Lure of the Emerald Peacock
It's 1947 and a surge of chaos is sweeping India. The British Raj is over and the British are leaving.
Duncan MacGavin, the charismatic Scottish engineer, is taking Dina, the half-breed princess with him as his wife to sail from Bombay back to Scotland. But, Dina refuses to leave.
Exquisite, and of great commercial value, the emerald peacock is the sole remaining object remaining from Dina’s own dynasty and she is honour-bound to reclaim the precious item from the Maharaja. But wresting it from his unyielding fist is impossible, so, courageous as she is beautiful, she plans to steal what is hers.
Duncan won’t allow such folly and caring nothing for his own safety, he risks his life to retrieve the peacock and together they flee. The maharaja stirred to fury, despatches his most trusted commander and a band of his men, in pursuit.
Across baking deserts, Duncan and Dina arrive at a village in Rajputana, where they are married by an old friend, a Jesuit priest. With the priest's help they arrange their escape, but it's too late. Their pursuers have caught up. Surrounded and with no escape possible, time is running out and the ship is about to sail.
More than the peacock, Dina loves Duncan, and now, she must make the most bitter choice of her life. Duncan or the emerald peacock?
Their Kismet was written the day they met, but can the soothsayer's uncanny prediction change everything?
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