Page 221 of A King's Oath

“You saw me, you saw the things I have done. If there was some redemption for me then you are the epitome of selflessness. I don’t condone how you treated her that day in our palace. But if explained right, with time, and when the intentions are right between you two — things will settle down.”

“I don’t have time. My flight is in two weeks.”

“And there is something called postponing a flight.”

He pursed his lips.

“Stay there and do this. I will take care of everything here. Papa will take care of the kingdom and the business.”

“Don’t tell Papa before I tell you to.”

“Why?”

“Because he will demand to fly here or have us all airlifted. He will involve her parents, family, Gwalior… And Ava… she is a stranger to me right now.”

Rajmata stared at him for a beat. Then nodded.

“Try and make it quick, please. Your father is a difficult man to keep secrets from.”

“Don’t talk about secrets,” he dropped his head back and his eyes fell shut. “It looks like my whole life has been wrapped in a secret cocoon and the butterfly has come out now.”

“Do you have a picture of her?”

“No,” he snapped his head back down to his phone. “I wish I had. I miss looking at her now and I don’t even remember fully how she looks. I couldn’t look away from her all day but now if I think… I can’t exactly picture her. I’ll look at her properly tomorrow and describe her to you, unless Ava lets me have a picture.”

“You do that. And is there anything else that is troubling you?”

He chuckled. “This is not enough?”

“This is enough and a bomb. But you never know,” Rajmata narrowed her eyes. “The boy I thought is not ready to settle down has had a whirlwind Bollywood romance already.”

“Go sleep, Rajmata. Or Papa will come hunting for you.”

“He sleeps like the dead between 11 and 6. How do you think your Late Night Boys Club has functioned smoothly all these years.”

“And here I thought it was because you kept him from raiding us.”

She smiled. The amusement softening, as if she had succeeded in making him smile. Samarth hadn’t imagined he would smile tonight, forget breathe easy. But now after this conversation, he was clear on a lot of things — the biggest of them: he was winning Ava and his daughter back and holding onto them like his life depended on it. Because it did.

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The next morning, Samarth started his redemption at dawn by sitting Harsh down and confessing the repercussions of his greatest sin, a sin Harsh had resentfully become a part of too. He expected Harsh to be as understanding, as encouraging as Rajmata.

Don’t talk to me!— He gestured and stormed out of the room. Only to come back 10 seconds later to pull him into a crushing embrace.Thump! Thump! Thump!

Samarth suspected those thumps were his form of punishment because then he pushed off and stormed back out.

After that, Samarth waited for a respectable show of hands on the clock and drove himself out of the hotel in a rental. He navigated the narrow D-roads that twisted like sleepy secrets through the Loire countryside. The mist still clung to the earth like a lover reluctant to part, and beyond the hedgerows, sheep stood in dew-drenched pastures, necks flicking.

He knew the way now. That little turn off the départementale into a winding lane edged with wild brambles and poppies. That wrought iron gate. The security guard stood to his feet but did not move to open the gate. Samarth parked his car and got out, walking to the gate on foot. The gravel crunched beneath his boots. The honeyed limestone house stood just as he’d left it — warm and self contained, like a secret not meant to be told but still aglow in the sun.

“Est-ce que Madame Ava est à la maison?”[89]

“Qui êtes-vous, monsieur?”[90]

Samarth opened his mouth to answer but an excited squeal beat him to it — “Chevalier!”

His eyes fell shut. The voice… unlike that first time, this time he knew this voice belonged to him.

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