Her Only Desire Read Free Page B

misery. “My life is over. It’s forbidden that I should ever remarry. All my childhood happiness came to an end the day of my wedding, and it will not return, so I might as well be dead.”
    â€œYou don’t know that. No one knows the future. My dear, you mustn’t give up.” Georgie hugged her for a moment, with angry tears in her eyes. “Look,” she resumed in as soothing a tone as possible, “don’t try to think about the whole rest of your life right now. Just think about this moment, and the next.”
    Georgie coughed a little from the smoke, but willed away the pain that flared up in her chest and ignored the fear as the smoke began snaking through her lungs, agitating her old ailment.
    â€œThink of all the reasons left to live,” she continued, “all the fun we have. Throwing powder paints on people at the Holi festival? Playing pranks on Adley? If you die, who will finish teaching me the Odissi dances? If you die, oh, my dearest, you can never dance again.”
    Lakshmi let out a strangled sob, barely audible above the fire’s roar.
    â€œNow, you listen to me,” Georgie ordered softly. “You won’t be a burden on your family, because—” A painful spasm in her lungs halted her words all of a sudden. She clutched her chest, alarmed. She hadn’t felt that harsh constriction in her lungs since she was a child. It was worsening. She cleared her throat but it was no use; she had begun to wheeze.
    â€œWhat’s wrong?” Lakshmi searched her face.
    â€œNothing,” she lied impatiently, determined to save her friend or die trying. “You won’t be a burden on your family,” she repeated, refusing to yield to panic, “because you will come and live at
my
house. Papa won’t mind. He’s never home anyway, and as for my brothers, well, Gabriel and Derek will never forgive you if you go through with this—and they’ll never forgive
me
if I fail to stop you.”
    When she coughed again and then muttered a curse, Lakshmi realized for certain what was wrong. “It’s your asthma, isn’t it?”
    â€œDon’t worry about me!” Georgie retorted, but concern for her was now rousing Lakshmi out of her trance of despair.
    â€œGigi, you can hardly breathe,” she insisted, using her childhood nickname. “You have to get away from this fire!”
    Georgie fixed her with a meaningful stare. “So do you,” she replied in an urgent whisper. “Be brave, my dear. Be brave enough to stand up to them, and
live.
”
    â€œMiss Knight, you must let her go now,” Lakshmi’s father interrupted. “It is time. Hurry, Lakshmi, while the fire is still hot enough.”
    A shower of sparks popped violently and flew toward Lakshmi in a plume, as though old Balaram himself were reaching out from the depths of the fire, trying to grab the poor girl and drag her down with him to her doom. Lakshmi glanced from her sire back to Georgie, sudden panic in her eyes. “Help me,” she whispered.
    â€œPut more wood on the fire!” one of the kinsmen ordered a nearby servant.
    Georgie’s heart pounded. “Of course I will. That’s why I’m here. Come. Link arms with me. Let’s get you out of here.”
Before your relatives make you go through with it whether you want to or not.
Pressuring her to the brink of this ritual suicide was one thing, but would they resort to murder, throwing her into the fire against her will?
    She glanced around warily, knowing this danger was certainly possible. “Everything’s going to be all right, I promise. Come, now. Let’s go.” Holding onto her friend protectively, Georgie drew her away from the inferno.
    At once, the dead man’s relatives sent up a clamor of protest all around them, yelling at the girls; in an instant, they were surrounded by a sea of angry brown faces.
    A few seized the