“Close your mouth. Your mother’s watching,” whispered Isha, and I hastily dragged my eyes away from Samrat.
I stood back and allowed the staff to perform the traditional welcome, and waited for Samrat to approach me with Navya in tow. He looked as nervous as I felt, and the only one completely at ease was the curly-haired little girl, who smiled at me from the safety of her uncle’s arms.
“Hi, Navya. I’m very pleased to meet you,” I said, waving at her.
She waved back gaily and even blew me a kiss. My heart melted right then and there, and I wondered how Nilanjana could stay away from her daughter.
“Guys, we have a new fur baby,” I announced. “Hands up, whoever wants to see him!”
All hands went up, including little Jiya’s.
“Great! Once you all settle down in your rooms, I’ll take you around to meet him. It’s almost time for his afternoon feed.”
Seema and the staff led everyone to their rooms, but Samrat sent Navya up with her nanny and lingered for a bit.
“Is the new fur baby a dog or a cat?” he asked curiously.
I stared at him in surprise. Didn’t he know what we did here?
“I’ll let that be a surprise. As long as you’re not disappointed by what you find,” I teased.
An hour later, as they all stood in the sanctuary wearing overalls, masks, and gloves, I got to see the utter amazement on his face as he stared at the newest member of our family - a two-month-old leopard cub.
“Cat,” yelled Kuhu and Navya.
“Leopard,” I corrected them gently. “It’s a baby leopard. Who wants to see me burp a baby leopard?”
“Can I volunteer to do it?” asked Diya.
“Actually, we’re limiting the number of people who touch him because he’s still a baby. And we don’t want him to get too comfortable being touched by humans because that won’t be safe for him once we release him into the wild.”
“How long have you been doing this?” asked Samrat.
“For almost eight years now,” I told him, holding his thoughtful gaze, before I picked up the cub and burped him gently.
Shivina took some pictures of me cuddling the cub and playing with it, and then she took some candid pics of our whole group against the backdrop of Matta Palace.
“Guys, I’ve added Meher and Samrat to our WhatsApp group. Let’s all share these pics from our social media accounts to cement the impression that Samrat and Meher are dating again.”
“I’ll get my PR team to drop some tea on the Rajasthan Royals subreddit,” said Isha. “Their relationship is going to be trending by tomorrow, trust me.”
“Umm, guys…can we get some romantic pics under that grand chhatri-type structure?” asked Diya, pointing to one of the turrets in the palace. “For the ‘Gram.”
Shivina organised the nannies to take the kids over to the pool, and Diya and Isha forced us to pose together.
“Kiss…kiss…kiss,” they chanted, and I shook my head furiously.
“I’ll give you something even better,” said Samrat, forcing the girls to shut up.
He asked me to lean against the pillar, and as I looked up at him in confusion, he came very close to me, leaned forward, and rested his forearm against the pillar over my head.
My heart skipped a beat at the feel of his body so close to me, and I could feel my face flush.
Samrat’s eyes dropped to my lips, and just as he began to lean forward with intent, we heard Isha and Diya giggling.
Samrat pulled away hastily and turned to them with a scowl.
“All done? I hope you got some juicy pics.”
