Free Her Only Desire by Gaelen Foley

great, watery distance. Her heart was pounding in her ears.
    â€œI don’t believe it,” she said faintly. “He’s put me under house arrest!” She straightened up, her mind reeling.
    He had taken additional measures, all right, but not to protect her—to prevent her from following him to Janpur! With that, all of her worst suspicions about his true nature came rushing back.
    â€œThat
snake
!” she cried as a furious flush filled her cheeks. Suddenly animated out of her daze, she rushed off to peer out through various other windows around her house. Sure enough, soldiers from Fort William were stationed at each of the four corners. Lakshmi hurried to keep up with Georgie as she went to check out the back.
    â€œHow dare he? Does he think I’m a child? A pet to be kept in a cage?”
Wedlock is a padlock
—but they weren’t even married!
    â€œDearest, perhaps you had better calm down—”
    â€œCalm down?” Georgie shouted. “I’m not going to stand for this! Who does he think he is? He has no right to confine me here against my will! He’s made me a prisoner in my own home!”
    â€œHe’s put you in purdah,” Lakshmi agreed barely audibly.
    Georgie turned to her, wide-eyed, sobered. “You’re right.”
    Over my dead body.
    Horrid man!
    â€œWhat are we going to do?” Lakshmi asked in distress. “Now we won’t be able to see Meena.”
    â€œOh, yes, we will,” Georgie vowed. “That man has no power over me, and never will.”
    â€œBut how will we escape?”
    â€œWell—I haven’t quite figured that out yet,” she admitted, staring out the window that overlooked her home’s northwest corner. “But don’t worry, Lakshmi. I’ll think of something.”
    Just then, the soldier on duty below strolled into view, glancing right and left as he prowled around patrolling with a dead-serious expression. But as Georgie squinted for a closer study of the clean-shaven face beneath the shadowed brim of his shako, a smile spread across her lips; she recognized him as one of her admirers.
    Tommy Gray.
    Perhaps the young sergeant sensed her gaze, for he glanced up at the window where she stood. Georgie summoned up all her feminine wiles and lifted her hand languidly, wriggling her fingers at Tommy with a coquettish wave.
    He swept off his shako and waved it in a wide arc, back and forth, grinning up at her from ear to ear.
    Sweet boy.
    Fool.
Just like all silly, power-mongering males. What good were they, anyway?
    â€œDon’t you worry, Lakshmi,” she assured her friend, holding her sweet smile as she set her chin on her palm and pretended to admire Tommy from the window. “You think I’m going to let some arrogant marquess stand in my way? I promise you, my father raised me better than that.”
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 
    Late that night, Ameer Firoz Khilji slipped off his shoes and walked with a stealthy, gliding gait into the torch-lit Kali temple. It had rained softly throughout the evening, the lingering remnants of the monsoon leaving the darkness damp and full of whispering secrets.
    Satisfied that the Englishman would remain in his hotel room for the rest of the night, Firoz had taken this fleeting opportunity to come and pay homage to the goddess he revered. With his stare fixed on her towering image at the end of the soaring, shadowed space, he moved deeper into the temple. The animal sacrifices had been over since twilight, but although he had missed the rites, he gave the priest who greeted him a weighty purse full of gold, the proceeds of his labors in her name. Firoz bowed his head as the old man touched his brow and gave him a blessing.
    When the priest left to put his large donation in a safe place, Firoz prostrated himself before the massive idol, down on his knees and bowing low. But he peered upward slowly from below his lashes and searched