Page 164 of A Modest Independence

“I’m overjoyed,” she said. “Thank you. Thank you. It’s the most splendid wedding gift in the world.”

Tom held her fast. “You have a second gift,” he reminded her. “Not as exciting as the first, I’m afraid.”

Jenny drew back from him. In truth, she’d quite forgotten. “You shouldn’t have gone to the trouble.” And then, with a flash of embarrassment, “I didn’t get you anything.”

“Nonsense. You’re my gift.”

A blush warmed her cheeks. “No more than you’re mine. Which still puts me woefully in the red as far as gifts are concerned.”

“In a moment we shall perform a thorough accounting. Until then…” He placed another wrapped package in her lap. It was larger than the first one. “Open it.”

Jenny smiled to herself as she untied the twine. A thorough accounting. That sounded promising. She tore off the paper and pushed it aside.

It was a book. A brand-new copy of Bradshaw’s.

But not her Bradshaw’s. Not the Through Route and Overland Guide to India and Egypt. This was a different edition.

“Bradshaw’s Illustrated Traveller’s Handbook to France,” she read aloud. Her gaze lifted to Tom’s. “Are we planning a holiday?”

“Possibly.” He paused before explaining, “I’ve had news about Alex Archer. It’s nothing certain. Only the faintest whisper of gossip, but there’s reason to believe he might be in France.”

“That’s wonderful. More than wonderful. But…where in France?”

“As to that, I’m not entirely sure. What it needs is someone to go there. To travel about and ask questions.”

Jenny’s pulse quickened. “Do you mean us?”

Tom’s mouth hitched in a smile. “Why not? It could double as our honeymoon.”

She raised her hand to cup his cheek. He hadn’t shaved this morning. His jaw was prickly beneath her palm.

There were no words. None she could formulate amidst the emotion building in her chest.

He’d seen what she wanted of life. Independence. Adventure. Love. And he’d given it all to her. There was no way to thank him for it. No way to adequately express how she felt.

So she stretched up and kissed him. Softly, deeply, her lips clinging to his.

One kiss led to another, given and received, until they were both warm and flushed and breathless. “When do we leave?” she asked.

“Soon.” Tom eased her back against the pillows. “But not yet.”

“No,” Jenny agreed. “Not yet.”

Where to begin?

The route Jenny and Tom take to get to India is 97 percent accurate, all the way down to the travel times. The Onyx, Valetta, Indus, and Bentinck were the actual ships, and the descriptions I gave of their amenities are drawn from historical descriptions of same. Ditto for the names, descriptions, and travel times of trains in France, Egypt, and India. The dak cart journey via the North Western Dak Company and the bullock train journey in Darjeeling were also accurate, as was the route Jenny takes from Cairo to Giza.

A few random bits of fact: visitors really did chisel pieces off of Cleopatra’s Needle in Alexandria; there really was a sinister Khansama in Darjeeling who was reported to have been jailed twice; Senchal really was referred to as the hill of mist and fog; and there really was a convalescent depot there in which some historical reports claim the isolation drove soldiers to suicide.

I could go on, but it may be less time-consuming to focus on the parts that weren’t based on fact. In 1860, the year in which A Modest Independence is set, there was no direct rail access from Calcutta to Delhi. Instead, travelers would have had to make part of the journey via dak cart. I decided to eliminate this obstacle by giving Tom and Jenny a connecting train in Allahabad. In reality, the journey they took across India would have been a lot more painstaking.

Likewise, in a few instances, I featured railway stations in cities in which the station wasn’t actually built until later.

Another of my authorial fabrications relates to the mission in Jhansi. Was there a mission there in 1860? I could never verify this to my satisfaction. But missions did exist in other cities. The mission I created in Jhansi is based off of research I did on those.

I also made up Mr. Vidyasagar’s guest house in Calcutta, the Westbrook Hotel in Delhi (inspired by the Northbrook, which wasn’t there until a few years later), and Mr. Bhat’s guest house in Jhansi. The other hotels mentioned, such as Shepheard’s in Cairo, actually existed.

In addition to my research on travel routes to and across India, I feel I should also note that Mr. Fothergill—and Tom, by extension—was inspired by Mr. Tulkinghorn, the powerful, secretive, and very much feared solicitor in Charles Dickens’ Bleak House. Specifically, this passage:

Mr. Tulkinghorn is not in a common way. He wants no clerks. He is a great reservoir of confidences, not to be so tapped. His clients want HIM; he is all in all.

Similarly, the decade long case between the Earl of Warren and Viscount Atwater was inspired by Bleak House’s Jarndyce and Jarndyce.

Finally, as regards the value of Jenny’s modest independence, 5000 pounds in 1860 would equate to nearly 300,000 pounds today. So, not really so modest after all—except to someone as wealthy as Lady Helena.

If you’d like to learn more about the people, places, and events which feature in my novels, please visit the blog portion of my author website at MimiMatthews.com.

And if you’d like to see images of the locations featured in A Modest Independence—as well as images of what I imagine the characters to look like—do visit this book’s Pinterest board.

Finally, for those of you who want a peek at a Bradshaw’s guide or would like to have a look at some of the other historical publications I used as research, I’ve included a partial list of sources at the end of the book.