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Автор Чарльз Финч
The September Society
Charles Finch
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
CHAPTER THIRTY
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
FROM GOVERNMENT PROPERTY.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
CHAPTER FORTY
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
CHAPTER FIFTY
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
The September Society
Charles Finch
PROLOGUE
The first murders were committed nineteen years before the second, on a dry and unremarkable day along the Sutlej Frontier in Punjab. It was beastly hot weather, as Juniper remarked to Captain Lysander out on the veranda of the officers’ mess, fit for little more than an odd gin and tonic, perhaps the lazy composition of a letter home. The flies, maddening creatures that had never learned to take no for an answer, crowded around the nets that blocked the porch, searching for a way in.
“I would trade a hand to be back in London,” Lysander said to Juniper after a long pause. “At least they have the decency to bar these flies from coming into the city there. ”
The battalion was on edge, because a recent retaliatory raid on a local village had turned bloody. Suspicion and rumor abounded. The officers, with a few exceptions, had long ceased to attend to their charges’ morale. Though all the Englishmen in Punjab lived well, with villas and servants to themselves, every one of them at that uneasy moment would have made the trade Lysander proposed.
“Well,” said Juniper. “I may go look around and have a bit of a shoot with Jim. ”
“Were you planning that?”
“Oh, yes. ”
“Where do you reckon you’ll go?”
“That little patch of scrub east of here. Doubt we’ll find anything worth a bullet.
Maybe a darkie or two, looking for trouble. ” Lysander smiled grimly. “Past that little grove of banyan trees, then?”“Curious today, aren’t you?” In another place this might have sounded rude, but being white was a great equalizer in that country, and these men were too intimate to maintain entirely the ceremonies of respect and rank that defined the British.
“Always on the lookout for a decent bit of shooting, you know,” responded Lysander, sipping his gin and tonic. He was a trim, forceful, savvy-looking man. “D’you know why they give us so much tonic, young pup?”
“No. Why?”
“Has quinine in it. Prevents malaria. ”
“I suppose I did know that, actually. ”
“They must’ve told you in training. ”
“Yes,” said Juniper, nodding agreeably. “Just past that grove of banyan trees, then?” There was a slight, casual persistence in Lysander’s voice.
