The patient stared up at Laine as their tonga rolled at a sedate pace. For the first time it struck Laine with horror. They’d never asked Chandra if she wanted to leave Amritsar.
The words to mention this hovered on her tongue when a shout reached them from the crowd in the bazaar. “It is those devils who seek to destroy caste. The ones who stole the dancing girl.”
Jai ordered the driver to pick up speed. Their route to the train station wound too close to the Hindu temple for comfort. He sent another look over his shoulder at the men chasing their tonga, and urged the driver to go faster. At the crack of a whip the horse bolted to a gallop, and people began to jump out of the way, screaming and shaking fists.
Laine hung onto the cart with one hand, and Eshana did the same, while both of them tried to keep their patient from being jostled. If Laine still believed in prayer, now would be a good time to offer one up. But most likely, Eshana was praying hard enough for all of them.
Shouts grew to an uproar, and Laine’s mouth went dry.
They passed the temple, but a group of people began to run after them, shouting, “Police! Stop!” The lead woman from the temple girls’ quarters also dashed up the street. Her jiggling rolls of fat at the gap of her sari didn’t seem to be slowing her down any.
Just as they turned the corner, their conveyance outran the angry knot of people following. Outside the redbrick station Laine yelled to the driver to stop.
Jai jumped from the front and picked up the girl while Laine and Eshana tugged down the luggage. Their Muslim driver didn’t wait for payment but vanished into a swarm of tongas and rickshaws. He no more wanted to be questioned by the Hindu mob than Laine and Eshana did.
They ran under the brick archway, racing past the doors for the separate refreshment rooms for Europeans, Muslims, Hindus and women in purdah. Jai followed with the girl, and they darted past the offices, Station Master and Telegraph. Passengers from a branch line hurried across the footbridge. All the while steam pulsed from the locomotive of the Bombay Mail, a huge black metal animal with gold trimmings, straining to be unleashed.
Laine pushed open the door, District Traffic Superintendent’s Office. A coolie-messenger jumped to his feet, and Jai followed her and Eshana inside, carrying their patient.
Maurice looked up in alarm as Laine wove her way through the desks of his staff. “Hide us, Maurice. Quickly. Order your men to say nothing. We’re being followed.”
“Laine Harkness, as I live and breathe—”
“Do as I say, Maurice. This instant.”
Maurice’s face blanched, but for once he showed some sense. Without a word he ushered them into his private office and shut the door. She could hear him in the main office ordering his staff to get to work and to keep their traps shut.
He returned a moment later and stared at them aghast. “Laine, old thing.” He pushed a strand of hair heavy with pomade off his forehead. “What sort of shenanigan is this?”
Chandra’s moan caught everyone’s attention, and Jai laid her down on the string cot. Eshana joined him as he kneeled at the girl’s side. The shouts of the crowd outside penetrated the thick walls of the station.
Laine worked up a smile. “Maurice, old thing...” She sidled close to him and injected a breathy tone into her voice. “I just had to come to you. For help. I knew you were the man for the job. So capable, so quick.” Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. She stuffed down her smarting conscience at this deception. “Oh do help me, Maurice. I’m in terrible trouble.”
The gaze he turned to her was not that of the simpleton she’d assumed he was. The light in his eyes flattened, and he shot a glance at Jai and Eshana caring for Chandra. Not the nicest of men, but as she’d said, he was quick to understand a situation. “So, Laine, it was you who riled up the Hindus. And you expect me to hide you, and that—” He waved a dismissive hand at the girl on the cot. “—that thing from the temple.”
“That thing as you call her is a human being.” She regretted the steel lacing her voice. She needed to butter him up, not add his anger to that of the rabble outside. “I’m sorry, Maurice. But she’s my patient, and I would no more abandon her than I would you if you were in pain.”
He stopped at that. “Laine, why can’t you enjoy a bit of fun instead of taking sides with the natives? For months I’ve asked you out, and you’ve cut me dead each time.”
She squeezed his upper arm. “I know, but in all honesty, I’ve not felt like dancing lately. It’s not you, Maurice...I suppose I’ve seen too much....”
“The war?”
“Yes, the war.”
He nodded on a sigh. He knew very well that even if all had been paradise she still wouldn’t have taken him on. But for whatever reason—his overblown pride probably—he let her off the hook. “I want to help you, Laine.” He frowned at the three Indians clustered in the corner. “But what the blazes do you expect me to do for you? And I assume this girl?”
A flash of people running past the window made all their heads shoot up. Collectively they held their breath. Maurice strode to the window and snapped the cane blinds shut. He pulled on the cords to open them a sliver and peered outside. “The police have arrived.”
“I need a first class compartment, private for myself and the two girls to Bombay.”
His brows rose. “Not asking for much are you, Laine? I’m afraid that’s impossible.”
The babble of voices outside rose in crescendo. She sank to a chair. “There must be something you can do.”
The gazes of Jai and the two girls followed Maurice as he paced the floor.
“All right, let me think.” Maurice shut the blinds. “You’re asking me to break the law, and I hope you realize I could lose my position as traffic superintendent if this ever got out. But I’ll take you in the staff carriage that’s used for railroad business at the back of a goods train heading to Bombay.” He started muttering to himself and left the office.
“Will he truly be helping us?” Eshana rose up from beside the cot.
Jai filled a glass of water from a pitcher on the desk and placed it against Chandra’s lips. “Or is he fooling you, Matron, and plans to give you up to the police?”
Laine gave them a helpless shrug and kneeled on the floor to take Chandra’s hand. “Do you want to come with Eshana and me? We can take you to a place of safety, and you’ll never have to be a temple girl again.”
Chandra’s eyes brimmed, and Laine leaned over to catch her whisper, “Please...I am wanting to go to this place Eshana has been telling me of.”
Maurice returned twenty minutes later, put a finger to his lips, and gestured for them to leave the office. Laine searched his face. Would he betray them? But as she stepped out of his office the empty spots at each desk filled her with hope. Through the windows outside, she saw that the crowd still eddied in search of them. She could only pray. But pray to whom or what?
Eshana followed her with Jai carrying Chandra. Maurice led them to a back room filled with crates and trunks. Double doors at the far end of the box room were closed, but from below the doors they could hear the hissing of the Bombay Mail.
“You and the other girl will have to change your clothes behind that partition.” Maurice handed her two sets of men’s grimy overalls and turbans to cover their hair.
Their disguises wouldn’t bear much inspection, but it might be enough to get them through the jostling crowd. Minutes