One thing she did know: the idea of not having Mina and Ma-saheb in her life made her want to roll up in a ball and never get up. Given that her hands were full of baby, that was not an option.

Her mother-in-law picked up Ashna, who immediately grabbed at her aji’s pearls and spat up on her pristine white Chanderi sari. “We’ll talk about all that later. When you’re strong enough,” Ma-saheb didn’t bother to wipe the spit-up as she gurgled at her granddaughter with smitten eyes. “From now on only what you want will happen, beta.” Ma-saheb always knew exactly what Shoban needed to hear.

It was easy to assign manipulation to her actions, but Shoban had to believe in something and she believed that these women understood, and that their love was her only chance.

Shoban settled back into the palace. She told herself it was temporary. But it was the best place for Ashna. There were nurses on staff, and a bright and sunny nursery with the most beautiful carved rosewood cradle. Not that Shoban could let her baby sleep anywhere but in her bed, where Shoban could roll over on her side and nurse her when she woke in the middle of the night.

“No matter what happens, you’re never getting rid of me,” Mina said as they both lay on Shoban’s bed with Ashna between them and the quilted Kashida canopy bright above them.

Shoban had never gone back to Bram’s room. A new suite of rooms had been made up for her in a different part of the palace after her wedding night. Oddly, Shoban felt more at home in her rooms here than she had felt anywhere else in her life.

Maybe because Ma-saheb had kept her safe and sent her son away without lobbing one single doubt or accusation in Shoban’s direction.

Maybe because she and Mina had found each other here.

“If something happens to me, you’ll take care of her, right?” Shoban asked Mina, voicing a worry that had been eating away at her.

“I’ll take care of her even if nothing happens to you. Isn’t that right, Ashi-pishi? You’re your Kaki’s baby girl, aren’t you?” Mina blew into Ashna’s belly and she gurgled around a smile. Her first smile. The two women sat up, awed beyond words, and tried to get her to do it again. She complied, proving definitively that she was ticklish and not gassy, and consequently the most perfect baby on earth.

When Ashna was three months old, Shoban started playing cricket again. Until Ashna was two, Bram stayed out of their lives. His mother made sure he went from rehab in Switzerland to Paris to work with a cousin who ran a chain of restaurants in Europe. He had made his mother promise that he could come home if he stayed clean for two years.