Terror in the Sun Read online

As the two women embraced inside the railway carriage and William Sleeman, standing on the platform, held out his hand to Ian Hadleigh.

  “There is no need for me to tell you to take care of Brucena,” he said, “and, although things will not be the same here without you, I know that you have a great future ahead of you.”

  “If I have, I owe it all to you,” Ian replied, “and may I say in all sincerity that I have never enjoyed anything more than the years we have been together.”

  “At least we have a record of success behind us,” William Sleeman replied. “There is little to do now except mop up the few problems that remain. But I am quite certain that the Thugs will have lost heart.”

  Inside the carriage Brucena picked up her Wedding bouquet, which had been laid on the seat and pressed it into Amelie’s hands.

  “In case I am not able to give you flowers when your baby arrives” she said, “I would like to feel that these are the first that he or she will ever receive.”

  Amelie laughed a little tremulously.

  “It’s a sweet thought and I shall press many of these flowers in a scrapbook so that I can show them to my child when he is grown up.”

  Both women smiled shyly as if they felt a little embarrassed at being so sentimental.

  Then William Sleeman called from the door,

  “The guard is asking if he can start the train, Amelie, and unless you want to leave with the honeymoon couple, I suggest you finish your goodbyes!”

  Amelie kissed Brucena once more,

  “You look lovely, dearest,” she smiled, “and whatever you may say, I know it will not be many years before you live in a Government House of your own and are addressed as ‘my Lady’.”

  Because it was now such an old joke, Brucena did not protest. She only laughed and, as Amelie was helped out of the carriage, she kissed her cousin.

  “Goodbye, Cousin William,” she said. “‘Thank you’ is a most inadequate phrase. I only know, as I felt when I arrived in India, that it is the most exciting marvellous country – in the whole world.”

  She glanced at her husband as she spoke and added,

  “Especially as it gave me Ian.”

  William turned to the guard who was hovering near them.

  “You have my permission,” he said, “to start the train.”

  “Thank you, Captain Sahib,” the guard replied and, putting his whistle into his mouth, he started to unfurl his flag.

  The Sepoys were holding back the excited crowds, who were watching Brucena and Ian’s departure.

  A bride and bridegroom in any country are always an attraction and Brucena’s going away gown of pale pink with a bonnet trimmed with ribbons of the same colour had evoked cries of delight from the Indian women in their colourful saris.

  There was a burst of steam from the engine and, as Ian stepped into the carriage and closed the door and their servants in the next compartment shut theirs, a cheer went up from all those who were watching.

  As the train moved away from the platform, Brucena leant out the window with a suspicion of tears in her eyes as she waved goodbye to Cousin William and Amelie.

  Only as the wheels quickened and the smoke began to obscure their view did Ian draw her into the carriage and close the window.

  Then, as she stood looking at him swaying a little with the movement of the train, he drew her into his arms and kissed her.

  It was not a long kiss, because as they gathered speed they were forced to sit down, but it brought the colour to Brucena’s cheeks and a light to her eyes.

  “We are – married!” she said in a low voice. “We are – really married!”

  “Were you afraid that something would stop us at the last minute,” Ian quizzed her.

  “I am never sure of anything where you are concerned,” she replied. “How could I ever have guessed, when I was so afraid of what your next exploit with Cousin William might be, that you would be offered this wonderful position on the Governor-General’s staff?”

  “You can thank your cousin for that,” Ian replied. “His report was so glowing that no Governor-General, especially Lord William Bentinck, who was particularly interested in our achievements, could have ignored it.”

  “Whatever Cousin William said, I am sure that none of it was exaggerated.”

  Ian smiled and put his arms round her as he said,

  “I am afraid, darling, that you are somewhat prejudiced in my favour, but that is exactly how I want it to be.”

  With his free hand he undid the ribbons that were tied under her chin, took off her bonnet and threw it onto an empty seat.

  Then, when she thought that he was about to kiss her, he sat looking at her until he said quietly,

  “I do not believe that anyone can be so beautiful. Actually I thought that when we first met in a certain railway carriage.”

  “We started our acquaintanceship in one and now we are starting our marriage in one!” Brucena cried. “I feel that special quirk of Fate has a lesson somewhere, but I am not quite certain what it means.”

  “It means that I love you and you are my wife. But because you are so unbelievably lovely, I am not certain that I have been wise in accepting a position on the Governor-General’s staff.”

  Brucena looked at him enquiringly and he explained.

  “If I catch you looking at another man or listening to the compliments you will inevitably receive, I swear I will take you back to Saugor and we will stay there for the rest of our lives!”

  “It would not matter to me where we were as long as I was with you,” Brucena replied.

  Then, because there was a very moving note of sincerity in her voice, Ian kissed her and it was impossible to say anything more.

  *

  Only later did Brucena have time to think of how her life had changed overnight and not only because she had married Ian.

  She was to learn how important her part had been in riding with Nasir to Selopa to warn Cousin William of Lord Rawthorne’s treachery.

  She had been right in suspecting that he intended to alert the Thugs whom they were out to capture.

  Worse than that he had told his messenger to inform the Thugs that they must fight for their lives whoever they destroyed in the process.

  It had been a direct invitation to kill and Brucena felt guilty that it was in a way her fault that he had stooped to such a disgraceful action in order to destroy the man she wanted to marry

  “How could he behave in such a – criminal manner?” she had cried when she was told of Lord Rawthorne’s directions.

  She had been appalled that any man especially an English Nobleman, should commit what really amounted to coldblooded murder.

  Ian had put his arm round her.

  “I think, my darling,” he said, “we have to be generous and accept that his passion for you totally destroyed his balance and his common sense.”

  “I can think of more unpleasant words to describe his behaviour,” William Sleeman had come in drily.

  “So can I,” Ian admitted, but quite frankly I think there is no point in saying so.”

  Brucena looked from one man to the other in perplexity.

  “Are you telling me that you are going to let Lord Rawthorne get away with this?” she asked. “Surely you will tell the Governor-General or at least you must challenge him to give you an explanation?”

  William Sleeman was silent for a moment.

  And then he said,

  “No. Ian is right, Brucena. Nothing can be gained by making a scandal and it is far more dignified for us to pretend that we had no idea that he was involved in any way in what, thanks to you, my dear, was a most successful operation.”

  “You mean – if I had not got there – before Lord Rawthorne’s man – ”

  “There might have been a very different story to tell,” Ian said, as if he wished to prevent her from saying anymore. “As you know, Nasir told your cousin why you had come and he gave the arranged signal to seize the Thugs before they were r
eady to start work on us.”

  However Brucena found that there was a great deal more to it than that.

  By means of espionage in Gwalior, Ian had learnt that the two remaining leaders of the Thugs in their Province had arranged a meeting on one of the special days dedicated to the Goddess Kali.

  He had discovered that this meeting was to take place in a grove that had been notorious for generations as a haunt of the Thugs, a bele or place of strangulation.

  In that particular place where Brucena had joined them over several centuries hundreds, perhaps thousands, of innocent travellers had been murdered. There had been a large market in Selopa and the Thug leaders knew that because the bele was at a convenient point on the road outside the town, a party of travellers would be bound to stop there to rest before their journey home the next day.

  The Thugs would hope for a large party and would be ready to demonstrate their well-tried technique with a yellow silken noose.

  When the victims were dead, they would cut the bodies about with ritual gashes and bury them under the trees, thus making their obeisance to their Goddess by means of a human sacrifice, for which they would obtain great merit.

  This success would be reported to all the Thugs who were left in the vicinity and would re-establish their power, which had been considerably reduced by William Sleeman’s suppression of so many followers of their cult.

  It had been an act of defiance, an act that might have undone a great deal of the good work that had been achieved in the last two years.

  What was more, had Lord Rawthorne’s messenger arrived before Brucena and managed to convey his information to the leader of the Thugs without William Sleeman or Ian Hadleigh being aware of it, their victory might easily have been turned into a tragic defeat.

  The Thugs would have had two alternatives, one to disappear and the other to start strangling their supposed fellow travellers before Sleeman’s disguised men were ready for them.

  As it was, they were taken entirely by surprise, having, owing to the cleverness of William Sleeman and Ian, already been deceived into believing that the party they had joined in the bele were bona fide travellers.

  Because he felt it was only fair that Brucena should understand exactly what had happened, Cousin William had told her how before they reached Selopa they had left their horses in a place of concealment that had already been arranged.

  There they had changed from their uniforms into garments worn by the local farmers of another part of the country.

  Then, carrying market produce for sale, they had infiltrated into the town, bargaining for their wares and meeting again only at the end of the day.

  Bringing a camel that Ian had acquired and several donkeys, they had set off along the road, talking of how much money they had made and boasting that it had been an exceedingly successful day’s marketing.

  William Sleeman had drilled his men so well that from the moment they discarded their uniforms they played their parts whether they thought anyone was listening or not.

  For nearly three years he had taught them that a careless word or a moment off their guard might result not only in their own deaths but the deaths of their comrades too.

  When they reached the chosen bele, they argued for some time as to whether they should camp there for the night or go on farther.

  There appeared to be nobody about, but there were bushes where men could have concealed themselves and the trees were thick.

  They were still talking when what looked like a party of travellers, a large one, joined them.

  These, they were well aware, were the Thugs.

  “You are camping here?” one of them asked.

  “We are trying to make up our minds,” Ian replied in fluent Urdu.

  “There is room for us both,” the Thug suggested.

  “We are still a long way from home.”

  “We understand if you wish to proceed,” the Thug answered.

  A well-trained chorus of voices asserted that they were tired and could go no farther and finally, after a great deal more argument, which Indians always enjoy, they agreed that they would all camp together.

  Another smaller party of Thugs joined them and William Sleeman and Ian noticed that, after they had sat for a little while talking and exchanging stories, individuals attached themselves in a friendly manner to different men of their own party.

  When finally they began to make preparations to sleep, the Thugs lay down beside their new-found companions.

  Only William and Ian insisted on having tents to themselves and this was quite understandable because they were dressed as richer and more important merchants.

  They had made it obvious that quite a number of the travellers were in their employment and also that they owned the camel.

  William Sleeman’s instructions had been not to start the fight too soon, if that was what it was to be.

  He wanted to be quite sure that all the Thugs belonging to each leader were present and he also planned, where possible, to catch them with a yellow scarf in their hands.

  It would be enough to bring them to justice if they merely had a yellow scarf concealed about their person.

  At the same time for the sentence to be as heavy as he wanted it to be, he had to catch a Thug in the act of committing murder, which resulted in his either being hanged or given a life sentence.

  However, when he learnt from Nasir that the Thugs were to be warned that they had been tricked, there was no time to be lost

  Taken completely by surprise none of the Thugs tried to escape, but fought for their lives and many died doing so.

  The rest were taken to Saugor to the prison and the following week the two leaders and the most competent of the men were condemned to be hanged.

  The rest were branded and the fact that such a large operation had been brought off without a single Thug escaping had such a startling effect on the local population that William Sleeman had said triumphantly,

  “This is practically, if not completely, the end of my mission!”

  Brucena had given a cry of sheer delight and William’s report had been carried post-haste to the Governor-General.

  The immediate result was that Ian Hadleigh was offered a position on Lord William Bentinck’s staff.

  It had been, he thought when he received it, almost an answer to a prayer for, while he wanted to marry Brucena immediately, there was some difficulty in finding a bungalow in the neighbourhood of Saugor that he thought was good enough for her.

  He also had the feeling that after all she had been through she would find it difficult not to be increasingly anxious if he was away from her for even one night.

  She would put on a brave face, he knew that already. But it was not usual for an Englishwoman, even in India, to suffer as she had suffered when he had been left behind in Gwalior and certainly not to be actually on the spot in a fight that resulted in the deaths of a large number of those involved.

  She had been afraid, Ian knew, only for him.

  When finally the Thugs who had survived were whining miserably for mercy as they were tied up by the jubilant Sepoys, he had gone into his tent to find Brucena crouched on the ground, her hands clasped together and her lips moving in prayer.

  He would have taken her in his arms, but he realised that his native garments were stained with blood from the sword thrusts he had made at the Thugs, who had fought back with the knives that they mutilated their victims with.

  Instead he merely put out his hand and said quietly,

  “It’s all over, my darling, and now we can go home.”

  After that, although he had not said so, he had almost desperately wanted to offer Brucena a different sort of life, even though he knew that he would never be happy anywhere other than in India.

  The Governor-General’s invitation had therefore been not only opportune but very exciting.

  Ian realised that it was not only an immediate advancement but the first step on the ladder that led eventually to becom
ing a British Resident and, if one was exceptionally lucky or clever, after that to Lieutenant-Governor of a Province.

  To Brucena the only thing that mattered was that they could be married before Ian left for Calcutta.

  “You will not – go without me?” she had asked anxiously.

  “Do you imagine I would leave you behind?” he enquired.

  There had been all the excitement of arranging the Wedding and of providing herself in a few days with a Wedding dress that she hoped Ian would think her beautiful in.

  Fortunately Amelie had an evening gown, which had arrived from her father as a present, but, because she had lost her figure, it had been impossible for her to wear it.

  “You must keep it until after the baby has arrived,” Brucena protested.

  Amelie laughed.

  “I will get Papa to send me another one. Besides what is more important than that you should be a beautiful bride for Ian? Thank Goodness I have some lace that we can easily make into a veil.”

  One thing was certain, the little Church in Saugor had never seen a more beautiful bride and, when Brucena had walked up the aisle on Cousin William’s arm, she had known by the expression in Ian’s eyes that she was everything he wanted her to be.

  The Marriage Service had been very moving for Brucena and she had prayed that she would make Ian happy.

  She had known, because they were so closely attuned, that he was praying for the same thing.

  When they had signed the Marriage Register in the Vestry and he had raised her veil in a symbolic gesture and kissed her, she had recognised that it was a kiss of dedication and that he gave her his heart and soul.

  After toasts had been drunk at the bungalow, Brucena had to change hurriedly into her going away gown if they were not to miss the train.

  It was to be a strange honeymoon because they would be travelling right across India to Calcutta.

  Although they were starting off in a train, their journey could entail travelling in a dozen different ways.

  There were very few railways as yet in India, although the British were busy constructing lines between the most important Cities.

  The first day they would be able to cover only about thirty miles by train. Then they were to stay in a bungalow that had been lent them and leave two days later by road for the next stop.