Page 288 of A King's Oath

“Yes, yes. Potty.”

“Correct.”

“Then what happened?”

“Then I took him to Maan’s polo match. And he couldn’t look away from the game. Have you seen a polo game?”

She nodded — “In Loire.”

“Do you like looking at the horses or the players?”

“Horses.”

“Your Papa too. He wouldn’t stop looking at the horses running faster than the wind. And then we had coaching here for him. He wouldn’t stop practising. All day, summer or winter. If he wasn’t found playing in the palace or talking to his horses in the stables, he was found with his mallet on top of one.”

“Wow.”

“What a life, isn’t it?” Tara nuzzled her forehead. Brahmi nodded, her round eyes filled with stars. Siddharth knew it was counterproductive to his cause but he couldn’t stop telling her about the legend that his father was, right from the moment he had touched his pony for the first time. How hard he had worked to become the one that the world recognised now. They, and she, had seen his success. Siddharth had seen his effort.

Brahmi pulled the duvet closer up her chin and sighed. “Horse is my favouritest animal.”

“Hmm?” He acted surprised.

“Who is your favouritest animal?”

“My favouritest animal…” he thought and thought hard.

“You don’t have a favouritest animal? Dada Sarkar, you have to have it!”

“I know, I am thinking.”

“Who is your favouritest animal, Dadi Sarkar?”

“I know hers,” he answered instantly. “Penguins.”

“Ooooh,” Brahmi cooed. “I want to see one.”

“You know, I played with penguins once,” Tara lay down beside her, her arm over Brahmi’s head, her face soft as she caressed her hair.

“When?”

“In Antarctica.”

“You can’t go to Antarctica! It’s full of snow.”

“I went. With Dada Sarkar.”

Siddharth reached for his phone, scrolling down the years of his album. He scrolled, scrolled, scrolled, with Tara’s story of Port Lockroy and the red post office droning on in the background.

“Look what I found!” He caught the carousel’s movement with his thumb, pushing the phone in between them to Brahmi’s eye level. Her eyes went round, but her mouth made a bigger round — “Is that you, Dadi Sarkar?”

“She is old now so you might not be able to recognise her.”

Tara growled at him.Growled.He grinned.

Brahmi grabbed his phone into her hands and kept looking. Tara, in the white continent, with penguins surrounding her, taken by him during those last days of their trip when they were sneaking around to hide their relationship from the expedition group.

“They are so cute!” Brahmi pulled the phone to her chest and hugged it tight. He laughed — “We will go see them together one day.”

---