Page 22 of The Secret Keeper of Jaipur

Jay nods, turns to me. He had explained it all to me earlier, before we left the house to see Nimmi. He showed me the article in the paper; more and more gold being smuggled through the mountains.

Nimmi reaches an arm behind her to pat Chullu, more to comfort herself than him, I think. “The gold moves on the same trails as our tribe. Two years ago, a man—a trafficker—told Dev there was a lot of money to be made if he agreed to help the smugglers, but Dev refused.” She steals a glance at me. “I knew, this morning, when I saw the sheep had not been sheared. See, we always shear the sheep when we arrive here, in the foothills, for the winter. That way we can sell the wool before we make the trek back up the mountains in the spring. The tribes already sheared their sheep and left weeks ago to take their herds north for the summer.”

My husband frowns. “Nimmi, it’s not safe for you to have her here. Someone will come looking for her.” He bites his lip and looks at me, then back at Nimmi. “The smugglers won’t stop until they find what’s theirs.”

“You think I don’t know that?” Nimmi turns away from us and squats in front of the wool blanket on which she has collected the family’s few possessions. “They used to sneak it in their shoes, the lining of their coats—gold ingots the size of those candied lemon slices you make.” She flicks another glance my way. “But now they’re using our sheep. Hiding it under their fleece. And for that, they need a shepherd.” She knots the ends of the cloth together tightly and sets the bundle on a padded quilt laid out on the floor. Then she stands and turns to look at us. “I have to go. I have to find his flock—and him. They’ll kill his family if the gold is not delivered.”

I put a hand on Nimmi’s arm. “Find who?Whosefamily is in danger?”

She turns away, her shoulders tense. I can almost smell her fear. She stares down at the quilt. “My brother. Vinay.”

Now she looks at the sheep quietly munching in the corner. “The markings on her ear. That’s my brother’s flock.”

When she turns to us, I see desperation in her eyes. “I have to find him. The only reason one of his sheep would be running around loose is if Vinay is hurt badly, too. So badly that he can’t move. Or he’s—” She blinks. “His flock must be out there without a shepherd. With all the gold.”

Jay runs a hand through his curls. Then he turns to Nimmi and says, “Could someone else have taken Vinay’s flock?”

My mouth falls open. I hadn’t considered the possibility that bandits might have taken the sheep.

Nimmi’s jaw clenches. “You don’t think that’s occurred to me? My brother has a wife and two sons. If the smugglers think the gold’s been stolen—if it doesn’t get delivered to the people who are waiting for it, they’ll kill everyone in Vinay’s family. They’d kill our entire tribe if they think that one of us knows where the gold is.” She bends down and pulls the knot on her bundle tight.

Baby Chullu senses his mother’s unease. He starts fussing. She reaches an arm over her shoulder to stroke his neck. He quiets down.

I look at Rekha. She’s stopped eating. She looks at her mother, then at the two of us. She senses something’s wrong, but I don’t know how much of what we’re saying she understands.

One of the main reasons I sent Malik to Jaipur was to keep him from falling in with traffickers. Carrying illegal goods tempts many who have heard that there’s good money to be made. I’d worried Malik might try trafficking guns, given that a war was on up north. With his enterprising instincts, he might have thought himself too clever to be caught despite the risks. But gold smuggling hadn’t even been on my radar.

Silently, I offer thanks to Manu and Kanta for agreeing to give Malik a home, away from all these temptations.

Now I squat next to Nimmi. “How would they—the smugglers—find your brother’s home? Your tribe is always on the move.”

“We are until we reach our summer destination. All the families have huts up there. Dev’s and mine is next to Vinay’s, though I wouldn’t be surprised to hear another family has since moved in.” She reaches around her neck to stroke Chullu again. She must be remembering her husband and the life they had together with their tribe.

With renewed fervor, Nimmi begins rolling the bundle on the floor.

“You really plan to leave tonight? And take the sheep?”

Nimmi says nothing.

I look at Rekha, her eyes large, unblinking. “What about the children?”

Nimmi raises an eyebrow. “We’ve always traveled the mountains with our children.”

“And Malik?” I think about the letters I’ll receive from him addressed to her. How much he wants to say to her. How much hedoesn’tsay because he knows I’ll be the one to read it to her.

Her hands hover over the quilt for a second. “He’s not here,” she says. Then she cinches the bedroll with jute.

I look helplessly at Jay, who seems to be as lost as I am about what to do. I know that Nimmi shouldn’t go alone, with her children and the sheep, to find her brother. It’s too dangerous. If any one of them falls ill, is injured or encounters bandits, there’ll be no one there to help.

Now Jay squats beside us. “Wait until the morning, Nimmi. Please. Let us think about this, make a plan together.”

Nimmi flashes her dark eyes at him. “You won’t go to the police?”

He shakes his head. He and I had already talked about this. The police would be inclined to punish and jail a poor shepherd serving as nothing more than a courier. Or they might want the precious metal for themselves and decide Nimmi knows more than she does, in which case, they might threaten her life. When it comes to smuggling contraband goods, it’s hard to know whom to trust—even among the police, who are supposed to control the trafficking.

Nimmi looks at her daughter, who has wandered over to the sheep and is petting the animal’s head. Without meeting our eyes, Nimmi nods.

Jay and I breathe a collective sigh.

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