There was a fraught silence then, ‘Be damned to that!’ Sir George said. ‘Of course you are going to marry, my girl. Who has put such foolishness into your head? Nicholas—what fairy tales have you been telling her?’
‘What she wanted to hear. My choice was to betray your trust and risk her running away or to deceive her. What would you have me do?’ Nick kept his voice calm and reasonable, but Anusha could hear the anger in it and the frustration that he was too respectful of the older man to show.
‘What you did, of course.’ The anger seemed to drain out of her father. His shoulders slumped. ‘Anusha, you have no idea what you are talking about, no idea about European marriage. There is nothing to worry about, nothing to fear.’
Suspicious, she watched the men through narrowed eyes. ‘You will not force me?’
‘Of course not! Did your uncle and I not give you perfect freedom to refuse any marriage offer made to you?’
‘Yes.’ Anusha cut a glance at Nick’s face. He was his usual impassive self again, although she could still sense his reined-in tension. But her father had been angry with him, so perhaps that was the source of it. ‘And so...I can travel? I do not have to have a husband?’
‘Of course you cannot travel! And of course you must have a husband, but I will not force one on you that you cannot like.’
She stared at him. ‘I must marry, yet you will not force me? I can choose and yet I am not free? Is it my English? I know it is not perfect yet, but I cannot misunderstand so much, surely?’
Her father stared back, obviously frustrated by her lack of comprehension. ‘Nicholas, you explain it to her: I’m damn... I obviously cannot.’ He turned on his heel and marched out.
‘Yes, please, Nick. You explain it to me,’ she said sweetly. ‘And I will try to believe you this time as well. Or perhaps you could kiss me again until my brain is as muddled as soup and I stop asking difficult questions.’
The betraying flags of colour were on his cheekbones again, but he took a deep breath and answered her patiently, ‘There will be no kissing. Your father wants only the best for you. He will have decided upon suitable suitors for you to consider.’
‘Who are these men? What are they?’ The anger almost drowned the panic as she took an impetuous step forwards and took his forearm in both hands. She would shake the truth out of him if need be.
‘I have no idea which poor fellow he has in mind.’ Nick said with what she guessed was a misplaced attempt to mollify her with humour. ‘But Sir George will want you safely married off as soon as possible. You are older than most of the single girls in Calcutta society.’
‘Married off!’ For a moment she could not work out the English idiom and she stared at him as though he had spoken Greek. ‘To an angrezi husband he has picked out for me.’
‘Of course. You are to become an English lady, that is all I know. What else would you do in Calcutta? How else would you live with him? He hardly needs a housekeeper.’
Anusha let go of his arm and took an unsteady stride away from him. ‘Do? I want to do nothing in Calcutta except leave it! I did not ask to come here. I do not want a husband, I have turned down offer after offer.’
‘I know. But this is different. We are not talking of a political marriage to a man old enough to be your father or to a princeling who could be murdered in a palace coup at any time. You will be an English lady and you may choose your husband, face to face.’
‘Anyone?’ she demanded, twisting to look at him over her shoulder, knowing the answer perfectly well. Choice offered by a man was nothing but a mirage. ‘Any man I wish?’
‘Of course not, but any eligible man your father approves. As I said, he is sure to have some in mind for you. Not just anyone, Anusha, but men of wealth and influence who will give you a good life.’
Wealth and influence. So that was why she had been summoned back, virtually kidnapped from her uncle’s court. The threat from Altaphur was real enough, but that gave her father his excuse. No doubt there was some alliance he wished to cement so he had thought of her, a pawn on his chessboard. At least it explained why he wanted her back after all this time.
Instinct had warned her that danger awaited and at least now she knew what it was: the risk of being married off to some Englishman who would treat her like her father had treated her mother. Only she would be legally tied to him, so she would be expected to stay with her husband however badly he behaved to her.