Her Only Desire by Gaelen Foley

Picks a fight where none is warranted, for reasons known only to himself? Is it fair for him to prevail on all of you to come to his rescue, when he alone has acted irresponsibly?”
    Halting at one end of the space, he pivoted and looked at the whole court matter-of-factly. “Are your people to suffer the privations of war, your soldiers to bleed, all for the vain delusions of your great ally, Baji Rao?”
    â€œDelusions?” The crown prince leaped to his feet. “How dare you speak of my uncle with such disrespect, you English—”
    â€œSit down!” Johar barked at his son. The king fairly rolled his eyes with impatience at his son’s impassioned outburst. “We crave your patience with our son, Lord Griffith. He has much to learn of state-craft.”
    Ian bowed, far from ruffled, in truth, hiding a smile of worldly amusement. Through diplomatic eyes, such temper was a sign of weakness.
    Prince Shahu clamped his mouth shut and obeyed his father with a simmering look. His long, gold earrings flashing, he swept his garish robe around him and prowled back to his seat in his curl-toed shoes, the Oriental version of a London dandy.
    â€œPerhaps His Highness wishes me to specify the exact nature of our dispute with Baji Rao,” Ian offered with frosty aplomb.
    â€œIndeed!” the young man snapped.
    â€œI shall be happy to explain.” He walked back to the long table, where Derek Knight handed him the map. “Hiding themselves in the mountains of your kinsman’s territory, a colony of criminals has taken root. They are known as the Pindari Horde, and a greater trash heap of human riffraff was never assembled. Murderers, rapists, thieves. Each year, the Pindari come thundering down from their mountain strongholds to carry out raids on the surrounding lands, burning whatever they cannot steal. Last year alone, they destroyed four hundred villages, British and Hindu alike. This map records the path they took. The villages marked with the X’s no longer exist.”
    Unrolling the map, he carried it to the pair of thrones.
    â€œWhen their plundering urges have been satisfied, the Pindari simply ride back up into their mountain hideaways—until the next raid. Our intelligence officers report that in this easy and comfortable existence the outlaws enjoy inside the safe haven that Baji Rao has granted them, their numbers have swelled to fifty…thousand strong.”
    A shocked murmur rippled through the durbar hall at hearing the enormous number.
    â€œThirty thousand cavalry, twenty thousand foot—and they continue to acquire heavy artillery. Sounds like an army, doesn’t it? An army of barbarians, who are not beholden to any code of conduct, and respect no rules of war. Your Majesty, Your Highness, gentlemen of the court, by all that is honorable, this cannot be allowed to continue.”
    When nods and vague murmurs signaled that everyone seemed to be with him so far, Ian clasped his hands behind his back and forged on. “Governor Lord Hastings has repeatedly asked Baji Rao to gather his army and hunt these killers in their mountain hideaways until the problem is eradicated. But he will not. For reasons known only to himself, your fellow king has chosen to protect these outlaws—one cannot help but wonder why. Does Baji Rao fear the Pindari too much to move against them? Or does he perhaps find them…useful?”
    The sinister possibility hung upon the silence.
    Ian shrugged. “It is not given to us to see inside another’s mind. All we can know for certain is our own, and our view of the matter is clear. If your kinsman refuses to stop the Pindari—to stamp out this evil—then the British will.”
    â€œBut Baji Rao will not permit your troops to cross his borders in pursuit of the Pindari,” the maharajah spoke up.
    â€œYes, Your Majesty. You are quite right. Baji Rao has proclaimed that if even one British