delectable Elizabeth.
    Lizzie shifted slightly in her saddle, to show the shape of her body under the riding habit. This trick had brought