Free Up in Flames by Geraldine Evans

possible that she had taken a lover.
                  And if such a lover existed, he could be the real reason Rathi Khan had tried to keep the sisters apart. If Chandra had damaged her reputation by some unwise liaison, he wouldn’t want his younger daughter’s chances sullied by the connection. And as to what her family might do to Chandra...
                  ‘And was your sister willing for your father to try to find another husband for her?’
                  ‘No,’ Devdan admitted. ‘But it is possible she would have come round in time. She was aware that otherwise, she might face the rest of her life alone.’ Tautly, he added, ‘Strange she didn’t appreciate that there are worse fates than living alone. Of course, it’s different for a woman, but if I—’ he broke off. But Casey could guess at the rest - if I had gained my freedom from an unwanted partner, I’d count my blessings.
                  Casey could see why Chandra might have been depressed. Poor girl, what a situation to have to face just after losing her husband; even a husband she perhaps hadn’t loved. Devdan Khan seemed angry that his sister had gained a freedom he had envied and hadn’t appreciated it. But if what her brother said was right and there had been no lover, would her admittedly bleak Hobson’s Choice of futures have depressed her enough for her to kill herself and take her baby with her? And in such a way.
                  Then, of course, there was the alternative, that having dishonoured her family, they had helped her and her shame on a speedy journey to the next world.
                  He studied Devdan Khan thoughtfully for a moment, then said, ‘These accusations of Chandra’s in-laws - what did they consist of exactly?’
                  ‘I told you.’
                  ‘Tell me again.’
                  Briefly, Dan Khan’s eyes showed a hunted look. His expression wary, he said, ‘Nothing. Really. That she was undutiful, I suppose. Not a traditional Indian wife. Chandra had opinions and expressed them, that is all.’
                  ‘They didn’t accuse her of taking up with an unsuitable man as your parents feared?’ Casey hadn’t expected an outright admission. Even so, in the circumstances, Dan Khan revealed more than was wise.
                  ‘No. That is,’ he broke off. ‘Chandra was not as demure as her mother-in-law expected. I suppose she could be quite flirtatious, but that was all. If I or my father had thought she was more than that we would naturally remonstrate with her.’
                  Dan Khan wasn’t quite as modern and English in his attitudes as his adopted name and sharp suit indicated. Casey knew that most Asian men, if they caught one of their womenfolk compromising their ‘honour’ would do rather more than remonstrate.
                  Was Dan Khan’s question as to whether his sister might have killed herself sincere or merely designed to throw them off-track? In any case, he had few consoling words to offer him. And after Dan Khan had turned disconsolately away and walked back to the house with his child, Casey climbed in the car and directed Catt to return to the flat in Ainsley Terrace.
                  Casey didn’t mention the expression he had caught on Rani Khan’s face. As, no doubt, Superintendent Brown-Smith would in due course point out, Thomas Catt had a tendency to be woefully politically-incorrect in his suspicions. But even if he hadn’t imagined it Casey was aware that it probably indicated nothing more than the spiteful satisfaction of the plain woman when the more beautiful, loved, one is no longer there, no longer taking the love that was rightfully hers.
                  After Catt had turned the car and headed back to the scene, he remarked, ‘A parent’s loss of a child is