by Lucy Monroe
"Did you always know your father was a prince?" Eliza asked Rajvinder.
"I did."
"Did it bother you, knowing you were a prince by blood if not by legitimate birth?" Was that another too personal question? She couldn't seem to stop herself asking them.
"I resented being denied my birthright."
"You did?" That shocked her. He acted like he wanted nothing from the Singhs.
"Very much. I still do, which is one of the reasons I'm considering this proposal of yours. I am the blood heir to the Maharajah, no matter what he would like to believe."
"Yes, you always have been, even when Dev was being raised as heir to the throne. It bothered him, that you weren't acknowledged."
"Did it?"
"Yes."
"Then he was the only one in the family that felt that way."
"I told you Tabish auntie was upset that Adhip uncle denied you."
"Yes, you did."
"Are you still doubting my word?"
"No, not doubting you believe that."
"But doubting she was sincere?"
"Perhaps. After all, she had you."
Eliza could not deny it. "It's so strange how life ends up." She'd grown up in the palace that should have been Rajvinder's home from infancy.
"You know that more intimately than most."
"Maybe." But so did he.
It scared Eliza to the bottom of her ice encased heart, how easily she found talking to Rajvinder. How the chemistry was a living and constant electric current between them.
"I think we've lingered long enough over our coffee." She needed some distance from this man.
Rajvinder didn't argue, simply took care of the check and led her outside. She expected the car to be waiting, but it wasn't. A horse drawn carriage was.
"I thought we could take a ride and look at Christmas lights. It seems to me you've been missing Christmas for nearly twenty years, and San Diego knows how to do the holiday."
Dark had fallen while they'd eaten dinner. The lights were colorful in some places, one spot every home and yard done up to reflect a childhood book. Downtown had lots and lots of white lights. She didn't know how long they rode in the carriage looking at lights, but the magic of the holiday swirled around Eliza in a way it hadn't in years.
It was a veritable Winter Wonderland. Without the cold, or the snow.
And after all her time spent living in a palace in India she'd become accustomed to sunny weather and did not miss that particular aspect.
Okay, maybe a little.
Memories of the trips her parents took her on to the mountains every year at Christmastime bombarded her and brought up feelings she'd long suppressed.
Rajvinder had slipped his arm around her shoulders early on and squeezed her arm now. "You're thinking about something very serious."
"My dad…he loved snow at Christmas." It was all she could make herself say. Emotions she'd thought she'd rid herself of were too darn close to the surface.
"Do you miss the snow?"
"I miss them." But yes, maybe she missed the snow a little.
"Of course you do. You always will."
She turned to him, looking away from the lights, though it was hard. "You're the only one who has ever acknowledged that."
"People expect you to get over the loss of your parents?" he asked in a tone that said he didn't understand that.
"Yes." Everyone did. They all said that time healed all wounds and equally inane things like that.
"Like hell."
"It doesn't bother you that I still miss them?" Even Dev had accused her of being needlessly maudlin whenever she'd said anything even remotely intimating that she wished they were still with her.
And he'd been her best friend.
"Why should it bother me?"
Because he didn't feel anything for her? No, she instinctively knew that wasn't it. "Your mom never stopped missing her family, did she?"
"No. Her grief shaped who she became."
"So did her love for you."
"Yes."
"You're so much more than the ruthless businessman your investigative file paints you as."
"If I wasn't, I wouldn't consider this proposition from Trisanu."
"Oh, you could consider it, but with an eye for revenge. That's not why you're thinking about it, are you?" Horrible images of him taking over as heir only to dismantle the family flashed through her brain.
"You are just now realizing that is an option for me?"
"I…" She didn't think in those terms. "I'm not the ruthless corporate shark. That's not how my brain works."
"But you're smart enough to realize it might be the way mine does. I wonder if Trisanu does?"
"I don't know." He'd never said anything to her.
"If he hasn't, he's lost more than his edge in business."
She went back to watching the lights as they travelled slowly through the streets in the horse drawn carriage. "I think Grandfather is not only intelligent, but very intuitive."
"And still he put his sons, who were abysmal at business, in charge of the family's fortune."
"He didn't have a choice." Who else was there?
"Oh, he had one, but he refused to break with tradition."
"What do you think he could have done?" she asked, genuinely curious what the super successful businessman would have done.
"Hired a manager with business savvy, and leave the sons completely out of the picture."
"The business is the family's livelihood."
A short bark of humorless laughter sounded from Rajvinder. "And they've all but decimated it."
"It's not that bad, surely." He'd said something similar, but maybe not quite as grim before. She had already begun to wonder at her dadaji's real motives behind going alone with Eliza's plan to bring the rightful heir back into the family.
She shivered slightly, the mild wind and loss of sun bringing with it enough of a drop in temperature that Eliza wished she had a sweater.
"Isn't it?" He slid his arm down until it was around her waist, pulling her in closer to him, warming her with his body, even as he snagged a lap blanket and spread it over her. "You think I was lying when I said that the fortune would be gone within another generation?"
"No." This man didn't lie. Of that, she was sure.
He also didn't exaggerate.
Ruthless? Oh, yes. Hard? Definitely. Dramatic? Unlikely. Dishonest? Never. He was too arrogant, and with cause, to think he had to be.
"Then don't you think it's time you stopped defending the indefensible?" He tucked the blanket around her.
Bemused by his consideration in the face of his clear intransigence about his family, she parried, "It's only indefensible if you refuse to acknowledge the role that family relationships had in the choices Grandfather made."
"You mean the man who willingly rejected his own grandson because I had the wrong mother?" His tone drew her gaze again and the unyielding expression she found there did not surprise Eliza at all. "That man was driven by family ties to make poor choices?" Rajvinder asked with heavy sarcasm.
She sighed. He had a point, but she knew the truth and honestly? She believed that Rajvinder did as well. "Yes."
"He's a hypocrite then."
She couldn't deny that assessment, so she said nothing, too loyal to the family that had taken her in to acknowledge the truth out loud.
"You're very beautiful with the Christmas lights reflected in your eyes."
"I wonder if I'll ever get used to how open you are with compliments?"
He pulled her to him and kissed her instead of answering. And it didn't matter that they were in an open carriage for anyone to see, that lots of other people were out looking at Christmas lights too.
Eliza responded with a passion she was helpless to resist.
This kiss was every bit as incendiary as the first, but it was Eliza who managed to break away, turning her face into his chest as she regained her equilibrium.
&nbs
p; He rubbed her shoulder, silent and warm against her, giving her the time she needed to collect herself.
When she sat up, he didn't comment on the fact she put a couple of inches between them on the seat. "It's probably time for me to get back to the hotel."
He nodded and his car and driver met up with them minutes later.
***
The following days fell into a pattern. She spent the morning with Grandfather, many evenings with Rajvinder, and the afternoons shopping and getting to know the city with Rajvinder's mother.
Eliza had been shocked by the first invitation, but Badriyah (call me Barbie) had apologized for her lack of warmth on their trip to SeaWorld. She had gone on to say that she could not countenance a match between her son and Eliza without getting to know Eliza first.
Eliza respected that Barbie wanted to put her son's happiness ahead of her own. It was something she'd clearly been doing his entire life.
They were at an exclusive designer's boutique that specialized in Westernized salwar kameez and other clothing for the modern Indian woman. Eliza had noticed that Barbie dressed in a mix of Indian and entirely Western styles.
"You've found a way to thrive living here, haven't you?" she asked the older woman as she came out of the dressing room in a form fitting kameez in white, trimmed with coral, the silk pants underneath also fitted to the ankle, the complimentary coral veil casually worn over her shoulder. "That's gorgeous, by the way."
"I like it. I think Jamison will as well. I still wear the traditional Indian garb for him."
"He has good taste."
Barbie smiled. "There was a time I rejected everything from my homeland."
Eliza couldn't imagine it. "You're like the perfect blend of both cultures."
"I was very angry when I first went into exile."
"That's how you saw moving here?"
"How else should I have seen it?"
Eliza didn't have an answer. Her parents had died and while that had felt like a terrible rejection to her child's heart, she'd never had to live with the knowledge her parents did not want her around.
"Your parents probably thought you'd give Rajvinder up if they took the stance they did."
"Yes, they believed sending me to live in a foreign country, away from all those I held dear would make me resent and eventually let go of my son."
"They miscalculated your strength."
"Oh yes, they did."
"Rajvinder says you never expressed your displeasure with your family to him." That was something else Eliza couldn't help admiring.
This woman had a titanium backbone.
"He didn't need a reason to resent them anymore than he already did. I knew I could outlast my parents' disapproval and one day, my family would be together again."
"But not if your son hated his grandparents."
"Exactly."
"He's not fond of them, though." Rajvinder never pretended otherwise.
He held little respect for either of the families that had come too late to the table of his life. Which worried her a little about what he would do as heir to the principality.
Barbie sighed. "No, but for my sake, he has not rejected them completely."
"You're the reason he took the money from them to start his business."
"I told him it was the least my family owed me."
"And he agreed."
"He did."
"You're an amazing mom."
"Thank you."
Eliza found a sapphire blue kameez style top she could wear with leggings and went to try it on. When she showed it to Barbie, the other woman smiled her approval. "That looks lovely on you."
"I like it."
"I understand why I wear the traditional dress, but why do you?"
Eliza wasn't offended by the question and neither would she fob it off the way she did when her friends at school asked, saying only that she liked the styles. Barbie was someone that would play a key role in the rest of Eliza's life, if her son agreed to the arranged marriage. The older woman therefore deserved as much honesty as Eliza could give.
"When I first went to live with Tabish auntie and Adhip uncle, she insisted I dress in traditional clothes whenever I was in India." Tabish auntie had so wanted her own daughter. It had been her idea the first time, to dye Eliza's blonde hair dark brown. "She said I would find it more comfortable in my home."
"Did you?"
"I felt like the clothes helped me fit in, yes, but at first I felt like they were a disguise, camouflage so I didn't stick out and no one would notice me."
Barbie gave her a droll look. "I think, Eliza, that you will always stand out."
"You and your son." She shook her head.
"My son and I what?"
"You're both so complimentary."
"And the Singhs are not?"
"It's not their way."
"I believe that. I think I believed Adhip loved me because he was so vocal in his appreciation of me."
Eliza didn't know what to say to that. She felt like if she agreed, she was being disloyal to Tabish auntie, but if she disagreed, she wasn't being truthful.
"I never remember Adhip uncle giving Tabish auntie praise on her appearance." Even admitting that felt wrong.
But Barbie didn't look triumphant. Far from it, her lovely face creased with sadness. "Tabish is beautiful and she deserved to hear that from the man she married."
"Maybe behind closed doors."
"Perhaps."
"They were happy together." Should she not have said that?
But Barbie's smile dispelled Eliza's concerns. "I am glad. I grew to understand that as much as I might love the father of my beloved son, he was not a strong man, not someone who would ever buck tradition for the sake of another. That he managed to find contentment and happiness with his wife is something I am glad for."
"You are very forgiving."
Barbie laughed. "Not really. I am deliriously happy with my Jamison. I love him with a deep, abiding emotion I never knew with Adhip. It is easy to be glad for another's measure of happiness when I've had such a huge cup of it. Besides, Adhip lived without the most amazing son. I cannot help feeling sorry for such a tragedy."
"I think you might be the amazing one."
"Are you saying you don't see my son as larger than life?" Barbie teased with clear disbelief.
Eliza laughed, because? The older woman was right not to believe. "Who wouldn't see him that way? He's a self-made billionaire who cares about his mother."
"And done his best, which is a lot, to provide security for his stepfather," Barbie added.
"You saw that?"
"That my husband, who was marginally wealthy became incredibly so after going into business with my son? That Jamison was happier in the role of CFO than he'd ever been with the entire weight of his company on his shoulders? My son gave me and my husband a wonderful gift."
"He really is larger than life, isn't he?" Eliza said wistfully.
Because really, why would someone like that want to enter an arranged marriage with her?
"Oh, yes, and I'm glad you see that." Barbie patted Eliza's shoulder in approval.
They handed their bags to the driver before walking next door for lunch.
Sitting at the table outside was nice, the Christmas decorations downtown looked so festive, even in the daytime. Greenery shone in the bright sunshine, bright red and white striping in places, and bunting that would never have lasted in a true winter weather climate.
"You look like a child in a candy store," Barbie said with some amusement.
Eliza smiled self-deprecatingly. "I love all the holiday décor."
"It was one of the things I embraced with enthusiasm when I moved here. Celebrating Christmas as a secular holiday made it less depressing when I didn't have a family to celebrate Bhogi, Holi, or even Republic Day with. America has its own Independence Day though. I've always confused my friends and neighbors with joy in celebrating it. Of course, in my heart, I was celebr
ating my home country's far more recent independence."
"And because you'd never celebrated Christmas with anyone but Rajvinder, it was new and became something special for both of you."
"Yes."
Eliza smiled before looking at the single page menu with fresh specials for the day to choose from. Barbie really was an incredible woman.
And so strong.
Eliza wasn't sure she would have shown the same courage and strength in the face of similar circumstances.
She knew one area she wasn't the same. She absolutely would not have let herself love like Barbie did with Jamison.
"So, what do you think of our city?" Barbie asked as they ate their colorful salads.
Roasted beets was not a common vegetable in India. Eliza was discovering she loved them.
"I like the food," she said honestly. "And the feel of energy, the friendliness of people. I can see why you wanted to settle here with Rajvinder."
"It wasn't really my choice, not about coming to America and not about coming to California. I have cousins living in Los Angeles, close enough to keep an eye on me for my father, but not so close I would expect them to invite me to the family celebrations."
"That was their loss." Because Eliza just knew this woman would have made the two-and-a-half-hour drive to share family with her son.
"I think so too. I've made friends now to celebrate with, to share the culture of my homeland with my son and I learned to love my new home."
"I'm glad."
Barbie smiled. "So, you don't think you'll find it onerous to live here?"
"Live here?" They'd visit, of course, but live? "As heir to the Mahapatras dynasty, Rajvinder will be expected to live at the palace."
Barbie made a scoffing sound. "You have met my son, have you not?"
"Are you saying he's going to refuse to move to India? But that can't work. He'll be the prince. He needs to live in the palace."
"Perhaps you are right, dear." Barbie's expression and tone said the exact opposite. "But I have never known my son to allow anyone to set the terms of his life. I do not believe taking on the mantle of prince will change that."
"But tradition…"
"Is hardly a good reason for my son to do anything, in his mind anyway."
