Page 42 of A Shimla Affair
Afreen turned to me, thrilled, and I too had to stop myself from smiling too much in case we gave the game away. We finally packed up and began walking back with Begum Jaan, Eliza having gone off in her carriage.
‘Why do you look so morose, Begum Jaan?’ Afreen asked her, ‘Didn’t make enough profit?’
Begum Jaan barely seemed to have heard us, and was instead staring at Lady Sinclair’s cottage from the outside as if it had personally criticized her handicrafts.
‘The servant girl,’ she muttered.
‘What?’
‘The servant girl!’ Begum Jaan yelled with just a touch of madness, taking me aback.
‘What about her?’
‘She’s the girl! The girl who was abducted before the riots! By the Muslim men!’
I stood still in confusion whereas Afreen seemed to have understood something. She stepped forward and held Begum Jaan by the shoulders, staring at her squarely in the eyes.
‘That cannot be,’ I said, recalling Lord Beeson specifically telling me that the girl had been returned.
‘Are you quite positive it was her?’ Afreen asked.
Begum Jaan looked at both of us and nodded, confusion writ in her eyes.
Afreen looked around for a moment and then grabbed Begum Jaan’s hand. She headed to the other side of the hill, presumably towards the rear of Lady Sinclair’s garden.
‘Afreen! Look here, where are you going?’ I called out to her in alarm but in vain, as Afreen continued to march forward with purpose.
‘We must find out what this girl is doing here. The riots happened because she was abducted, so what is she doing here rolling hashish for the Viceroy’s mistress?’
We hid behind a tree for three quarters of an hour as we waited for Lady Sinclair’s servant girl, to appear at the door, or out in the garden. I was just about to say that we were indulging in a spectacular waste of time when the girl appeared again and, on reflex, Begum Jaan whistled. The girl looked around, confused about where the sound came from. She was about to turn away when Begum Jaan whistled again and gave a short clap.
Now the girl looked towards us, and Begum Jaan peeked out from behind the tree, gesturing at her to come forward. The girl looked around to make sure nobody noticed the exchange and walked to us gingerly, asking us what was wrong. When shewas close enough, Begum Jaan grabbed her arm and pulled her behind the big tree we were hiding behind.
Before the girl could ask any questions, Begum Jaan, to our shock, gave her a rough slap, the sound of which sent my ears ringing. The girl gasped and collapsed on the ground, too stupefied to even look up or move.
‘What are you doing?!’ Afreen whispered furiously, trying to pull Begum Jaan away, but the woman suddenly went wild.
She started slapping whatever parts of the girl that she could access. ‘You witch! Whore! What have you done? You are here while the whole town kills each other in your search! What are you doing here? Tell me!’
The girl started crying. She tried to crawl away and escape, and it took all my strength to make her stay where she was as Afreen tried to hold back Begum Jaan. Afreen finally managed to give Begum Jaan a strong shove, pushing her to the ground. The two of us now stood between Begum Jaan and the girl.
‘Tell us!’ Begum Jaan spat, commanding the girl even from her fallen position. We both sat down as well, and I prayed she would start talking before Lady Sinclair noticed her missing.
‘I didn’t know what was going on,’ the girl said tearfully, ‘I swear on all that I hold dear. I had just gone to the next village with Iqbal.’
‘Who is Iqbal?’ I asked.
‘Not is, was,’ she replied, breaking into a fresh round of tears, drying them with the edge of her sari. ‘We were neighbours, growing up, and he was always like a brother to me. Even though our families tried to stop us, we did everything together, even when his family had to move to the Mohammaden part of town.’
‘Then what happened?’ Begum Jaan asked sharply. I wished she would tone down her meanness, the poor girl was in such distress.
‘My brother told us to go and deliver some post to Kalka, and we were off. When it was time to come back, we heard there were riots going on in Shimla, and for two days we stayed hidden in Kalka. We saw them there too, those men with the torches and swords—how were we to know the riots were happening because of us?! We stayed hidden because we didn’t want to be caught in themaara-maari.All I know is, at some point a bunch of men came and separated us. As soon as they did, I knew something bad was going to happen. I heard Iqbal’s agonizing scream and I knew he was …’
She broke into fresh sobs.
Begum Jaan appeared grim. ‘He was killed.’
‘He died because of me!’ she wept. ‘But I don’t understand what I did, I just took him along to Kalka! Afterwards, they locked me up in a room and, at some point, somebody came and said a servant was needed here. My family says here I will be safe, the Muslims will murder me if they find out I am alive, and that Iqbal died because of me. They even told me not to talk to anyone else, so I shouldn’t be telling you this.’
