Brandon

Both the days flew by in a blur as we visited beautiful palaces and historical monuments in Jaipur. We explored local markets, bargained like crazy and bought so many souvenirs. I even bought a pair of beautiful golden anklets for Sanjana when she wasn't looking, but I haven't found the opportunity to give it to her yet.

We've spent the days laughing over meaningless inside jokes, worrying about the unanswered questions looming over us, clicking ridiculous candid pictures of each other and uploading on social media, basically spending every waking moment of the day together, until we got tired and came back to the guest house for food and sleep.

We never ate out, and the one time we let a guide drag us to a pani puri corner just outside the Hawa Mahal, I almost decided to give in to the temptation and try it out. But, Sanjana stopped me.

"No Bran please, this is too spicy, you'll get sick. If you want, I'll ask the cook to prepare this without too much spices at guest house tonight, okay?"

Her words were so full of tenderness and concern, I couldn't find it in me to disagree. And, as promised, yesterday's dinner was preceded by home-made pani puri.

But the highlight of it all was tonight's visit to Chokhi Dhani village. We dressed up as local folk people - Sanjana in a Rajasthani lehenga choli and me in a dhoti kurta with pagdi. We danced to folk music, clicked numerous photos in ridiculous poses, tried a bumpy camel ride and even saw a puppet show.

It was an amazing experience and now as we arrive at the guest house, we're grinning like crazy and are thoroughly exhausted. 

"I can't believe that fortune teller was spewing such crap. Who's going to come back again and stab me in the back? I mean, I don't even know many people", Sanjana huffs in amusement at the last stop in the folk fair at Chokhi Dhani.

"These people are just minting money by fooling people like us, I don't even believe in this card-reading crap. Ignore it."

She grins and nods, and we start walking through the garden in guest house arm in arm.

But, before we can enter the guest house, a loud squeal of excitement stops us. I turn around and a pair of arms pull me forward and engulf me in a tight embrace.

"Hey B!! I missed you so much! How are you?"

"Ells? What are you doing here in India?"

I pull away from her embrace and I'm met with an excited grin on her face. Her short blonde hair cover her forehead and her emerald eyes glint with mischief.

"I've to attend a conference in Hong Kong tomorrow and I had layover in New Delhi today. I went to the address you had told me about before you left for India. I wanted to surprise you, but the housekeeper there told me you're here, so I decided to come meet you here."

"I would have come back in two days anyway, Ells, you didn't have to travel so much", I hit her head and shake my head at her crazy logic and antics.

"Yeah but I missed you, B. You don't answer my calls, just send short texts. And I saw your pictures all over social media, I thought I should also go and have some fun with you, even if for a few hours."

I roll my eyes at her, she can be really clingy sometimes.

"Fine, but if you have a conference tomorrow, when do you plan to have fun?"

"My flight is at 1pm tomorrow, we have all morning, now come on, introduce me to your friend here."

I turn towards Sanjana and find her looking at us with an unreadable expression. I introduce them, and as they shake hands, I notice Sanjana's smile looks forced.

"I'll ask the cook to prepare food for another guest, meanwhile you can go and freshen up, Ellie."

She turns to leave, but then halts hesitantly and turns around.

"I don't want to presume, so I'll just ask. Should I get another room prepared for you, Ellie?"

I frown at her question, what's that supposed to mean?

"Yes please, if that's not a problem. Otherwise I can stay at a nearby hotel."

Sanjana shakes her head with another fake smile, "No problem at all, come inside. Bran, will you show her the room next to yours? I'll send a helper to clean up and prepare the room for her."

I nod, and Sanjana hurries back inside, Ells takes my arm and drags me in too, chatting animatedly about everything I missed back at office. I'm not paying much attention though, just nodding and humming along, as my mind tries unsuccessfully to make sense of what the hell just happened.

I show Ells to her room and excuse myself to freshen up after a tiring day. 

About an hour later, a house helper calls me for dinner. When I reach the dining area, Sanjana is already sitting at the table, fiddling with her phone.

"Hey", I say gently, trying to guess her mood.

"Hey Bran, see I was checking out tonight's pictures, we look like two nincompoops", she grins and I'm relieved to see it's genuine.

We check out several pictures of the day, and shortlist a few that we both decide to upload to social media after dinner. When we are almost finished, Ells comes skipping into the room.

"Hey guys! I'm famished", she begins to check out various dishes on the table and makes faces at all of them.

"What's all this?", She looks at me with raised brows.

"This is Indian food, Ells. The cook prepares various  recipes from all over the country with less spices and moderate oil, so I can enjoy the local cuisine without affecting my immunity. All thanks to Sanjana, here."

Ells turns to Sanjana, with a huge grin plastered on her face. 

"You're awesome, girl. You're spoiling this bimbo here. Don't pamper him so much, he might decide to exploit your kindness and overstay his welcome, just for this delicious looking food."

I smirk at the amused expression on Sanjana's face at Ells' words. 

"He's welcome to stay as long as he wants, Ellie. As are you. Trust me, it's a pleasure to have such amazing company around, your friend is a gem. I've thoroughly enjoyed his stay so far."

I raise my brow at her choice of words.

"Flattery will get you nowhere, princess. And, I'm your friend too, you'll do best to remember that."

Sanjana smiles sheepishly at my words, but Ells goes strangely silent. I turn to look at her and find her stuffing her face with food. I snort at her, and go back to serving myself.

We chat amicably over dinner and discuss various plans about tomorrow's itinerary. Sanjana offhandedly mentions our old plans to visit the museum early morning, but I shake my head at her immediately. I don't want to go there with Ells, she's neither empathetic nor supportive of my pursuit of answers to the reoccurring dreams.

Sanjana takes the hint and turns the conversation towards the monuments we are yet to explore.

Ells yawns repeatedly, then finally decides to retire to her room early as she's thoroughly jet-lagged after the long flight, so I ask Sanjana to join me for a walk in the garden.

We walk in peace under the silvery moonlight for several minutes, until she finally break the silence.

"She's an energetic one", Sanjana says with a half smile and I chuckle in response.

"You mean she's a chatterbox, yes. She's an idiot really, who travels so much just to meet someone for a few hours?"

"Someone who really cares about you", she says absently, but I don't miss the meaning behind her words. I ponder over her words silently, until her earlier words come back to me and I finally understand  them. I smile to myself at her adorable ways.

"What did you mean earlier, princess, when you asked her about the room? What didn't you want to presume?"

She looks ahead in a clear attempt to avoid meeting my eyes. I can see her throat moving nervously as she gulps.

"I meant exactly what I said, Brandon."

"It's Bran to you, princess."

Her eyes snap towards me, and snap back ahead at the same speed.

"You were asking if she'll share my room indirectly, weren't you?"

"I just wanted to check, I mean, you both are obviously close and she came all this way to meet you. She said she missed you so much, it's hardly been a week, and the way she hugged you when she arrived," she shakes her head dismissively, "I'm sorry, I don't even know what I'm doing or why, it's not my place to judge or say anything."

I hold her arms gently and turn her to face me. A stray tuft of her soft, black hair falls over her face, and I tuck it behind her ear gently.

"She's just a friend, princess. My best friend. We've been together since childhood, we went to college together, then started business together, we work together everyday. You're right, we're close, and she probably really missed me because we haven't been apart much. And yes, she cares about me and so do I. But truthfully, I didn't miss her at all. I enjoyed every moment spent with you, I didn't have any time to miss anyone."

She gulps visibly and nods with another forced smile.

I lift my hands from her arms to cup her beautiful face gently, "Princess, you've to trust me."

"I trust you, Bran, it's just that we've been spending so much time together, I forgot you've your own life back in US. I've got too attached to you and we've just met less than a week ago. Soon you'll go back to your old life and I'll go back to mine. She just came as an abrupt reminder of that, I guess."

"All that's in the future, princess, we'll figure it out together. And, I want you to know what we have is very special to me, and I intend to treasure it no matter where life takes us. Do you feel the same way?"

"Yeah."

I smile from ear to ear and a slow smile finally breaks on her face too. I rub my thumb on her soft cheeks gently and as I place a small kiss to her forehead, I hear her sighing in contentment.

"Then you've nothing to worry about, princess. Here, I bought something for you yesterday", I tell her as I take out the pair of anklets and place it in her hands.

"They're so pretty", she says excitedly and I can't stop the cheesy words that slip out from my mouth in response.

"Not as pretty as my princess."

She blushes a beautiful shade of crimson and I chuckle. I take the anklets from her hand one by one and help her put them on.

"Bran, this brings a strange sense of deja vu. Did you know I feel a strange sort of attachment to my anklets in my dream too?"

My eyebrows shoot up in surprise.

"You think somebody gifted those to you as well? Just like this?"

"If we go by your dreams, there is a possibility that it was probably you who gifted those to me too."

I grin in response, "I certainly hope so."

______

The next morning, Ells, Princess and I visit Jantar Mantar, Jal Mahal and a nearby market quickly, before it's finally time for Ells to leave. 

"I'll miss you, B. Come soon, okay?"

"Of course, Ells, you're so dramatic. Go inside, before you miss the flight."

She grins and hugs me tightly. Then, she turns to Sanjana and hugs her tightly as well, taking her completely by surprise. I chuckle at her shocked expression.

"Thanks for having me, Sanjana, and for tolerating this obsessive baboon. I hope we'll meet again sometime." I glare at Ells for calling me that.

"You're always welcome here, Ellie. If you ever visit India again, just give me a call. And don't worry too much about Bran, he's in good hands."

Sanjana smiles adorably, her eyes shining with a sincerity that makes my heart skip a beat. Ells nods and hugs me again, then leaves towards the departure gates of Jaipur Airport, her bag trailing behind her.

I pull Sanjana into a half hug as we turn back around towards our car to resume our journey to the Jaipur Royal Museum. When she leans into my embrace, I can't help but sigh in contentment.

After a few minutes of comfortably silent journey in our car, we arrive at our destination and show our express permission letter to visit restricted royal section. Once they verify the authenticity of the permission, we're taken away from the normal entrance where the other tourists are. Several formalities, signatures and warnings later, we finally find ourselves amongst several books that could have answers to all our questions.

"This shelf here contains all books of early twentieth century. And these scrapbooks contain important newspaper clippings related to royal family. If you need anything else, come find me at the reception."

Before the museum's head caretaker leaves, Sanjana stops him, "Do you have any special section for British officials during that time?"

"This is a royal library ma'am, the focus is on royal family only. Excuse me."

He says and leaves us alone in the library. We share a look, take a deep breath and start looking through the artefacts. Sanjana takes the scrapbook with newspaper clippings and I take up one of the books on history of Amer Palace.

Several hours and books later, a loud gasp from Sanjana pulls me out of a book about the wedding celebration history of the King with one of his several queens.

"What is it?" I ask impatiently and she beckons me towards her excitedly. I abandon my seat and rush towards the table where she's checking out the scrapbooks, and stand behind her chair. My sight falls on the picture on the opened newspaper clippings of July 24, 1921, where Sanjana's hand is caressing the photograph beside the article reverently.

There we both stand, in all our century old glory, surrounded by several other royals, attending the wedding celebration of Jaipur's Princess Vaani Singh.

Viceroy Lord David Evans and Princess Inaayat Sultana Mahal of Agra

Dressed in the same attire from my dream, both adorning matching, beaming smiles, the faces that look back at us from the clipping are so identical to our own, anybody would think we just changed into costumes of a period drama at first glance. But if you look closely, the differences are subtle, there are hardened lines around the eyes of my battle expert alter ego, and there is a soft gentleness in features of his warrior princess. What matters the most though, is that it's truly us, we're both truly intertwined in some fabric of fate that extends beyond all logical and scientific reasoning. It has brought us here together again, about a hundred years later, on an adventure to uncover secrets buried beyond threads of time. And now, we even have names to remember our past selves by.

"Inaayat", I whisper gently, the name sending shivers down my spine. Sanjana shudders visibly when the tiny sound echoes through the abandoned hall.

"Lord Evans", she whispers in response, and I find a part of myself reacting to the inexplicably welcome name.

I place my hand on her shoulder adoringly, and her hand finds mine and squeezes it in equal enthusiasm.

"How far is Agra?" I ask excitedly.

"Not too far", she grins in response.

I look back at the image and sigh in something that is a cross between thrill and relief. The most important piece of puzzle finally fell into place. She's truly my princess.

"So you were right about seeing me in your dream." She whispers with a gulp, probably reaching the same conclusion too.

"Yes, and you were right about not relating much to Amer Palace. You were in Jaipur just to attend a wedding, and it was probably the celebration at which we share a dance in my dream. I was probably stationed here longer before that, hence my better attachment to the place. It's just a theory though.."

She nods in understanding, but then her gentle smile slowly wears off.

"What about your flight back to US on Sunday?"

I raise by brows at the apprehension in her voice and grin at her. 

"You're not getting rid of me so soon, princess. What did you think? That I'm going to let you face the rest of this on your own? We'll tackle whatever comes together princess, just like we decided. I'm cancelling that flight, I'm not running away from us now. I don't care how long it takes us to get to the bottom of all this, I'm staying right here with you. I hope we'll find more about your dream as well as the rest of mine in Agra. You'll make arrangements for our stay there, yes?"

Her smile creeps back slowly at my words, and she nods.

"Sure, but we don't have a large guest house in Agra, just a small cottage. Should I book a hotel or do you want to rent a villa maybe?"

I kiss her forehead gently, with a small smile, "The cottage will be perfect."

Her wide, priceless smile steals my breath away.

_________