Terror in the Sun

Chapter ONE ~ 1832-2

He had chosen a young woman only three years older than his own daughter, but who was very different in appearance and might have been described as ‘good breeding stock’.

Sturdy and heavily built with no pretensions to good looks, Jean had been proud and excited to marry the owner of Nairn Castle, but she had resented her stepdaughter’s appearance from the first moment she had seen her.

It was inevitable that Brucena’s beauty and her attractiveness to men would not endear her to any stepmother, least of all to one who was so young.

The tension that had always existed between her and her father was accentuated, quickly and violently, where his new wife was concerned.

And when six months ago Jean had given birth to the much longed-for son, Brucena had found her position in The Castle untenable.

She was found fault with frequently by her father, she tried to ignore the hatred in her stepmother’s eyes and she was sure that, once the pampered adored heir could see and think, he would hate her too.

‘I must get away,’ she had thought not once but a thousand times, but she had no idea where she could go.

Her Nairn relations not only did not want her but would feel uncomfortable if they offered her a home without being asked to do so by the General.

Although Brucena had never broached the subject to him, she thought that her father’s pride would never allow him either to ask for or accept favours from his relatives, most of whom he found boring and seldom invited to The Castle.

All that Brucena possessed of her own was three hundred pounds, which had been left her as a legacy by her grandmother and was paid to her every year in January.

She had been instructed not to spend it and she knew that her father thought that it would constitute part of her dowry on her marriage and would therefore save him from providing as much as he might otherwise have been obliged to otherwise.

Now she knew that because it was her own it was a Godsend and she could pay her own fare to India.

She debated in her mind for a long time whether she should tell her father what she intended to do and then decided against it.

She had the feeling that, although he disliked her, he rather enjoyed having someone to quarrel with and to scold.

She was there and when things displeased him he could vent his wrath on her in a manner that he would have hesitated to use with anyone else.

Suddenly it seemed to Brucena as if everything fell into place as a plan came to her mind and she really had little difficulty in putting it into operation.

A girl who had been her one friend after she had grown up invited her to accompany her and her parents to Edinburgh.

“Papa and Mama are going to be very busy,” she had said to Brucena, “because Papa has to receive all the grand people who are coming from the South for an inspection of the troops. As they thought I would find it lonely, they have suggested that I ask you to come with me. We can look in the shops and we might even be asked to a ball. Anyway it would be fun to be together.”

“Great fun,” Brucena agreed readily.

She thought that her father would make difficulties about her going to Edinburgh, but to her surprise he said that he thought it was a good idea as long as she was not away for long.

He made this condition, she thought, merely because he in fact begrudged her any amusement, although not so violently as he would have done a year ago before he had had an heir, a son to carry on his name.

Brucena was certain when she left, with only perfunctory goodbyes from her father and her stepmother that they were really glad to be rid of her for a little while.

That, she thought, exonerated her conscience from any feeling of guilt about what she was to do.

She stayed in Edinburgh for a week, spending her time shopping surreptitiously for the things she thought she would need in India.

She was intelligent enough not to go to a new country before learning something about it, but it had been hard to find books at home that told her anything she wanted to know.

There was, however, plenty of information about India in the bookshops in Edinburgh and she soon accumulated quite a small library, which she knew she would have time to read over and over again on the voyage.

She told her friends in Edinburgh that she had to return home as her father was expecting her and, when they reluctantly said ‘goodbye’ to her, she took a train to London.

This, she thought as she travelled South, was where the real adventure started.

Strangely enough, Brucena was quite confident that she could look after herself and that she would reach India in safety.

Mrs. Sleeman had sent her full instructions as to how the Nanny, when she found one, was to be sent out.

When Brucena had read the closely worded pages inscribed in Cousin Amelie’s elegant writing, she thought with a smile that it was rather like despatching a valuable parcel that must not be damaged on the voyage.

She learnt that the P. & O. Line could provide for everything and a chaperone for the young woman would be found amongst the passengers who would be travelling Second Class.

Cousin Amelie had written,

“There will be Missionaries or Christian women of some organisation or another traveling to Bombay, but, although I am sure that they would not accept money for their services, which they would look upon as an act of charity, you must, of course, provide the woman you are sending with an adequate present to recompense them for their kindness.”

In the P. & O. office Brucena had rather a different story to tell.

“I have to journey to India to stay with relatives,” she said, “but unfortunately the lady who was to chaperone me has been taken ill and I am wondering if you could find anyone who would be kind enough to look after me on the voyage?”

The Official stared at Brucena’s pretty face and thought to himself that a chaperone would certainly be needed for such an attractive girl.

There were always Officers returning from leave and dealing with shipboard romances was what every Purser found to be one of his less arduous duties.

Sometimes, however, they could be traumatic when the passengers were cooped up for so long with one another and there was no chance of getting away.

He had, however, as Mrs. Sleeman had forecast, been only too willing to oblige.

“I think I have exactly the lady you need, Miss Nairn,” he said. “Canon Grant and his wife are returning to Bombay and I am certain that Mrs. Grant would be only too willing to oblige, when I explain the circumstances to her.”

“It would be very kind of you to do so,” Brucena smiled.

She had known by the expression on the Official’s face that he would leave no stone unturned to help her.

Mrs. Grant and her husband had, for that matter, proved a worthy but extremely dull couple. Officially they had provided Brucena with an umbrella of respectability, but they had not interfered with her so she was able to spend a great deal of time reading.

She also enjoyed the sports on board ship and in the evening found herself the centre of attraction amongst the men who wished to dance with her much to the disgust of other young women aboard.

It had in fact been the first time in her life when she had felt free without being continually found fault with as she had been at home.

It was a joy to be able to express an opinion without being slapped down and a greater joy than she could ever put into words was to know that, whatever her father felt about her deceiving him, he could do nothing about it.

She had spent what seemed to her an astronomical amount of money on her fare and her clothes, but she still had some left.

Now that she had taken the plunge and had left home, she knew in her heart that she would never go back and, if the Sleemans did not want her, she would find somewhere else to work.

She had cabled them before the ship sailed, saying,

“Have found person you require. Details follow.

Love, Brucena.”

She deliberately did not state the date of her arrival or explain that she herself was coming instead of the Nanny who Cousin Amelie had asked for.

This was only a precaution because she felt that perhaps they would not want her and would take steps to send her home when she reached Bombay.

‘They will think,’ she told herself, ‘that the Nanny is coming in a month or so and that the letter, which I have no intention of writing, will explain who she is and why I think her suitable.’

She thought it over and knew that when she arrived, ready to do anything that was required of her, the Sleemans would find it extremely difficult to make her go home.

‘At least they will have to keep me for a little time,’ Brucena argued with herself.

At the same time, in spite of her reassurance to herself that she would be a far better Nanny than any raw Scots girl, she could not help feeling that she was rather imposing herself on people who might not want her.

Cousin William had always been very pleasant to her.

She remembered that as a child, when he had come to stay at The Castle, she had thought him slightly awe-inspiring because he was so clever.

Auburn-haired, blue-eyed and with a fine large forehead, she had learnt on his second visit several years later that he spoke Arabic, Persian and Urdu.

He was Cornish, as her mother had been, and their families had been neighbours for centuries.

Because of his intelligence he had in his thirties been seconded from his Regiment to Civil Administration and General Nairn had been impressed by the fact that he had become a Magistrate and a District Officer in Central India much earlier than most other men of his age.

It was three years ago in 1830 that a letter from Captain Sleeman to the General brought the news that he had been appointed by the new Governor General, Lord William Bentinck, to a very important position.

“He is the right man for the job,” the General had thundered as he read the letter at breakfast.

“What is the job, Papa?” Brucena enquired.

“His title is Superintendent for the Suppression of Thuggee,” the General replied, “but you would not understand about that.”

He spoke disparagingly not only as a man who thinks that a woman’s intellect does not extend beyond the kitchen or the nursery but also because he disliked Brucena’s curiosity, which made her ask him questions that he would have welcomed from a boy rather than a girl.

“I have read about the Thugs, Papa,” Brucena had replied, “They are a Secret Society who worship the Hindu God Kali and believe it is their sacred right to strangle people.”

“You really should not know about such things,” the General said disagreeably, “but William will soon have that abomination under control.”

“How will he do it?” Brucena enquired.

“He has been given fifty mounted irregulars and forty Sepoy infantrymen,” the General snapped. “It should be enough. It is a job I would have liked to do myself when I was younger.”

There were a hundred questions that Brucena had wanted to ask, but her father had walked from the room taking William Sleeman’s letter with him and she knew that it would be hopeless to even try.

Instead she tried to find out everything she could about Thuggee, but she had not been very successful and even in Edinburgh the books she could buy told her very little more than she knew already,

Now, as Major Hadleigh sat regarding her with what she thought was a suspicious look in his eyes, she said,