He helped us unpack the horses, then several of his men appeared to escort us onto a towering white steamer. None of us had been on a boat, and as soon as we stepped onto the wooden plank, the steamer gave a giant lurch to the side and we were all forced to grab on to the rails.
“We’re going to sail to England in this?” Jhalkari cried.
Although I’m sure Major Wilkes didn’t speak a word of Marathi, he understood what she said, because he laughed. “No. We’ll be sailing to Suez in this. Then we’ll be traveling overland to Alexandria and taking another steamer to England. You’ll go on to London by carriage.”
We boarded the steamer and stood in the largest hall of the passenger ship and stared. From ceiling to floor, the walls were paneled in richly carved wood. Plush carpeting covered the floors, and in one corner, a heavy silver mirror reflected the light of a gilded candelabrum. Upholstered couches were arranged around small inlaid tables, where several English men sat puffing on long cigars. I watched the smoke curl up over their heads and make its way out of the shuttered windows. The shutters were made of teak, and the trays on each of the tables were pure silver. The rani had spent a fortune sending us to England. She saw it as an investment.
Arjun stepped toward one of the windows to get a better view, and Major Wilkes cleared his throat. “I’m sorry,” he said. “This room isn’t for you.”
We all turned.
Major Wilkes glanced at the other men sitting in the room, since they were all watching us now. “This room is only for the British,” he explained. Then he apologized, “I didn’t make the rules.”
“But you will enforce them,” I said.
“There’s nothing I can do.”
Arjun looked at me, and we explained to the others what the major said. Several of the men protested. “If we’re not allowed with the British,” Jhalkari said, “where are we staying?”
Major Wilkes led us through a series of halls to the very back of the ship. Four rooms were to be ours: two for the men, one for Jhalkari and myself, and a fourth one for eating and talking together. They were the most beautiful chambers our group had seen outside of the Panch Mahal. The major let us choose which rooms were to be which, and then we began to unpack.
When Jhalkari shut the door, I said, “It doesn’t seem real. An entire room just for us!”
“I feel like the rani,” she admitted.
We explored everything, from the silver door handles, to the small tidy beds, to the wooden night tables with their mahogany bookends. The beds were on opposite sides of the room, and I chose the one closest to the window. I lay back on the mattress and looked out at the vast expanse of sea. I began to wonder if traveling such a long distance was actually safe. I was about to turn twenty-one years old, and the only thing I knew about ships was that they had a habit of finding themselves in uncharted waters—in English fiction anyway. I glanced at Jhalkari, who was still standing, arms crossed, looking out over the water.
“Do you think travel by boat is safe?” I asked.
“The rani wouldn’t have invested so much money if it wasn’t.”
But what if a great storm swelled up and we were in its midst? Might we be cast on the shores of some unknown land, like Viola in Twelfth Night? Or worse, on some uninhabited island like Miranda in The Tempest? There was a knock on the door, and Arjun appeared with two other guards.
“Would you like to tour the ship?”
We went from bow to stern, and Arjun described the construction of the steamer drawing only on what he had read in the rani’s vast library. When we reached the stern, the five of us watched as the shore faded into the distance. When it was nothing more than a smudge on the horizon, Arjun said, “ ‘No one knows for certain whether the vessel will sink or reach the harbor. Cautious people say, “I’ll do nothing until I can be sure.” Merchants know better. If you do nothing, you lose. Don’t be one of those merchants who won’t risk the ocean.’ ”
Jhalkari wrinkled her nose. “What are you saying?”
“Rumi,” I told her. “We are the merchants now.”
That evening, the twelve of us were told to gather in the common room. We sat around a long wooden table wondering what was going to happen, and when half a dozen waiters appeared with silver trays, Jhalkari and I looked at each other in horror.
“They think we’re going to eat together!” I exclaimed. I rose from my seat to try to find Major Wilkes just as he was coming in the door.
“They think we’re going to eat together,” I told him.
He stared at me and I stared at him, then I realized he didn’t understand. “Women don’t eat in front of men,” I said. “It isn’t done.”
“Ma’am,” he said very politely. “There will be many occasions in England when you’ll be expected to eat together. It’s a custom in England. You could take your food back to your room now,” he suggested. “But I’m afraid there will be times in London when you will either eat with everyone or go hungry.”