Page 72

He turns to face my window. I can’t see his features. Nor can he see mine.

“What should I do with the flock? They’ve grazed the area I was paid to clear. They were very hungry!” His laugh is high and shaky.

“I’ll pay you to keep them for a few more days. Are there other places they can graze?”

“Theek hai,”he says.“I will take them farther north.” When he turns to go, I remember I still have his shears.

I call out: “Wait!”

I run upstairs to get them, taking another moment to pick up a few coins from my week’s pay. When I get back to the drawing room, it’s quiet. Madho Singh is back in his cage, mumbling. But where is Rekha?

Then I see the open front door, and I hurry out to the veranda. Rekha’s there, talking to the shepherd.

“Why do sheep have tails?” she asks him.

I pull her back behind me. “Silly girl!” I say. I return the shepherd’s shears to him and put the coins in his hand.

He looks confused by the panic that’s so apparent in my voice and my expression. He drops the coins into his vest pocket and turns to go but then he stops and turns around.

“Behenji,”he says, “earlier today, when I was moving the sheep, a man came up to me and asked if they were mine.”

My heart, again, begins to race. Rekha starts to squirm before I realize I’ve dug my fingers into her shoulders. I make an effort to relax them.

“What did you tell him?”

The old man lifts his chin and draws himself up to his full height. “What business is it of his?” he says. “That’swhat I told him!”

He grins, and the moonlight glows on the few teeth he still has left.

I nod. “How didyouknow where to find me?”

He scratches the back of his neck. “Word gets around,” he says.

Then he steps off the veranda and disappears into the darkness.

I close the door and lock it. I pick Rekha up and hug her tightly. “What have I told you? You mustn’t open the door for anybody. Not even old men.”

“I know, Maa, but Madho Singh likes him.”

“Madho Singh doesn’t even know him!”

I feel Rekha’s steady heartbeat, as I’m sure that she feels mine. When I was with my tribe, I never felt unsafe, the way I’m feeling now. If a shepherd can find me so easily, how long will it be before the smugglers find me, too?

An hour later, I’m huddled with the children on the drawing room sofa. They’re both asleep when I hear Dr. Kumar’s car in the driveway. I open the front door and go out on the veranda to wait for him. When he sees me, he rushes over.

“Kya ho gya?” he asks me. He ushers me inside the house and locks the door.

“It’s just that... I don’t think we’re safe here, either.” I tell him what the shepherd told me, how he’d found me. “Ifhefound me here, then other people can find us.”

“Did he threaten you?”

“No. Nothing like that. I want to take the children somewhere, but, unless we’re with my tribe, we won’t be safe. Not even in the mountains. Now that people know I live here with you...” I realize I’m wiping my sweaty palms against my skirt again and try to still them.

He sits down in his armchair, opens his briefcase and takes out a notebook. After he’s turned a few pages, he picks up the phone and dials. It’s ten o’clock at night. Who could he be calling so late?

A minute later, he hangs up.

“Collect your things,” he says. “We’re going to move you tomorrow morning to a place where it will be difficult for anyone to find you or the children. Outside the city.”