Revolutionary Hearts (11 page)

She was sure the steam from the engine and the plow of the wheels against the railroad would have disguised the sound of her steps. Yet Warren didn’t need to turn around before he said, “Have you accepted?”

Parineeta folded her arms over her chest. Was that why he’d left? “No. I did not accept Dev’s proposal.”

He tensed his shoulders, and she swore she saw his knuckles whiten as he tightened his hold on the smooth railing. He glanced behind one shoulder at her, his blue-green eyes searching. “And why not?”

“He said he would marry me in spite of my heritage.”
In spite.
The words nearly made her laugh. She’d thought of her mixed race in spite plenty of times, but Dev’s view of race as a barrier between them provided a whole new definition to the phrase. “I do not see my race as a defining factor, so why should he?”

“And do you care for him?”

“I never have.”

“What a shame.” But nothing in Warren’s voice seemed to point to any actual empathy. Parineeta caught the beginning of a smile quirk against the side of his mouth. Their eyes locked again, and the train and the rolling hills and everything else seemed to melt into the background. “So Kakori is where we stop.”

“Near the village of Kakori. Once it’s done, we’ll all escape to Lucknow from there. I am to pull the emergency stop.”

He raised an eyebrow. “You’re not afraid of what’s about to take place?”

“It will help us fund the independence movement. I never fear independence.”
Just certain American spies.

Warren smiled. He lifted up his hand to place a stray lock of hair behind her ear and then dropped his hand, as if the touch scalded his skin. A clouded look of worry entered his eyes.

“What is it?” She couldn’t help the impatience from creeping into her tone. He acted as if he was walking across hot coals around her.

He rubbed his jaw. “I don’t want your brother to be suspicious.”

“What does it matter?” She puffed out her chest. Really, her brother was no excuse for him to ignore her. “I am old enough to decide for myself what man I choose.”

“I’m not the type of man for you.”

Her heart sank. Maybe she was wrong. Maybe he still planned to abandon her after all. “You can’t … you can’t just leave.”
Not after last night.
Her voice hardened. No, she would not allow him the satisfaction of knowing how the past night had affected her. “Was this your plan all along?”

“No, of course not!” He let out a sound of frustration. “There was no plan. I cannot give you the life you deserve. I cannot give you stability, safety…”

“And the life I’ve already chosen for myself is full of stability and safety?” She placed a hand on her hip. Did he believe her to be weak-willed? “My life has as much danger as yours, in case you failed to notice. The independence movement will only grow from this day forward, and I plan to be a part of it every step of the way.”

He didn’t respond, at least not right away. Instead, he pulled her against him and wrapped his arms around her. She closed her eyes as he held her tightly. Her brother and his friends had always written love poems to other girls in their village, but she’d never understood the lines until now.

She felt him smooth her hair with his hand, and he pressed a kiss to her forehead. “You have such fire inside you, Parineeta.”

Her throat constricted. “You’ve brought it out of me, it seems.”

He continued to hold onto her, as if he was afraid she would suddenly slip from his grasp. “In all my years of service, that is the highest honor anyone has ever paid me.”

As much comfort as she derived from his compliments, a question tugged at her mind. “Are you going to finally tell me why you are headed to Lucknow?”

“Another officer is stationed there. I need to meet him.”

Her heart ran cold. So that was why he had seemed distant this morning. He planned to leave her in Lucknow, didn’t he? He would join with other spies, they would give him a safe passage to America, and then she would never see or hear from him again. He had known all along that he would leave her.

Still, the thoughts seemed too harsh to be reality. Perhaps she was getting ahead of herself. “And have you fulfilled your mission, whatever it was?”

His embrace loosened. “Parineeta, they want me to return home. That’s what I need to talk to them about.”

Her voice trembled. “America?”

“They sent me a letter a few weeks ago instructing me to return as soon as possible. They knew my identity was going to be compromised.” He kissed the top of Parineeta’s forehead again. “Thank you for taking me this far to Lucknow.”

She stepped away. All the pieces started fitting together, slowly at first and then gaining speed. All the signs pointed to his ultimate abandonment. Her worst nightmare had somehow materialized. She’d fallen for a man who planned to leave her as soon as he found the nearest city.

“I would have never been able to reach this far had it not been for you. My mission here was to discover… Well, it was to discover whether or not there was anarchist activity among the revolutionaries. Your brother was the one I was supposed to watch.”

Her jaw dropped. “But he’s not…”

“An anarchist? I know now. I thought I’d have more time to investigate, but my branch has folded into the FBI and god knows where they’ll assign me next.” Warren ran a hand through his hair, the dark locks she loved so much now seeming dull in the mid-afternoon light. “To be honest, I’d nearly given up on learning anything at all until I spoke to you.”

“Was your mission successful?”

He held one hand against the railing, and the other hand held hers. “Thanks to you, it has been. Now I can report back to the officers in Lucknow and tell them that there is no need to worry about anarchist influence spreading from here to America.”

His words drenched her like ice water. He’d used her. He’d wanted her information; he’d wanted her connection to her brother. Not her, though. Never her.

She dropped his hand.

“Parineeta?” His voice was filled with worry. Was it even genuine, or deceiving like the rest of his words? “Where are you going?”

She gulped. “I think I need to sit back down.”

“All right, I’ll join you.”

“No.” She held up a hand. Tears started welling in the corners of her eyes, but she blinked them back. There was no way she would let him see her cry. It was her own fault for falling in love with a foreigner who had no intentions of staying. “You stay there and wait for their signal. Then tell me when to stop the train.”

She ignored his protests and walked back into the corridor, clicking the door shut behind her. She hurried to her seat and faced the window. The backs of her hands wiped away the tears falling down her cheeks in steady streams. He’d never revealed any intention of remaining with her beyond Lucknow. How could she have been so blind?

She tried to focus on the rolling hillside outside, on the sunshine and the sticky air and when the next monsoon rain would occur. She attempted to concentrate on future plans for the independence movement, on other armories to steal weapons from and other locations to rob for much needed funds.

But all her thoughts kept coming back to Warren.

• • •

Warren could see Dev’s and Bismil’s forms on the top of the train. He watched as they crouched across the roof of the metal compartment, inching along the top of the speeding locomotive. He waited for their sign.

Dev held Bismil’s legs as he leaned him over the railway guard’s carriage. Bismil’s upside-down body dangled over the ground, the velocity of the train swaying him back and forth. Warren held his breath as the man swung in front of the window for several seconds. At any moment, one of the soldiers might glance out the window, and the whole event could be called off. After what seemed like ages, he tapped Dev’s arm, and then Dev pulled him back up again.

Now they were discussing something with each other. A worried look crossed Dev’s features. That was strange. He expected Dev’s hand to raise in the air, giving him the approval to stop the train. But there was no signal.

Finally, Bismil made a slashing movement against his throat and shook his head in Warren’s direction. Warren nodded and mimicked the same slashing movement against his own throat to Bismil. So the robbery would not happen. There were probably too many British soldiers on guard in the compartment, protecting the money from the government treasury.

Parineeta’s “information” was that there would be few people on the train. His stomach tightened. He could imagine her crestfallen expression when she learned of the failed plan.

He pushed open the compartment door and marched back inside. Parineeta stood when he entered the carriage. Without waiting for him to speak, she yanked the emergency chain to stop the train.

“Stop!” Warren held onto the back of one of the leather seats for a better grip as the train lurched to a sudden halt. What was she doing? “Bismil called it off.”

She reached into the inside of her sari, drew out a gun, and tossed it to him. He barely caught it in time, and then she pulled out another revolver from her sari. “We’re not listening to him. It’s too late to stop now!”

She marched down the aisles with her gun in the air. Passengers screamed. He walked behind her, lifting his gun up as well.

“Do not be afraid! No Hindustani will be hurt!” Her cries did little to ease the startled passengers. She jumped out at the end of the compartment, and he followed after her. They tapped the carriage sides with their guns, the barrels rattling against the brown metal of the train compartments.

“Close your windows!” Warren yelled. “No one will be harmed. Close your windows!”

Bismil and Dev nearly ran into Parineeta from the other side. Bullets were already whizzing over their heads from where they’d stood on top of the compartment.

“Are you mad?” Dev seethed. He grabbed her, and both of them ducked when a fresh round of gunfire echoed from incoming British soldiers.

Warren wrenched Parineeta away. “Get your hands off of her!”

Raj jumped out from the compartment nearest to them. “Stop bickering! Lal and I will collect the cash. You keep off the soldiers.”

A bullet whizzed past Parineeta from Raj’s position, making direct contact with the stomach of a British soldier who’d snuck up behind her wielding a club. The guard groaned and dropped to the floor.

Raj and one of his friends headed to the guard’s cabin where the money bags from the British treasury were supposed to be. Dev scowled at Warren, but he backed away. All of them ducked at the fire from the guns coming from the other compartment.

Bullets zinged past Warren’s head and sank into the metal of the train compartments. He turned his body to shield Parineeta. But she was gone. She’d dashed to the other side, tapping her gun against the sides of the train and yelling for more passengers to close their windows.

“Dev! Behind you!” Warren knocked out the advancing British soldier, and Dev quickly shot him. Another bullet whizzed by his shoulder blade, causing the hairs on the back of his neck to bristle.

Warren pulled out his gun and took careful aim at the British soldiers. He ducked behind the door of a compartment as more bullets whizzed past him, missing him by mere inches. Where was Parineeta? Was she all right? He propelled himself from the other side of the compartment and stepped back onto the road.

The gunfire continued, but he couldn’t stay put any longer. He had to get to her. What did she think she was doing? The British soldiers were rushing toward her. She turned around every few yards to shoot behind her, just enough to keep them off her trail but not enough to prevent the distance between her and the soldiers from narrowing with each passing second.

Warren raced toward a compartment in front of her incoming path. He lifted himself into one of the open compartments and peered out from behind the metal shelter. As soon as she passed by his hiding spot, he pulled her in.

She gasped for breath in his arms, her gun still smoking. “Ammunition,” she wheezed. “I’m running low on bullets. I need to reload.”

He groaned. There was no way he was letting her go out there again. “Who are you trying to kill, Parineeta?” he demanded, snatching the gun out of her hand.

She reached for it, but he held it up and away from her. She narrowed her eyes, unable to bring herself up to his height. “I am not going to kill anyone! I need to tell the passengers to close their windows.”

“I’m sure they will. You don’t need to fire a gun in the air in order to get their attention.” He wasn’t going to let her die out there. Still, he brought the gun back down, allowing her to grab it from his hands.

“It is my own decision if I choose to die for this fight.” Her chin tilted upward, in that defiant motion that both irritated and amused him at the same time.

“And I will not let that happen.” He wanted more than anything to take that gun out of her hands and keep her safe with him until the area outside the train was clear to leave. But he couldn’t control her. He gazed down at the rebellious woman, her plait nearly undone from her running and her cheeks flushed from excitement. She wouldn’t listen to him even if he tried. He loved that about her.

Love
. The word shocked him. When had he ever admitted to loving a woman before? He frowned.
Now is not the time to consider that.
He scanned outside the compartment, pushing Parineeta behind him while he checked to make sure they could join the others.

Several soldiers passed by their compartment, and Warren reached out to fire his gun when she pushed his arm down. Her gaze implored him.

Of course.
She’d told him before the robbery started that she didn’t want anyone killed. Still, easier said than done. Warren let the soldiers pass by them, praying that Dev and the others had already found a different hiding spot.

He peeked out again. From the end of the train, he could see Raj and a few other men dragging out the safe. The two struggled at first, but then other men joined them and succeeded in landing the safe on the ground. They started slamming their sledgehammers against the metal, trying to break open the container. On the other side of the train, the British soldiers were marching off in the other direction, looking for more rebels there. Thankfully, no one else seemed to be standing on that side. The coast was clear.