Read Online A Duke's Wicked Kiss (Entangled Select) by Kathleen Bittner Roth - Free Book Online

issued Bibles when they are not Christians but Hindus and Muslims? How queer is that?”
    He nodded. “And what your sister holds is a cartridge to a military rifle greased with both lard and tallow.”
    Puzzlement swept over Marguerite’s face. Suri figured she carried the same expression. “And the knife?”
    Ravenswood slid it over for her inspection. “It belongs to someone close to Bahadar Shah, the Mughal emperor. Who, by the way, has not taken kindly to the East India Company’s control in his country, nor the ensuing loss of lands to peasant farmers. Therefore, we suspect he is instigating an overthrow.”
    “The Bible and cartridge?” Suri asked.
    “You’re right about Indians being primarily Hindu and Muslim,” Ravenswood said. “The sepoys are being told the East India Company has masterminded a plot to convert them to Christianity. As for the cartridge, it’s made of paper and must be greased, and the end bitten in order for it to fire. The sepoys have been wrongly informed that what greases the cartridge is either lard—the Muslims do not eat pigs—or tallow, and the Hindus revere the cow. They believe the British are demeaning them and their religions by trying to force them to bite the bullet. To bite the bullet to them means to lose caste.”
    “Is none of this true?” Marguerite asked.
    All three men shook their heads.
    Ravenswood glanced at Marguerite. “Unfortunately, the cartridge you hold actually is greased with both tallow and lard. Someone’s infiltrating these incriminating bullets into the armories.”
    Suri flipped through the pages of the Bible. “How did this come about?”
    Ravenswood shrugged. “A certain misguided officer’s wife had every intention of trying to convert the sepoys. The Bible translated into Urdu was her doing. We stopped her from passing out more than a few, but someone stole the entire shipment and is delivering them to the sepoys along with an insert implying mandatory reading.”
    Marguerite leaned forward. “Why don’t the generals, or whoever is in charge, institute some kind of policy that would allow the sepoys their various religious practices? And why not let the sepoys grease their own cartridges with whatever they choose—such as ghee.”
    “We’ve tried that,” Ravenswood responded. “They’ve been allowed so much freedom of their own religious practices that if they think they’ve been slighted in any way, they sit down on the job. As for greasing their own cartridges, we instituted that as well. Now they believe the rumor must have been true in the first place.”
    He ran his hand through his hair in frustration. “We’re back to greasing our own cartridges—with beeswax—but the sepoys won’t believe it.”
    Suri turned and studied his profile. He was all formidable strength, and her confusing emotions regarding him irritated her. He keeps saying “we.” Who is Ravenswood?
    Harry piped in. “The worst of it is, a sepoy by the name of Mangal Panday went berserk last March and wounded two British officers down in Meerut. He was hanged for treason last week. Already, he is being hailed as a hero. Hence, we now expect some kind of reprisal.”
    “What does this have to do with my sister and me?” Marguerite asked.
    It was Harry who spoke. “We would like you to leave, Marguerite. Take Suri and our son and go back to England while you can.”
    Marguerite’s face turned the color of the marble wall behind her. She stared at her husband, the cartridge still in her hand. “And leave you behind? Harry, no. I shall not. Why, this is pure speculation. The army is strong, it can—”
    “Darling, there are forty thousand British officers with over two hundred thousand sepoys serving under them. Where do you think those kind of odds would get us should a mutiny occur?”
    Suri sat back in her chair as if she’d been punched. “When do you expect us to depart?” The thought of leaving before she met her grandparents stunned her.