"What's that?"

"The eighty-eight positions of pleasure."

"Heathen debauchery." Ian was silent a moment before he was unable to restrain his curiosity. "How many did you try?"

Ruel chuckled. "Six. What else could you expect when I paid the lady only two visits?" His smile faded as his gaze went back to the house. "I wonder how well versed our Miss Barnaby is in the joys of Kama Sutra. It seems you were wrong about her."

"Not necessarily. Perhaps this is where Kartauk is hiding."

"Perhaps." Ruel smiled. "But not likely."

"Why not?"

"Abdar knew she came here, and I doubt if he would have neglected to search the place. No, it's more reasonable she's missing her lover, needed an outlet for her appetites, and chose to make herself available. Zabrie told me a few of the so-called prim and proper wives of the officers of the fort come here on occasion. She furnishes them with fanciful masks and a dimly lit room, and a diverting time is had by all." He kept his tone deliberately light to cover the chaotic mixture of outrage, satisfaction, and disappointment he was experiencing as he thought about Jane Barnaby lying naked in one of those dusky rooms. Satisfaction that he had been right and she was fair prey, outrage somehow connected with the sense of possession he had been fighting. As for the disappointment . . . Enough of this soul-searching, he thought impatiently. He started across the street.

"Where are you going?"

"Why, to offer my services." He smiled recklessly over his shoulder. "I'm tired of watching and waiting. It's time I took a more personal interest in the lady."

"You're going to ask Zabrie to send her to you?"

"Not by name. It's not necessary. I doubt if there will be more than one white woman at Zabrie's tonight."

"Wait. I'll go with you."

"And sacrifice your chastity for my benefit?" Ruel asked mockingly. "I wouldn't even consider it. Maggie would never forgive me."

"Margaret," Ian corrected him. "And I have no intention of indulging my carnal urges."

"I was joking." Ruel gazed at his brother curiously. "You've been affianced to her since she was a lass of sixteen. You're saying you're still faithful to her after all these years of waiting?"

"Of course."

"There's no 'of course' about it. I'm not sure you weren't destined for the priesthood." He smiled. "And a priest would stick out at Zabrie's like the proverbial sore thumb. Stay here and wait for me."

"You are not welcome here." Zabrie scowled at Jane across the room. "You have brought me too much trouble."

"I've also given you a substantial amount of rupees to lighten those troubles."

"True." Zabrie's scowl vanished as she turned back to look at herself in the mirror of her vanity. "And it pleases me to make things difficult for His Highness. I suppose you may sit down while I prepare myself for the evening."

Jane sat down on the satin-cushioned divan. "Has Abdar been back since he searched the house?"

Zabrie shook her head. "I told him you came only to make yourself available to my clients." She smiled slyly. "I said it was the only way you could enjoy yourself without exposing yourself to shame. Was that not clever of me?"

"Very clever." Jane came across the room and seated herself in the chair beside the table. "We must talk."

"Li Sung?" Zabrie straightened warily. "He has complained?"

"No, on the contrary, he visits you too often."

"Because I am very, very good." Zabrie smiled complacently as she dipped her brush into the pot of kohl on the vanity. "After all, is that not why you came to me?"

"Tell him you can't see him so often. It's dangerous for him to come here now."

"Very well." She carefully drew a line around her left eye. "The fee will be the same, however."

Jane nodded. "I didn't expect anything else, but make up a good excuse. I won't have him hurt."

Zabrie drew a line around the other eye. "He thinks he is a fine lover. He wouldn't believe anything else now." She looked up with a satisfied smile. "I have done well with him. Is that all?"

Jane shook her head. "Kartauk."

Zabrie's smile faded. "It's too dangerous."

"You said Pachtal and His Highness hadn't been back."

"That does not mean I am not watched." Zabrie painted her lips vermilion. "You will have to think of another way of getting him out of Kasanpore. I will not risk bringing His Highness's anger down on my head."

"I thought you enjoyed the thought of foiling Abdar."

"On a small scale. But he gains more power every day and it will soon be too dangerous to displease His Highness."

"It's not a danger if—"

"I beg pardon to interrupt." The same doe-eyed young girl who had brought Jane to Zabrie's chamber stood in the doorway. "But there is a man here, Zabrie. You said—"

"I'm busy, Lenar. Give him another woman."

"But you told me to tell you when he came back."

Zabrie turned quickly to look at the girl. "It's the Scot?"

The girl nodded. "He says he's in the mood for something different. He wants a white woman. . . ."

"Oh, does he?" A tiny smile touched Zabrie's lips. "I believe I might have to change his mind." She nodded to a door across the dressing room. "Take him to the chamber next door and get him settled. Tell him I'll be with him in a few moments." As the girl left the room she turned to Jane. "You'll have to leave. I have a customer."

"I'm also a customer. Let him wait."

Zabrie smiled as she picked up her silver-backed brush and began to run it through her long dark hair. "But I don't want him to wait. He is ... unusual. A challenge. I've never before met a Westerner who had the knowledge and experience to dominate me. At times I was not sure whether I was really in control."

"You have British blood, that makes you half a Westerner yourself."

Zabrie's vermilion lips thinned. "The British officers who come here to use me would not agree. They see only an alien with dark skin that excites them and they condescend to try me." She stood up and straightened the flowing saffron-colored drapings of her gown. "And once they've had me, I have them."

"You hate them?"

"I do not like them any more than I like my own people who consider me untouchable because of my mongrel birth. However, it does not matter. Soon I will be so rich I will not need either of them." Zabrie smiled mockingly at Jane in the mirror. "We are both outcasts in our fashion, are we not? You come here in your men's clothes, sometimes so weary you can scarcely stand. There is a simpler life than the one you lead. Why not give up that foolish railroad and come here and let me show you where the easy riches lie?"

Jane shook her head.

"You should do well enough." Zabrie regarded her critically. "You're young and not unattractive. Sometimes the British tire of the exotic and wish to indulge themselves with one of their own race."

"Like your Scot?"

She frowned. "He meant only to tease me. He would be disappointed if I sent someone else." She stood up, her henna-tinted fingers smoothing the sheer material veiling her breasts. "What do you say?"