In 1764, while in India, Duncan was trying to track down Thuggee cultists. While on patrol, he prevented the young widow, Vashti Asirvatham, from committing suttee on her husband, Ashred's, pyre. Eventually she and MacLeod become lovers, and she told him she loved him. She then went to her death at the hands of the Immortal Thuggee priest of Kali, Kamir