Page 11 of A King's Oath

“Why am I not surprised? You in your Naniji’s house is a differentyou,” Samarth lifted his brows, pulling off his helmetand running a hand through his hair. It had gone stiff with sweat even with just a few minutes of wearing the helmet.

“I know, right?!” She grinned, those hidden dimples popping at the corners of her lips. They were so rare, only popped when she smiled a certain way.

“And, then… aaah,” she squealed as he took her arm and made her step away from an anthill. That made her turn again and walk straight beside him.

“Haan… so, and then we came back, stayed at the palace for another week, then went to Paris. Kaka Maharaj missed us kids so Mummy sent us back early and stayed longer to shop. I gave her my list. Phew. What didyoudo this summer?”

“Papa and I went on a trip to Croatia. But we kept it short because Dada Sarkar was alone at home. For the rest of the summer I was in Nawanagar. Restarted my sword-fighting lessons. Spent the afternoons riding horses, and evenings going to the club with Papa to watch his matches…”

“You learnt sword-fighting?”

“As a kid. Didn’t I ever tell you?”

She pouted, thinking.

“You must have missed it in between all the studies.”

She gave him those mock-cry eyes again, her way of smacking him back.

“Don’t they teach self-defence in Gwalior?”

“Vikram Dada learnt. Kresha learnt too. When it came time for me, I hid,” Ava grinned, those dimples popping again.

“Why?”

“I don’t know… violence and all… I’m too soft for that,” she cocked her head prettily to the side. “All my gundagrdi comes out only on the cricket field. There I can bash you to pulp with my bat.”

“It’s strange I have never seen you bat,” he tried to rib again. “Do they have a height limit?”

“That’s because you never came to any of my matches,” she smacked back. And it hit bullseye. He had never gone for any of her matches.

“Neither have you,” he retorted, because that was also true.

Ava huffed, turning to him with her hands on her waist and realising that they had reached the gate of the girls’ dorm. They stopped. She looked up, as did he, and realised that this was it. Even though their campus was smack in the middle of endless rolls of hills and relatively small in comparison to the mountains surrounding them, the girls’ and boys’ dorms were placed as far away as possible on a campus this size. Samarth never understood why until today.

“So?” He held his helmet to the side of his waist.

“So what? Go.”

“Oh,” he popped, swallowing. “Ok. Bye.”

He turned around but her voice stopped him.

“Hey, Samarth?”

He whirled.

“So what if we can’t talk during the periods? You come to my practise.”

He grinned — “Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, right?”

“Not this Tuesday. We have a match tomorrow.”

“I know. Opening of The Year against Vedanta.”

Her mouth dropped open.

“If you know my match schedule then why don’t you make the effort to come?”

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