Free Monsoon Mists by Christina Courtenay

Highness. Perhaps a search of his quarters will put your mind at ease?’ And it would annoy Dev even more, furthering the rift between the brothers.
    ‘You may be right, although if he has taken it, I doubt he’d be stupid enough to conceal it there.’
    ‘I was thinking more along the lines of finding a promissory note, Highness. If he has exchanged it for temporary funds, that is.’
    ‘Ah, yes, of course. Very well, I’ll order a search.’
    Bijal knew the Rajah’s men wouldn’t find anything and the whole exercise would leave him even more frustrated, as well as at odds with his brother. But he must remain firm of purpose, he told himself. He had no sympathy for this man. None. He was scum, as was his father before him.
    When the time was right, the whole world would find out the truth, but not until all the omens were auspicious.
    Zar rushed to catch up with William, but her mind was elsewhere. She was sure she’d seen Mr Kinross flip the little thief a coin before letting him go and she could only reach one conclusion – he’d bribed someone to steal from her so that he could appear in the guise of rescuing hero. But why?
    They had already established that neither of them was interested in marriage. So he had no need to impress her, unless he’d been serious about wanting her in his bed? She drew in a hasty breath and almost choked on it as she inhaled a goodly amount of the ever present dust from the streets.
    ‘Are you all right?’ William stopped briefly to check on her when he heard her coughing.
    ‘Yes, fine. Dust … everywhere.’
    ‘You should have brought a handkerchief.’
    Gallant as always, Zar thought sarcastically. Mr Kinross on the other hand … But Zar didn’t utter the words. She knew there was no point arguing with William. He’d never learned manners and it was probably too late to try to instil any in him now.
    Her thoughts returned to her supposed saviour. Except, he was probably no such thing.But he had been even more devastatingly handsome in daylight, his silvery eyes disturbing her equilibrium. She’d noticed he had eyelashes so dark it looked almost as though he’d used kohl to rim his eyes, the way Zar herself sometimes did. But he had no need of such artifice, his features were perfect without. His angular face, with its proud nose and sharp cheekbones, was deeply tanned, which made Zar realise he must have been in India or the Far East for quite some time. And she’d admired the rich colour of his hair – light brown, but glinting with both gold and copper highlights in the sunshine.
    She shook her head. What was the matter with her? He was after something and falling under his spell wouldn’t help her.
    But what did he want?
    She was afraid she knew the answer, but what scared her even more was that she wasn’t as appalled at the thought as she ought to have been.
    William cast a look over his shoulder at his stepmother, who was dawdling with a faraway expression. Stepmother? He almost laughed out loud, except it wasn’t funny. It was plain ludicrous. She was several years younger than him and marrying her had made his father a laughing stock. And him.
    The whim of a senile old man which had cost William half his inheritance. The hurt this had caused was like an ever present canker inside him, growing daily, as was his frustration.
    Damn her.
    Of course he could understand that his father had been lonely after his first wife died. He’d not have begrudged him a new one, but why did he have to choose a girl barely out of the schoolroom? One young enough to be his daughter and much too clever for her own good. William’s position as favoured only child disappeared almost overnight. Instead, he was constantly compared to the newcomer, whose ability to learn things a woman had no business knowing was uncanny. It was unbearable.
    ‘Why do you persist in teaching her?’ he’d asked his father, when the old man crowed over her success while berating his son for his