Page 58 of The Seaside Homecoming
“Vanita. I married Vanita.”
“Little Vani...?”
“She was two and twenty when we married.”
Armaan stepped clumsily forward. “Are you sure we are speaking of the same person?”
“Yes, if your widowed mother married George Aston.”
Feeling blindly for a chair, Armaan slowly sank into it. A moment later he rose again, clearly agitated. “Where is she? Is she here?”
He started toward the door, but William rose and hurried around the desk to stop him.
“Sadly, no. That is the bad news I warned you about. Vanita died more than a year ago, our newborn baby with her.”
Claire’s stomach twisted at this mention of his double loss.
Meanwhile, Armaan stood there, shock and even anger rippling over his face. He huffed. “And the good news?”
“I hoped it was obvious. My daughter, Mira, is Vanita’s child. Your niece.”
For a long moment, Armaan stared intensely at Mr. Hammond, brows drawn low.
“My niece?”
“Yes. You are her last close relative from Vanita’s side, as far as I know.”
“I can’t believe it,” he breathed. Then he asked, “Vanita died ... in childbirth?”
Mr. Hammond flinched, then looked away from the man’s intense gaze. Instead he stared down at the stacks of paper on his desk. “No. The plague took her and the child both, when we were in Constantinople.”
Armaan flopped back down in the chair and laid his head in his hands. “Poor Vani.”
“Yes,” her husband bleakly replied.
Armaan looked up at him. “And poor you, if you loved her.”
“I did. I love our daughter as well.”
Again, Armaan pressed his hands to his forehead. “I saw Mira on the street. I thought she looked familiar. I felt Irecognizedher. I told myself I was being foolish. It was only my ... aloneness telling me that.”
In silence, Armaan sat there, clearly pondering, then hesaid, “So when you moved to Sidmouth and learned I was here—an astounding coincidence, you must allow—you decided to inform me of our connection?”
Mr. Hammond came and stood beside him, placing a tentative hand on his shoulder. “No, my brother. I came to Sidmouthbecauseyou were here. I had been trying to find you for some time. After Vanita died, I finally received word that you had moved to Sidmouth. I brought Mira here in hopes of finding you.”
“Truly?” Armaan looked up at him, mouth ajar.
“Truly. Imagine my disappointment when I went to Westmount only to be told you were not there. The man who answered the door was not keen to confide your plans to a stranger. He would only tell me that you had left but were expected to eventually return.”
Armaan nodded. “I went to stay with the major’s father for a time. I hope it is not rude to say that living with a new-wed couple can make a single man feel quite ... Well, I think we were all ready for a change. Later, I went to London, a city I had long been curious to see. Do not mistake me, I am fond of the major’s family, yet they are not mine. I lost all my family, to distance, at least, if not death. Or so I thought.”
“You were informed of your mother’s death?”
Armaan nodded. “Vanita sent a letter through the company post. I had joined up to the great displeasure of my extended family and former friends. My mother’s marriage to an Englishman had not endeared us to them either. Vanita and I had been outcasts of a sort even before I chose to serve alongside the British. After our mother died, well ... I did not blame Mr. Aston for leaving India and taking his daughter with him.”
“You knew they were leaving the country?”
“Yes, Vanita wrote again to tell me. She asked to see me one last time, to say good-bye in person. To my shame, I waited too long to act.”
