Fever Quest: A Clean Historical Mystery set in England and India (The Isabella Rockwell Trilogy Book 2) by Hannah Parry Page A

was
another three weeks’ journey. Whenever they could, the girls manoeuvred
themselves into the same carriage. It had been four days since they’d left
Masulipatam heading inland. Isabella watched the flat parched land give way to
soft undulating hills sprinkled with green. This time a year ago she would have
sat up with the driver and shot partridge from her seat, but now she was happy
to listen to the girls’ idle chatter. It helped her to stop thinking about
Midge. She still couldn’t keep her eyes from the horizon. The carriages had all
taken the same route for the first part of their journey; Midge was only twelve
hours ahead of them. The girls’ chatter washed over her.
    “Well you’ve only yourself to blame. I could have got it
into his drink about a thousand times since we left Mombasa. You’ve been so
wet.” Rose was looking down her nose at Eloise, who opened her vacant blue eyes
wide.
    “That’s so unkind. It’s just that … well, imagine if
he’d caught me putting it in his drink. That would have been even worse.”
    “I think this whole thing is ridiculous,” said Livia.
“Captain Lucas likes you already. You don’t need to worry about the potion any
more. You just have to make sure you go to all the dances in Pune and look your
own gorgeous self.”
    Eloise went pink as the sky behind her head.
    “I say. Do you really think so?”
    “I do,” said Livia, but Isabella could see a shadow behind
her eyes as she forced herself to talk of things she knew she would never
experience. Dances, picnics, games of boules - none of that would be available
to her any more, once she was married. She would be a young girl married to an old
man; forced to sit with him while he fell into the easy sleep of old age or to
listen to his hoary old friends as they relived their time on the battlefield.
    The sun was setting over the green plains that surrounded
them, throwing trees and bushes into deep blue shadow. A green ribbon of river
snaked into the distance and Isabella could see three vultures in the high pink
sky, circling over a kill. It was still very hot.
    “Is this the only road to Pune?” asked Rose, craning her
head around to look down the dusty track in front of them. “It’s so quiet.” She
shivered. “I don’t think I’ve ever not seen a human being for such a long time.
I’m not sure I like it.”
    “I haven’t been along this road before,” replied Isabella.
“I come from the north. We are in the south east. I know the countryside seems
empty, but it’s not really. It’s just that India is so much bigger than England. You’ll get used to it.”
    “But what about if you want to go out visiting or
shopping? Does it take all day?” Rose looked horrified.
    Isabella laughed. “No, of course not. Pune is a city like London. It will be hotter and cleaner.” Isabella could think of a few other things she
wanted to say about how much better Indian cities were than London, but she
thought it best if she didn’t. Most people thought that where they called home
was the best place on earth, herself included.
    Rose snorted. “I can’t believe it’s cleaner.”
    Isabella nodded. “I know but it’s true. There is a whole
caste of people whose job it is to keep the city clean. I’m not sure you have
that in London. I saw a dead body in the Thames once. That would never be
allowed here.”
    “What’s a ‘caste’?” asked Livia.
    “It’s a classification system for people.”
    “Like working class and upper class?” Livia’s voice was
clipped.
    Isabella nodded. “India has many castes, but the lowest
one is ‘the untouchables’. It is they who clean the streets.”
    “Poor them,” said Rose, flapping her hand at the
mosquitoes that had come out the minute the sun had started to sink.
    Strips of white cloud turned purple.
    “You must cover yourselves up,” said Isabella, pulling her
shawl around her.
    Livia stuck out her chin. “I like having bare arms.” She
held her