The haveli, usually buzzing with the activity of servants and family, was eerily silent. The air hung heavy with the anticipation of the night, a night where the usual rules and restraints seemed to have been lifted, carried away with the rest of the household to the distant fair.

Shashwat, fueled by liquor and a simmering desire for Rani, felt a reckless abandon take hold. The forced civility, the suffocating weight of expectations, all seemed to dissolve under the intoxicating influence of the moonlit night.