He nodded.
‘What a clever chap you are, Sandilands! You gallantly shoot dead a pair of man-eating tigers but a pair of hunting humans is too much for your capabilities? You sent the boy out. . no, you staked him out like a goat and they tore him to pieces almost under your nose!’
‘That’s unfair, Lizzie!’ said Edgar. ‘Calm down, for goodness’ sake!’
She made a visible effort to rein in her anger and, with a return to her usual cool tone, commented, ‘And Lois? What are we to think of her? She too a victim of two selfish people’s unthinking rush towards power? Poor, poor Lois! And tell me now what you propose to do with your information?’
‘I shall, of course, make Sir George aware of our suspicions and he will no doubt deal with Vyvyan in a discreet way. As for Shubhada, she is the mother of the future Prince of Ranipur and, as you know, the treaty we have — ’
‘Shut up, Joe!’ said Lizzie. ‘Edgar, pour us a whisky and let’s think about this.’
‘In all this excitement, I hope you haven’t lost sight of the two previous deaths of heirs to the throne?’ said Lizzie. ‘Are we to suppose that Claude with or without the help of 3HH has been cutting a swathe through the royal family to achieve his ends? Three killings? Each one exposing him a little further? How dangerous! How mad! It’s hard to believe. And he’s such a charming man.’
‘No, as a matter of fact, I don’t believe Claude had anything to do with the first two murders. I think he and Shubhada saw the advantage they created for them, reducing the obstacles between them and the regency to one vulnerable but threatening young boy. They seriously thought they could pass the murder off as a further arranged misadventure, one of a series. I’m sure we were all meant to think that Zalim Singh was behind the clearing away of contenders for the throne, using his agent, Ajit Singh. If anyone enquired, he would discount any involvement by Claude because he truly was remote from the first two. It’s always misleading to assume that killings that occur in the same place or within a framework of time have necessarily been committed by the same man. No, I think Claude used the opportunity offered by the first and second deaths and hoped that if anything went wrong everyone would jump to the conclusion that another domino had fallen over — pushed by the same finger.’
‘Very well,’ said Edgar, ‘but have you stopped to think why he bothered? Risking his career, his reputation, his neck, for goodness’ sake. .’
‘For what?’ said Joe crisply. ‘For the key to a fortune? For the inside of the bend to high office? For the love of a beautiful and powerful woman? No, hardly worth the effort, you’d say.’
‘Just doing what colonial powers have always done,’ said Lizzie thoughtfully. ‘Every provincial Roman governor expected to make three fortunes out of his stint abroad: one for Rome, one for himself in retirement and one to pay off the judges back home when he was charged with malpractice. I wonder how soon Claude was contemplating retiring? Tell me, Joe, is he still free to come and go about the palace? Or is he under restraint?’
Edgar and Joe exchanged a look. ‘Free as the breeze for all we know,’ said Edgar. ‘Apart from ourselves, you’re the only one who’s aware, Lizzie. Even Udai has not been told. He thinks Bahadur was killed by a tiger.’
‘And if, as you say, Claude has nothing more on his conscience than the death of Bahadur, who did kill Bishan and Prithvi then? Are you just showing off or have you really worked it out?’
‘I’ve worked something out,’ said Joe. ‘Something in which Ajit Singh appears to concur if the ruler is to be believed. But I have yet to push the murderer into revealing himself. . or herself. I may be wrong. I’ve been wrong once already. It had occurred to me that. . sorry, Edgar, this will offend you, I know. . I had thought that the sons had been removed to make way for Bahadur. Removed for the well-being and security of the princedom by their father.’
When Edgar’s explosions of dismay and disgust had rolled away, Joe patiently explained his reasoning. Lizzie nodded several times.
‘Edgar, do be quiet!’ she said, finally. ‘Joe, are you sure you’re not right? It sounds very convincing to me. We all know — even Edgar knows — that the good of the state was Udai’s main concern. He would have put it first every time. And to be honest, I wasn’t in the least bit sorry when Bishan died. We all heaved a sigh of relief.’
‘But Prithvi was different. He would have been acceptable had not one vital flaw ruled him out as far as Udai was concerned, and that was his obdurate refusal to marry a second wife,’ said Joe. ‘But then Sir George tore the most almighty hole in my neat theory this morning when he told us that the British Government had been given news of the forthcoming marriage between Prithvi and a Rajput princess. Very hush-hush and before it was made public Prithvi had died.’
Lizzie’s eyes were growing rounder by the second. ‘How extraordinary! No one here knew of that!’
‘I think at least one other person must have known. The main player so to speak. Madeleine. And if she knew, she’d have told Stuart. They would both have seen it as a betrayal. I think everything changed for Madeleine when the older son died. Her husband was certainly in line to be named Yuvaraj. He was growing ever closer to his father and they saw the economic future of Ranipur with the same eyes. You yourself wondered, Lizzie, why the ruler was delaying naming his heir. Could it have been that he was very prepared to ink in the name of Prithvi but with the proviso that he agreed to marry a princess of Mewar?’
‘Yes, I think so. And if your account of the dealings on the stock market is accurate, it would have made better sense for Prithvi to have succeeded. Bahadur was talented. .’ Her voice wavered for a moment then she recovered her balance and went on, ‘but he would not have understood those dealings. Like his mother, he placed great store by wealth you can hold in your hand. He had, in fact, a very traditional approach to life. All those years in the zenana. .There would have been a period of turmoil at the worst possible moment for the state. Zalim Singh would have been hard pressed to keep the ship of state on an even keel, I think. Poor Madeleine! She was battling the family, the court, the whole Ranipur way of life.’
‘And she was fighting for her own chosen style of life. She had anticipated glittering tours of European capitals on the arm of her rich and handsome young prince but had discovered that she could expect no more than a life in a city she hated, the unwanted foreigner who was proving an obstacle to his succession. And if she learned that a second, royal Indian princess was to become his wife she saw a bleak future living with people who resented her and a husband whose affections she must have begun to doubt.’
‘You’re saying that Madeleine sawed through the elevator cable?’ said Edgar in astonishment. ‘Well, I have to say — nothing that girl did would surprise me but. . but. . well, we both saw her reaction when she pulled the flying helmet off the dying pilot and saw it was her husband. Could anyone feign such shock?’
‘If anyone could, Madeleine could. She’s rather good at feigning.’ Joe cleared his throat and forced himself to continue. He wasn’t finding his theorizing easy. ‘But I agree with you, Edgar. She didn’t know Prithvi was about to die.’
In the silence that followed, Lizzie stirred uncomfortably then said, ‘Stuart did. Her brother did. He would have done anything for Madeleine. If he knew that her role in Prithvi’s life was going to be diminished and thereby his own, incidentally, I think he would have taken it upon himself to think and act on her behalf. Cut and run. And after all — who better placed? He could saw through the wires at any time that suited him. Perhaps Ali the fitter became aware and had to be got rid of? And who but Stuart would be able convincingly to send Prithvi up in his stead? We only have Stuart’s assertion that he was supposed to be the pilot — Prithvi could all along have expected to go up.’