Chapter 9
CHAPTER 9
DIYA
N andini Devi exchanged a smug smile with my mother, and I growled under my breath.
Trust my mother to push her beti-bhagao agenda even in such circumstances. Was I such a burden to her that she’d force me to marry the man who broke my heart?
“Enough is enough,” I hissed. “I will not be bullied into marrying a man I cannot stand. If I’m such a burden to you, Ma, I’ll leave the country and make a new life for myself in Europe. I’ve been planning to move to Paris for a bit anyway because I’m tired of all the travelling.”
“Over my dead body,” cried my mother. “You will leave our house only when you’re married, Diya. And don’t forget that the Goels can find you wherever you hide.”
“But I don’t want to marry Dheer,” I wailed.
“Well, I don’t want to marry you either,” he pointed out mildly. “It’s out of the question, Your Highness. We will have to find another way to keep Diya safe.”
I turned around to skewer him with a venomous look. I wouldn’t marry him even if he were the last man on earth, but it hurt to know that he felt the same about me. I had good reason to hate him. He had betrayed and humiliated me in public. He had broken my heart. But I had done nothing to him. Nothing except love and hero-worship him for years. He’d be fucking lucky to marry me, I thought furiously.
“I’d rather die at Ayush’s hands than marry you, Your Highness,” I declared.
“That’s a bit of an overreaction, but I agree with you in principle. We don’t have to resort to such desperate measures,” he replied.
My fingers clenched around the fork that I had picked up again, and I wondered if I could get away with stabbing him with it. I was not a desperate measure. And marrying me wasn’t a fate worse than death!
Why did I waste so many years and so many tears on this man who clearly had a very low opinion of me? No wonder he fell in love with another woman nine years ago. He had never loved me at all. Our big romance was just a figment of my imagination. All we had going for us was physical attraction and proximity. The minute he met another woman, Dheer forgot all about me.
For nine years, I had mourned the death of a relationship that had never existed. I was such a fool.
Tears welled in my eyes as I realised that I had built such a foolish story around us, full of young love and heartbreak, while our reality was very different. There was no us . There was only idiotic, lovestruck me. And an opportunistic bastard who had played with my feelings.
“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to call Kirori Ji and send out a warning to the Goels,” said Dheer, as he threw down his napkin and rose from the table.
I held myself upright until he left the room, but as soon as the door closed behind him, I slumped in my chair and tried to blink back the tears.
“Randheer is right, Raji,” said his grandmother. “Your daughter’s safety is not his responsibility. And I won’t allow you to use this as an excuse to strike an alliance with us.”
Wow! Just… wow! I opened my mouth to blast the old bat back into the depths of hell from where she’d emerged, but Dheer’s mother beat me to it.
“Dheer never implied such a thing, Ma Sa,” she said sternly. “He risked his life twice to save Diya. Her safety is his biggest priority; if you can’t see that, that’s your problem.”
Umm, that was a bit of an exaggeration. Sure, he had saved my life, but nothing about me was a priority to Dheer.
“Oh, shut up,” snarled his grandmother, and we all rounded on her angrily.
“Hey!” I exclaimed, and Isha stood up angrily.
I wondered if she meant to throw the old hag out of the room physically, but her mother patted her on the arm gently, and she sat down again.
“If you can’t keep a civil tongue in your mouth, Ma Sa, maybe you’ll be more comfortable in your own room,” she said meaningfully, and Dheer’s grandmother let out an angry huff.
“Or, as Bhai Sa suggested the last time you were rude to Ma, maybe you’d be more comfortable living all by yourself in the choti haveli behind the palace. You wouldn’t have to see any of us ever again,” added Isha sweetly.
“You can gang up on me all you like, but don’t blame me if this girl brings disaster to our door,” replied Dheer’s grandmother acidly, before she rose and stalked out of the room.
“I’m so sorry, Diya. Please ignore Dadi Sa. She’s just bitter about not getting her way in the palace since our father died,” said Isha.
“And don’t believe a word of what she says. You won’t bring disaster in your wake. You’ll only bring us joy,” said her mother, making my tears well up again. “Please forget the past, and give Dheer a chance to make up for hurting you.”
“Thank you, Aunty. But I don’t think marriage is the right option here. Dheer and I… well, we aren’t meant to be together,” I said lamely.
What else could I say?
Dheer and Isha’s mother had known how much I had loved her son. She had seen us together and she had given her blessings for the wedding when she gifted me a pair of kundan bangles for my twenty-first birthday. It wasn’t her fault her son had come to my party with his new fiancée.
I wondered why he had never married that woman. Dheer had vanished from the public eye soon after my birthday party, and I’d had too much pride to enquire about him. Isha and I never discussed him, except for the one occasion a year later when my mother had asked her snidely when we could expect an invitation to his wedding. That’s when we found out that Dheer and Raksha weren’t together anymore.
We knew nothing about the woman, and she had disappeared as silently as she had appeared in our lives. Meanwhile, Dheer had reappeared on the social scene a couple of years later with a new woman on his arm at every event. He was clearly over the breakup.
“May I be excused?” I asked, pushing my chair back.
“Where are you going?” demanded my mother.
“I need some air, Ma.”
“What if Ayush’s men get at you again? Promise me you won’t leave the palace, Diya.”
“I won’t,” I promised. “I’m just going for a walk.”
“I’ll come with you,” offered Isha.
“No, beta. You need to stay here because Veer is going to be here soon, and you’re the only person who can keep him and Dheer from fighting over the past,” said her mother.
Isha flushed and shot me a pleading look.
“Diya needs me right now, Ma,” she yelped.
I wanted to help her out because I knew Veer would growl and snap at her if she even looked in his direction. My brother had decided to blame the whole Shekhawat family for Dheer’s defection, and Isha took the brunt of his hatred because she was the only Shekhawat he got to meet regularly. But right now, I needed to be alone. I wanted some time to think about what I wanted to do. I was so sick of other people trying to arrange my life. It was time I sat down and figured out a solution to my problem because I was no damsel in distress. This princess could rescue herself, thank you very much.
“No, Aunty is right, Isha. You know Veer is still upset with Dheer…”
“Rightfully so,” inserted my mother, with a disdainful sniff. “The Shekhawats have treated you dreadfully.”
“Enough about the past, Raji. Look to the future,” scolded Nandini Devi.
I gave Isha an apologetic smile and tiptoed out of the room while my mother argued with both the Rani Mas. I slipped out through one of the side doors that led into the garden, and for a while, I walked over to the paddocks to see the horses being exercised.
Dheer’s stables were famous for breeding champion racehorses, and I had always wanted to see them in action. There were seven horses out on the racecourse now, being trained for the upcoming Derby season, with jockeys and grooms timing them.
I leaned over the fence to admire them, and a few curious ponies came to check me out. As I petted them, a horse and its rider galloped past me into a large section of the paddock that was fenced off. I felt hot all over as I realised that it was Dheer on his big black horse. And he was shirtless.
The horse was quite a handful and kept trying to unseat Dheer, who held on to his seat stubbornly. The sweat gleamed over his bare skin and his muscles rippled as he tried to control the horse who was having what looked like a tantrum.
“What’s going on?” I asked a groom who was passing by.
He shot a worried glance at the horse and shook his head.
“Ji, Pasha is upset because Hukum was too late for their early morning ride. He won’t let any of us near him when he’s upset. Hukum is the only person who can handle him.”
The horse went up on his hind legs and pranced about angrily, and I gasped as it looked like Dheer was about to fall off. But he held on stubbornly, leaning forward to whisper in the horse’s ear until he calmed down. When the horse finally stood still, Dheer kicked him in the flanks and they set off at a fast gallop, going around the enclosed space as Dheer put him through his paces.
I watched them spellbound, all my worries forgotten as I enjoyed this bond between a man and his horse. Just then, one of the grooms went running over to Dheer with a phone in his hand. Dheer dismounted and handed the reins to the groom, as he walked back into the stables to take his phone call. The groom clambered into the saddle and took a calmer Pasha around the paddock a few times before he led him towards the stables. As they rode past me, Pasha turned his head to look at me, and skidded to a halt, sending his rider flying over his head before he came trotting up to me like a happy puppy.
I yelped in surprise, but the groom picked himself up and dusted himself off with a laugh.
“Don’t worry, Baisa, he’s always up to some mischief,” he called.
Pasha shook his head and harrumphed at the groom before he turned to me and began nosing around the pockets of the jeans I had borrowed from Isha. I squealed in delight as he headbutted me in the abdomen gently.
“I have nothing for you, honey. I’m sorry,” I said, reaching out to pet him on his forehead. He had a white star on his black forehead. Pasha stood still as I traced the star and petted him gently. He was gorgeous, and a complete adorable brat, I decided, as he turned his head to give me better access to the side of his neck.
“I’ll get you some apples next time,” I promised.
“He’ll hold you to your word because he’s a greedy bastard,” growled Dheer from behind me, and I tensed in surprise.
When I turned around, I let out a sharp breath, because he was still not wearing a shirt. He towered over me and I could feel myself blushing like an idiot. I dealt with half-naked men every single day in my line of work. None of them had ever affected me like this, even though most of them were better looking than Dheer.
I backed away until I felt the fence digging into my back and Pasha snickered in my ear knowingly.
“I didn’t mean to intrude,” I stammered.
“I’m glad you’re here,” said Dheer. “I wanted to speak to you.”
I didn’t know how we could have a reasonable conversation when his eyes devoured me so hungrily. What the fuck was he up to?
He took a few steps until we were toe-to-toe. With the fence and the horse behind me, I had nowhere to escape. All I could think about was the sweat that was gleaming off his bare skin, and how I wanted to lick it off.
I cleared my throat and forced myself to look away.
“I’m listening,” I said hoarsely.
“The Rani Ma of Mirpur was right, Diya. You have no choice but to marry me.”