Lakshmi's eyes slide across, where he indicates. Catching the shape of someone who looked - truly. Impossibly beautiful, and the company he was keeping. "He can keep them, I've no want to spend my days fawning with those that don't meant it." Oh, there were many things she missed of being Rani. A decently stocked armoury. Food that didn't have mould and maggots in it. Her elephants and her horses. Having as many baths a day as she felt like. Sleeping her nights all the way through in a comfortable bed. ( Her sons, her husband. )

But playing nice with foreign diplomats?

She snatches her hand to her veil, curling the material around to cover her laughter as it bubbles up. Low, thick, before she lets her gaze fall back on the man speaking to her.

"Perhaps they do. It's been a long time - " since what, she doesn't let it pass. Since any had insisted that it was her right. That she had thrown herself into battles that meant so much. That she deserved more than this. Her fingers tighten, scrunching the material, tugging it a little further down herself. Then let it fall away. "... I have made my reputation enough, for now." No one would be making assumptions about her, not putting her into a box that they found easier to make sense of. They would keep her distance. "But I can promise you. My dress - it is not for them. It is not for any of them. I am myself, that will be enough for me, for now."