Page 325 of A King's Oath

“Who?”

“Dada Sarkar. So that all the children of Nawanagar who love cricket can come and play there if they don’t have the stumps or balls or pitch at home.”

“Hmm…”

“I made a polo school like that.”

“For all the kids who don’t have ponies?”

“Exactly.”

“Even I don’t have my pony yet!”

Samarth poked her side — “You’ve gotten a promise extracted out of Dada and Dadi Sarkar.”

Brahmi smirked, giving him a proud grin.

“It’ll come to you,” Samarth patted her back. “You have to be patient. It will come to you when you need it the most and you deserve it the most.”

“So, like,” she pushed the hair off her face. “When I grow up, I will make things like these?”

“And more. Do you want to do that?”

“Yay!”

“Yay!” He grabbed her and held her over himself, using his feet to balance her in the air. She squealed. Avantika lay her head back on the cushioned headboard, looking at her husband and her daughter, the two people she never imagined she would ever see together playing in a bed.Theirbed. Not hers, not his. Theirs. The discovery of this joy was a joy in itself. She never wanted it to end.

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There were many discoveries in the Palace of Nawanagar that she made on her first official morning here. Like — Rawal took the same breakfast every day.

Sev over poha.

Like, Rawal hadn’t been playing polo or riding as often in the last year.

Like, Bade Rawal was retired on paper but worked extensively with the State and the Central governments to fast-track work for the kingdom. He had cultivated extensive contacts in his years at the Ministry of Environment and leveraged those on an almost weekly basis for things as mundane as inter-state taxes and things as complex as budget sanctions and DM appointments.

Like, Rajmata took care of draft languages for a lot of the internal bills that were introduced by the Palace in the council. She was a philosopher, a retired professor and a seasoned queen now.

“What can I do?” She asked Rajmata as she took her out for a walk to her ‘workspace’ — a pomegranate orchard behind the palace. A pergola was built in the centre of the fragrant forest, embellished with gorgeous marble and intricate carvings.

“What do you mean?” Rajmata asked, pushing a chair out for her on a round table in the centre of the pergola. She set her folders and laptop down and pulled a chair beside hers. Avantika glanced around, absorbing the sweet chirping of the birds. They were louder there than anywhere else in the palace.

“I mean,” she covered her back with her saree pallu. It was bright red with golden bandhni — a traditional Gujarati weave she had worn for their first pooja in the palace’s Dwarkadhish temple this morning. “There isn’t any work I can do for the kingdom. I am a designer. My profession is creating logos and design language and branding plans for luxury niches. Nothing like what you do.”

Rajmata’s eyebrows squeezed adorably, a stray curly strand coming undone from her bun — “You know, I asked something similar to Hira ben when I married and came here. She would tell me stories of the great queens of Nawanagar, and after every story, I would feel smaller and smaller. And then she told me something that just stuck. And stayed. She said — nobody comes learned from their mother’s womb. I certainly didn’t. Lucky for you, you have grown up in an environment like this.”

Avantika nodded, feeling like a student all of a sudden.

“And why isn’t branding important? In today’s day and age, I think branding is of the utmost importance — sometimes more than the product itself. You tell me, would any of your luxury clients get their product picked up without the work you did for them?”

“No,” she answered firmly, and proudly.

“Then that’s also your answer for where you can start in Nawanagar. Our crest, the institutions we own, fund, power. Bring it all under one banner. Think, do whatever you feel is best to make Nawanagar a name that resonates across the country.We have cricket stars, we have polo stars, we drill oil, we have wildlife sanctuaries and lions. We have lakes and the best winter food in all of Gujarat. The scope is endless. Do it. Take it up. Not immediately, of course. Take your time, enjoy life. You and Samarth need to take a holiday. He hasn’t had a chance to ‘even sit quietly with you’ apparently,” she rolled her eyes, reaching for her glasses.

“Oh my god, he told you that?!”

Rajmata laughed — “And a little more. He is desperate to escape with you.”

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