Free By Eastern windows by Gretta Curran Browne

addressed her.
    ‘Of course, Jane, I do realise this behaviour of yours is all due to your inexperience in society, but it has to stop.’
    Jane finally looked at him.  
    ‘Most afternoons you go out walking , is that not so?’
    ‘Yes, I do.’
    Morley pulled the linen napkin from his neck, threw it on the table, and sat back in his chair. ‘The position of white women here in India is very different to Antigua,’ he said gravely. ‘In British Bombay it is not considered decorous or decent for a young woman to go out walking alone.’
    Jane looked surprised. ‘But, James, I am never alone   – I am always accompanied and chaperoned by my Ayah? ’
    ‘Not good enough.’ James flicked his hand dismissively. ‘These promenades of yours have to stop.   I forbid you to go out walking unless you are accompanied by your sister; and even then, I insist that one of the male servants accompany both of you.’
    Jane flushed, as though he had struck her in the face. ‘But you cannot forbid … I have a right …’
    ‘You have no rights!   Until you are twenty-one or you marry, you are my ward. And as my ward you shall follow my rules and my advice. And do not for a moment consider refusing – because a refusal is something I will not accept. Is that understood?’
    Jane glanced at Maria who quickly averted her eyes, her face as flushed as Jane’s, her head lowered over her plate.
    ‘Is that understood? James repeated.
    After a long stillness, Jane finally spoke, the word coming with a desperate effort through her stiff lips. ‘Yes.’
    Standing up quickly, she left the room and the house, losing herself in the shaded areas of the garden until the tears finally came, relieving her rage.

FOUR
     
    Two months later, in the month of May, General Sir Robert Abercrombie decided to host another grand event at Government House. Sir Robert had declared that in his opinion, during a time of peace, it was very important for the British Military to show the British civilians in Bombay some sociability
    ‘Not my opinion at all,’ Sir Robert confessed to Colonel Balfour. `An order from the Commander-in-Chief, Lord Cornwallis.’
    ‘That dear old duck,’ Balfour said amiably. `He was just the same in America, constantly hosting social events for those of the American gentry who remained loyal to the British crown. Now I hear that he is constantly dining in the company of maharajas over there in Bengal.’
    ‘Yes, well I have a few maharajas on my own guest list,’ Abercrombie confided. ‘It’s time to build a few bridges after that business in Mysore, don’t you think?’
    ‘Oh, I do,’ Balfour agreed. ‘And if we can’t build new bridges we can at least try to mend those that are damaged. Don’t worry, Sir Robert, the night will be a sparkling success for everyone. I shall see to all the arrangements myself, just as you ask.’
     
    *
     
    On the night, Captain Macquarie was once again on duty, but this time, under the watchful eye of Colonel Balfour, he did not take time out to dance.
    In fact, James Morley hardly saw the captain at all, and as the night wore on he was very pleased to see Jane continually dancing with a very eligible civil servant who had made enough money in India to buy half of London if he ever decided to return there.
    A very good potential marriage prospect indeed.
    True, the civil servant was a lot older than Jane, a widower in his early fifties, but a woman could not have everything. After all, he himself had been a forty-eight-year-old widower when he had married Maria three years ago, and she only twenty-one. But he knew that he would never have won Maria without the wealth he had made in India. Maria's father had accepted his proposal solely on the condition that he would keep her in the rich and comfortable lifestyle to which she was accustomed. And so far, in his opinion, their marriage was working perfectly well.
    But where was Maria now?
    In the supper-room James Morley stood waiting