Page 61 of A Royal Deception

When I ventured out of my room after a quick shower, I realised my sister was still asleep. Sannata Mausi offered to wake her up, but I insisted on doing it myself. Zarna and I had a routine, and I wanted to get back to it.

I climbed into bed with her and gently pushed the hair away from her sleeping face. With a smile, I began to sing to her like I used to do when she was a baby.

Baisa laadkaa ghanaa,

(Baisa is so lovable)

Baisa futraa ghanaa.

(Baisa is so beautiful)

Baisa apodhi vevo,

(Baisa, please wake up)

Baisa laadkaa ghanaa.

(Baisa is adorable.)?*

Zarna grumbled and turned over to the other side, but I kept singing until she threw a pillow at my face. That’s when I began tickling her until she shrieked with laughter.

“Get up, Zarna. We need to get you back to your school routine.”

She sat up in alarm.

“Di! Will I have to change my school now that we’ve moved to Mirpur?”

“No! You’ll just have a longer commute each way. About an hour each way. But that can’t be helped for now. We’ll figure out a better solution once we’re settled here. I’m going to ask Rani Ma if we can arrange for a car and driver to take you to school for now because it will take you much longer to commute by bus.”

Aweek later, Zarna had settled into the palace better than I’d expected. Rani Ma and Sannata Mausi doted on her, and she was blooming from the love and care that had been lacking in her life until now. As for me, I still couldn’t believe this was not a dream. But even if it was, I never wanted to wake from it.

There was more to the role of Maharani than I’d thought. Even though the title had no recognition anymore, the Mirpur royals hadn’t forgotten their responsibility to their people. Rani Ma was a trustee for many schools and hospitals in the area, and she took her duties seriously. She took me around to visit all of them, and I was amazed to see the work the family was doing to provide healthcare and education in their city.

During the day, I discovered new facets of my new family as I explored the palace, while at night, I discovered new facets of my husband. He didn’t like to talk about his work because most ofthat was confidential, but we spent hours talking about our lives until we met each other. For me, his way of life was something I had only read about in books. He had travelled all over the world and was educated at Eton and Harvard. And he had lived in the US for almost ten years until he returned to India last year.

“What made you come back?” I asked as I lay in his arms on the swing after dinner one night.

“I missed Ma, I guess,” he replied with a shrug. “She doesn’t like long flights anymore, so I wanted to be closer to her.”

I told him about my mother, who died when Zarna was a baby, and about Baba, who had done his best to make sure I didn’t lose my childhood just because I was helping him raise a motherless baby. He told me very little about his first wife except for the fact that she’d died when she fell off her horse and broke her neck.

Our nights were magical as Ranvijay played my body like a musical instrument. I didn’t even know you could make love in the shower without falling on your head.

“Told you,” he said smugly as he dried me with a fluffy white towel.

I tried to dry him back, and we ended up right where we began. Burning with desire.

“You’re a witch, aren’t you? Admit it,” he groaned when I straddled him on the bed.

Instead, I shook my head and held his burning gaze as I rubbed myself again against his knee. Hard enough to make me gasp. He gripped my hip tightly with his big hand and repeated the movement harder this time. Hard enough to make me moan.

“Do you like this?”

I nodded again and tried to get even closer to him. But he held me in place with his hand on my hip.

“You’ll have to say my name if you want more.”

A short laugh escaped me, and I relaxed in his arms. I hadn’t realised how tightly wound up I was until that moment. But he knew just how to get me to calm down.

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