‘How dare you follow us!’ he demanded. It was a guttural roar that took Meera by surprise. This was anger that even Abhimanyu didn’t know he was capable of. But he was seething. How could his own men have the audacity to destroy the sanctity of this place, and his moment with Meera?

‘Your Highness, your presence is needed at the palace at once,’ the head guard got off his horse a good fifty feet away and kneeled, head bowed down and eyes firmly on the ground.

‘Answer me first. Who authorized you to come up here?’ Abhimanyu asked, still agitated.

‘Daata requires your presence, hukum, at once,’ the guard repeated, his head still bowed.

There was a grimness in his tone, and Abhimanyu suddenly felt worried. ‘What is this about?’ he asked, his voice quieter.

His guard stayed mum as Abhimanyu looked on incredulously.

‘What is this about? I am asking you a question.’

‘Forgive me, Your Highness, I am not at liberty to say.’

An exasperated Abhimanyu turned to Meera.

‘Let’s get this over and done with.’

He packed his rifle and helped Meera on the horse.

‘The lady comes with us,’ said the guard, almost under his breath, his eyes averted so that he wouldn’t have to look at the couple.

‘You son of a bitch!’ Abhimanyu grunted and charged towards the guard as Meera tried to hold him back.

‘Your Highness,’ a second guard got down from his horse and stepped in between the prince and the first guard. ‘For the love of god, please let us carry out Daata’s orders.’

Abhimanyu felt Meera’s trembling hands on him and decided not to create a scene for her sake. Something in the man’s voice also told him that it was serious, and his thoughts immediately went to his meeting with the queen.

‘I’ll come for you,’ he turned around and looked at Meera, his eyes still blazing with anger, but he felt more in control when she looked back at him and nodded. He got on his horse without saying another word and headed to the palace.

The thoroughbred tore through the forest, and Abhimanyu’s thoughts raced towards a confrontation with his father. He figured that the queen must have told him about Meera. He was determined not to let his father dictate his life. He was ready to go against Uday Singh and his parochial ideas. In case his father didn’t budge, he was prepared to face the consequences – being banished from the family for marrying a commoner. It was better than leading a double life. He was ready to live like the rest of the world. A thousand lifetimes as a prince were no match for a single day in Meera’s arms as an ordinary man.

But it was not a fight with his father that awaited Abhimanyu. He knew it the very instant Ajay Singh received him at the palace door, dressed in white.

‘Ma is no more.’

It took a while for Abhimanyu to process the news. Not minutes, not an hour, but days. Weeks. Years later, he would still revisit the days that followed his mother’s death. He would conjure up a parallel universe where the queen was alive, and he went up against his father, challenging his decision to not accept his relationship with Meera. Abhimanyu replayed the ugliness of that confrontation in his mind, wishing for it to be true, rather than the reality of his mother’s demise. He’d choose his words carefully, spiteful words he’d say to his father in everyone’s presence. As the years went by, his imaginary words would become more malicious and his actions more melodramatic – grand declarations about giving up his place in the family, of vowing never to see his father again, and Uday Singh banishing him from Ranakpour unceremoniously. Abhimanyu wished and wished that this was how the night had ended – a messy tale of a royal family disintegrating because of love instead of the cold truth of the queen’s death.