9308-3953

ecome an energetic and modern city, with a reasonable selection of western shops and clubs. The
city had pianos, midwives, dentists, umbrellas, photographers, magazines. Mutton in tins and beer in
bottles. Even more important, it offered opportunities for civilized companionship. Conversation.
Flirting. Debate. Gossip. The ocean breezes even made the heat tolerable. In short, any civil
servant with any wit or ambition strove hard to get himself stationed in Bombay, the pearl of the
western coast.
The Raj had a definite pecking order for its men, and thus for the women attached to
them as wives or daughters. The highest were the Viceroy and the Viceroy’s council, followed by
military officers and local government officials. Next came professionals of various ilks, then
soldiers, and finally general laborers, of which there were not many. Servants in India were so cheap
and plentiful that it made little sense to import British workers to perform mundane tasks. Last of all
came the missionaries, who seemed to annoy the English and the Indian alike.
Therefore, one might say that Bombay was overrun with politicians and officers who had
finagled their way into one of the most desirable cities in India, and then promptly set about
replicating everything they missed from England. It was not easy – comfort in India would always be
a relative term – and the snakes, scorpions, and microbes were unimpressed by the glory of the Raj
and made their way into this exalted city just as quickly as all the others. But a shell of privilege
covered the British in Bombay. They traveled in certain compartments on trains, directed their
carriages exclusively down the least distressing streets when navigating the slums, and lived only in
designated districts. They did not bother learning any of the numerous native languages – perhaps
beyond a few words of “kitchen Hindustani” so that they could communicate with their servants – nor
did they concern themselves with the equally incomprehensible currency. No British citizen in India
need ever carry cash. Credit was extended automatically, based on the color of his skin.
There was another India out there, close at hand. They knew it, of course they did. They
could see it, if they looked, and they could hardly help smelling and hearing it, some senses being
innately more democratic than others. But the British in India sought to limit their exposure to the
land they ruled. And they tried not to remember the sort of things that could happen if the thin shell of
privilege ever cracked.
***
Bombay Harbor
10:45 AM
The minute the debarkation process was complete, the men opted to go directly to the
police station where Anthony Weaver was being held. A porter managed to fetch them a public cab,
which in truth looked more like a cart with a ragged canopy suspended overhead. The four wedged
themselves miserably in, with Davy crouched on the floorboards, Tom and Rayley sharing a rickety
seat, and Trevor’s ample backside hanging half over his own shaky perch. Tom saluted to the ladies
as they jostled away.
It was a sight that would have amused Emma if she didn’t have so many troubles of her
own. The departure of the men meant that she was single-handedly left to contend with Geraldine and
the eleven pieces of luggage, but, just when she was beginning to despair of finding any assistance at
all, the throng at the dock suddenly seemed to part like a Biblical sea and she saw, to her great
surprise, a well-appointed carriage not unlike the one Geraldine owned back in London. A woman
was waving to them from the window with a gloved hand.
“That must be our Mrs. Tucker,” Geraldine said with palpable relief.