The Great Mogul Part 26

"What sayeth the capon?" demanded Roger, who caught the peremptory tone of the man's words and was minded to clout him, for such a menial is apt to become unconsciously insolent when he carries his master's commands.

Mowbray's restraining hand warned Roger not to interfere.

"Is that all?" he said with ominous calm.

"No, protector of the poor. The Emperor Jahangir sends his compliments to you and to the Hathi-sahib. He says that if you return with the Princess you shall be received with all honor, paid in full, and forwarded, at his proper charge, to Ajmere on the road to Bombay."

"And if we refuse the King's offer?"

"Why should you refuse, sahib? My Lord, the King, is wroth that any should dare act as did that foolish man, Kutub-ud-din. All those who took part in the attack on Sher Afghan have been impaled alive on the road leading from Dilkusha to the bridge of boats. I and my companions rode between their writhing bodies as we quitted Agra."

"It were foolish to distrust so just a monarch, yet what say you if we choose rather to proceed to Burdwan?"

The Chief Eunuch suddenly became very humble.

"I am only an envoy," he said. "Behind, there are two hundred soldiers, mounted on the best horses in the King's stables and commanded by a valiant officer. Behind them, there is the might of the Empire. I pray you believe that my Lord, Jahangir, means to do well by you."

There is an Indian story of a crocodile inviting a lamb to inspect his beautiful teeth as he lay with his mouth open, but the messenger's fair words placed Walter in a quandary. Obviously, he must consult Nur Mahal ere he returned the answer which was ready enough on his lips, for he thought that the two hundred, however valiant their officer, would never dare to attack half the number of stalwart Rajputs trained by Sher Afghan, especially when they knew that they must also encounter the terrible Man-Elephant. As for the King's armies, Burdwan was a far cry.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "If we go to Burdwan are you content to abide there?"]

"Bide you here, Roger," he muttered shortly. "Keep things as they are until I return. I go to seek Nur Mahal."

A cloaked woman, who had pa.s.sed silently between the line of soldiers on the road, and who heard each word of the dialogue, evidently guessed what Walter said, though he used English to Sainton. She darted forward now and clasped his arm. Even before she spoke he knew who it was, for the mere touch of her fingers thrilled him.

"I am here!" she whispered. "Let us draw apart. I have that to say which is best said now. One of us two must answer that man, and we gain naught by delay."

By the roadside grew a field of millet, the spa.r.s.e crop of some poor ryot in the village who cared little for kings or courts. He would grin with amaze if told that his small holding formed the council-chamber in which was settled the affairs of a nation. Yet it was so in very truth, for Nur Mahal led Mowbray into the midst of the standing crop until they were out of earshot of the others.

Then she turned towards him, and there was a rapture in her face which was bewildering, though the way in which she still clung to his arm caused the warm blood to tingle in his veins.

"Tell me," she murmured softly; "if we go to Burdwan, are you content to abide there?"

CHAPTER XIII

"A man that hath friends must show himself friendly; and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother."

_Prov._ xviii. 24.

That man would be a fool who pretended to misunderstand her. She would have said more, but words failed. Her labored breath betrayed her, and the light that kindles only in a woman's eyes leaped out at him. He seemed to be wandering in a maze with a siren as guide. What magic spell surrounded him? Why had the arrival of Jahangir's messenger forced this tacit avowal from the lips of the proudest woman in India?

If she defied the Emperor and continued the journey to Burdwan, it must be as the promised wife of Walter Mowbray, an alien in race, and one who professed a hostile faith. Never was stranger compact dreamed of.

They knew little of each other, beyond the acquaintance arising from an enforced companionship of five days. They scarce had a thought in common. They were bred and reared under social conditions as wide asunder as the poles. Nature, indeed, careless of arbitrary restrictions, had fashioned them in superb comparison, for never were man and woman better mated physically than these two. But the law which parts the East from the West divided them, and, although Nur Mahal would have scorned the unseen barrier, Mowbray drew back. a.s.suredly, there is no knowing what his answer would have been had not another face risen before his entranced vision, and a despairing voice cried bitterly in his ears: "Oh, Ann, they have taken him!"

Yes, though far from Spanish halberds and London Tower, here was lifelong bondage chaining him with a glamour more enduring than fetters of iron. It says much for the charms of Eleanor Roe that the memory of her anguish when last their eyes met on the Thames-side quay rescued her lover now from the imminent embrace of a most potent rival.

It was no time for measured phrase. His heart rose in pity as he took Nur Mahal in his arms for an instant.

"Sweet lady," he said, "were I not pledged to one whom I hold dear as my very soul I would abide with you in Burdwan, and my sword should defend you while my hand could use it. But no man can gainsay his fate. He can only keep his conscience clean and leave the rest to G.o.d. I came to India hoping to earn a fortune wherewith I could return to my own land and claim my love. I have failed, yet my purpose will endure until I succeed or die."

He felt the shrinking form he held shake with a sob, and he would have striven to comfort her with some faltering prediction of future happiness had she not raised her beautiful face in wild appeal.

"I have not humbled myself in vain," she fiercely cried. "You must not deem me unworthy because I have departed from the path ordained for my s.e.x. I am no timid maid who nurses her woes in secret. It may be that I am incapable of feeling that which other women call love. Never was man more deserving of true and faithful wife than Sher Afghan. Yet I hated him. You are one whom I could trust and honor. Had the fates willed it we should have gone far together. Now I yield to my destiny. Go! It is ended. If I never see your face again, at least think well of me, and strive to forget that, in a moment of folly, I sacrificed my self-respect for your sake."

And now she struggled to free herself, but, because of his true regard for her, he would not suffer her to leave him in such self-condemning mood.

"Nay, fair lady," he murmured, "we do not part thus. I have misjudged you in the past; be it mine now to make amends. You were wedded against your will, yet who shall hold you guilty of your husband's death? Be a.s.sured that none in all this land shall shield your high repute as I and my honest comrade, Sainton. Lead us to your State, and if Sher Afghan's followers prove faithful to his widow's cause, Jahangir may wreck his throne in seeking to injure you."

Again she lifted her wondrous face to his, and tears were glistening in her eyes. Yet, in the dim light of the open field he fancied he saw a piteous smile dimple her cheeks.

"Spare me your vows," she said. "Keep them for her whose love is so strong that it binds you beyond the seas. And now, let us return."

She looked up at him so wistfully that he yielded to impulse and kissed her. Perchance her heart fluttered with the thought that she had won, after all. But Mowbray was adamant in his faith, and his was the kiss of pity, not of pa.s.sion.

"I shall never know peace again," he cried, "until you are well content that I am pledged to another, and even wish her well of a poor bargain."

"Then you are doomed to a life of misery, for that shall never be," she retorted.

"Say not so, Princess. Your name alone was chosen with wondrous wisdom.

It marks out one who has but to seek a throne to obtain it."

"Ah, is that your secret thought? Strange, indeed that it should pair with mine!"

She wrenched herself free from his embrace, and ran a little way back through the millet. Then she stopped, and there was the wonted imperious ring in her voice as she cried:--

"A moment ago you undertook to defend me from my enemies. Swear, then, that you will obey my wishes!"

"In all things which concern your welfare--"

"Fear not, Mowbray-sahib. I offer myself twice to no man."

Her quick transition from melting femininity to stern dominance surprised him as greatly as aught that had gone before. It relieved him, too. Who could deny the truth of Nur Mahal's estimate of herself, that she was not like unto other women?

"I swear!" he said, wondering what new madness possessed her.

"'Tis well," she answered. "I shall soon put your fealty to the test."

Without another word, she pa.s.sed to the road, where Sainton's giant figure towered among the group of men and horses. Her quick eyes discovered Jahangir's messenger, and she addressed him as if he were a servant of lowest rank.

"Ibrahim!" she cried, "did thy master, the Emperor, give thee thy charge in writing?"

The Chief Eunuch bowed obsequiously.

"Knowing your repute for exceeding discernment," he said, "I even asked the Emperor of the World[J] to honor me with his written command. I carry it with me."