Page 37 of In Just a Year
Ben pushed some blade-like palm leaves aside and looked up to where several macaques hopped from trunk to trunk. On the ledge of the palace, two monkeys were picking something off each other. The larger one ate what he took from the smaller one.
“That’s Jaya and her daughter Chota,” Vati explained.
“You know the monkeys by name?”
She smiled warmly and ducked when a palm branch whisked over her head and into Ben’s face.
Vati laughed. “You should have seen that coming.”
Flop!A large monkey landed on her shoulder as if it were his usual abode.
“Anand!” Vati reached up and stroked his head.
“You speak to the monkeys?” Ben asked when they reached a little pond where the palms weren’t as dense. He squatted to avoid the sharp leaves.
“I never leave the palace. They’re my only friends.” Her light tone clashed with the heavy tenor of her missive. “At least they’re the only ones my parents don’t pay for their friendship.”
“Never? Are you captive?”
She chuckled. “No, I’m eighteen and was raised to become the Nawab of Awadh’s wife. He’s still Shah, so I’m waiting to assume my post. Ghazi-ud-Din Haidar will send for me when he’s ready.”
Something moved under the lid and Ben reached for the basket. She handed it over without a word.
Ben was surprised but knew better than to question the customs of other cultures. From the outside, many rules seemed unjust, but he’d learned to take in the big picture before commenting on the smaller injustices of life. The girl before him was spirited and careless, seemingly oblivious to the freedoms enjoyed by the girls in England.
Or did they? The debutantes among the Ton were sent to Almack’s on the marriage mart, while theshadchansusually found matches for the well-off Jewish girls. Matchmakers existed in every corner of the world. It didn’t seem that different, except that Vati had always known who her husband would be. There were worse things than to be the next queen of sorts.
“So you’re a princess?” Ben asked.
“We don’t have this title, but yes.” She grinned, then she twirled and lifted Anand, the large monkey, from her shoulders and positioned him as if he were a man dancing with her. “And these are my subjects.” There was truth in her joke, for what could a princess accomplish if her only role in life was to wait to be wed? Her title was a name but she wielded no power since that was reserved for men.
Ben laughed at her dry humor. The basket’s lid budged, so he lifted it off and two tiny monkey faces stared at him with fear and curiosity.
“What shall we do with you?” Vati reached into the basket and lifted the baby monkeys out. She inserted her little finger into the mouth of the bigger one. “You need milk, you don’t even have any teeth yet.”
“Where’s their mother?”
“I don’t know where hers is.” Vati stroked the head of the bigger one. “I found her in a pit nibbling on a cabbage. Sometimes stray dogs nurse the orphaned monkeys, or vice versa.” Vati swallowed. “This one was different. I heard his screams.”
“Where?” Ben’s heart broke for the little creatures, orphaned and famished.
“In the back of the stables. He was clutching his mother’s head and mourning her. Flies were all over her body, so she’d been dead for a while. Those poachers—”
“She was shot and the baby saw it? Within the palace grounds?” Greg’s warnings to keep Ben safe resonated in his memory.
“I don’t know what he saw and I didn’t understand what he screamed, but how he screamed made my skin curl.” Vati shuddered.
Ben felt for the baby monkeys. The brutality of huntsmen was one of those universal human truths no matter where he was in the world.
“He needs to be fed every four hours like a human baby. I can’t do it because I’m not allowed to sleep alone. The servants and my mother are in the next room—”
“I understand. They’re guarding your virtue.”
Vati’s eyes met Ben for the first time and she gave him a piercing look.
Ben took the little monkey in his arms. The sun illuminated the animal’s ears from behind and made them glow orange as he snuggled against Ben and stretched his spine. He yawned almost like a human baby and grasped Ben’s thumb.
“You need a name little one,” Ben whispered as he stroked the monkey’s head. “How about Amberley?”
