LEGACY ||Indian Historical Fiction||

26|| THE SEALS

"Why did you hit Mahesh?" Tara asked standing before Abhik who had just finished strolling in the garden. He simply looked at her holding Mahesh's hand as if showcasing his bruises. As though it wasn't Abhik who struck him.

"You know I don't do something without a good enough reason." He simply fixed his uttariya.

"After you ran into him and I at the marketplace I should have known you'd do something like this." Tara accused earning a scoff out of Abhik.

"Why did you think that exactly?"

Tara stood with no answer, biting the inside of her mouth. She wished. Maybe only maybe he was jealous. She wasn't trying to make him jealous, of course not, but she hoped he felt at least some form of possessiveness on seeing her with someone else.

Abhik shot a dismissive look at Mahesh after which a guard pulled him away. He then raised his brow at Tara.

"I asked why you'd think that, Tara. I know what you're thinking. But frankly, the reason I hit your...suitor-"

"He's not my suitor."

"That's what Chavi told me. Anyway, it has nothing to do with you."

Tara was indeed disappointed. It was entirely different from what she had hoped. Somehow she'd wished, she reason would be her but she shook away her delusions.

"You thought I did that out of the sheer possibility of me feeling jealous, didn't you?" Abhik smiled but rather sadly, "Let's admit, neither of us have given either a chance to feel that way. I don't have such emotions towards you...only because I have no opportunities to develop them."

Tara lowered her head looking at her feet. She'd liked him for over a year and yet he hadn't caught on. Why did she expect anything different? Maybe some feelings are to be kept inside to always bloom or rot.

"Why did you hit him?" She asked.

"Are you this agitated because you like him? Wait. Don't answer that."

"Why not?"

"I believe a lady's business is her own. I won't pry into your life. Anyway, your suitor was caught stealing a ring worth a fortune from the jewellers' street. He made a run for it but unfortunately ran into me."

"Why would he do that?"

"Maybe he wanted to surprise the woman he was trying to pursue. Whatever the reason, it's a pity you are with a thief."

Tara met his eyes with a glare, "What would you rather I do? Be with you?"

Abhik pursed his lips, the intensity of what she said missed his brain completely as much as it did his conscience.

"No. I think we're better off our separate ways. But as your former king I only wish for your well-being. So maybe find someone who's not a thief." He smiled. It was not hard for him. He had not yet come to terms with the fact that he was a little bothered seeing Tara with Mahesh.

He didn't know of her feelings towards him. He very surely didn't feel Tara's comfort around him. He did not know too, that he'd just broken Tara's heart. He was not the kind of man, he believed, to pursue a woman against her evident discomfort towards him.

He bid her farewell and retired to his chambers.

•••

Chavi sat within the rooms of her academy, staring at the painted canvas before her. Right beside it was her mirror. She gazed at the two, both showing herself. But what resonated with the deepest corner of her heart was how the herself she saw in the mirror was no match to the richness of Darsh's painting.