Mish' Fiction

She thought about everything that had transpired since the evening. She had seen her sister practicing, her husband coming there, practicing with her and losing to her in distraction. She had noticed how his invitation for jungle ride had been extended and how Chandrika had been uncomfortable about it. Tactful as Madhumita was, she had made friends with even her husband’s mistresses who stayed in antahpur. Because of these friendships, she knew more about his preferences than wives usually do. And knowing them, she was not surprised that he had fallen hard for her eccentric, wild and unfeminine, but beautiful and lively sister. And marrying him would be the best thing to happen to Chandrika. She would not be expected to change herself. The duties of antahpur and that of a queen would be discharged by Madhumita. The sisters would stay close and Madhu would be able to continue to protect her against the worldly intrigues that Chandrika had no ability to understand or take interest in.

It would be good for her too. Unlike her baby sister, Madhumita knew better than to expect that she could keep her husband’s affections all to herself. Sooner or later a rival would arrive. Instead of it being a mistress, or a princess from some other state, it would be better if it was her devoted sister. She wouldn’t plot against her or her children and would love them as her own.

Besides, Madhu knew that even Chandrika had a soft corner for Bhumimitra in her heart. The mortification she had felt today was not just because she had been scolded. But because she had been scolded by him! She was ashamed of not having lived up to his expectations.

Everything would be perfect, except that her silly sister would not accept the situation. She had gotten this notion in her head that she would not be a rival to her sister. And making her accept anything against her understanding was close to impossible. What was Madhu to do?

—

It had been two days and Chandrika had still not come out of her room. They could find nothing wrong with her, but she complained of weakness. Bhumimitra could not hold back any longer. He reached her room unannounced and indicated to her attendants to leave them alone.

She greeted him silently by folding her hands and made to get out of the bed, but he motioned her not to. So, she remained seated, resting her back against the headboard. He paced anxiously near her and then asked suddenly. “Why? Why are you doing this? What has happened?”

“I am just ill, Maharaj. I will fine in few days.”

But he seemed not to have heard her at all, “I scolded you. I agree that I was rude. Too rude, probably. But must you take it to heart like this? I didn’t scold as a king, or even as your guardian. Don’t you understand why I scolded you?”

“Because I had been irresponsible towards…”

“Hell no! You are not such a dimwit, Chandrika. I didn’t scold you because of your friends. I was perfectly capable of taking care of them. I was angry because… Oh God! Because I was worried about you. Don’t you understand that?”

“I’m a tiresome ward for you, Maharaj. You should send me away.”

“Send you away? That is your solution? Send you away? You simpleton… But why am I doing this? No. I must come to the point. Otherwise you will keep pretending to not understand. I am not going to send you away, Chandrika. What I am going to do is to marry you and keep you with me. Forever.”

“That is not possible,” her voice quivered.

“Why not?”

“Maharaj. It isn’t right.”

He hesitated this time. When he spoke again, his voice was somber and calm, not agitated and urgent like earlier. “Have I overlooked something? Are you betrothed to someone? Or would like to be?”

For a moment, she almost felt like saying ‘yes’ to that. That would make him back off. But where would she bring a lover from when he would want to meet him? So, she shook her head honestly.

“Are you afraid that your sister will object?” He was now trying to cool-headedly think of all the possibilities behind her objection? But she shook her head again.

“What is it then? Something tells me that the objection is not your heart. But if it is, you will have to tell me. If it is somewhere else, then also you will have to tell me.”

“You will not understand, Maharaj. You must let me go.”

“Let you go? You are not the prisoner, Chadrika. I am. Of my desires and passion and love for you. I will wait until you think me capable enough to understand.”

“You can’t wait forever,” she said querulously.

“Why not?”

“Will you marry me forcefully? Without my consent?”

“Never.”

“But I must get married. Once I do, I will belong to another man. You can’t keep desiring me then.”

“Who will you get married to?”

“I don’t know. As the head of the family, it is your responsibility to get me married.”

“Chandrika!” Her insolence infuriated him. She trembled visibly. Seeing her condition, his anger vanished almost as quickly as it had arisen. He laughed out loud. “Oh! You ridiculous woman. If I as much as lift my eyebrows, you start trembling like a dry leaf. And yet, you wouldn’t let a single chance of infuriating me slip by. What am I to do with you?”

“That wasn’t my intention, Sir. I am sorry,” she said in a small voice.

“I know. You don’t intend to do it. It is just in your nature to make me lose my mind,” he said, looking amused, “And I am pathological enough to love it. So, here is the deal, Chandrika. Either you will surrender to me, or you will take me into confidence and share the reason for your objection. Until then, don’t expect me to do my duty of getting your married. I will shirk it all my life if needed. I don’t care what people say.”

He paused to see he she would say something. But she just sat there with bowed head.

“And for God’s sake, get out of this sick bed. I am going to send your maids back to help you dress up. I expect you to join your sister for lunch as you always do. And I will come to the courtyard in the evening. We will practice sword-fighting. I can teach you to do better.”

He didn’t bother with the formalities of greetings and walked out. Only then did she lift her eyes and look at his receding form longingly.

—

To be continued

Chandrika was stupefied. The situation was uncomfortable enough as it was. Now this invitation. What was she to do? Refusing him would be rude and he might find it insulting. But she didn’t want to be alone with him. Madhumita accompanying them would have been the best. But she was not much of a horse-rider and it was definitely not safe in her current situation. Oh Lord! Just before she had resigned to her fate, an idea struck her.

“I will ask my friends to get ready.”

“Do they ride?” he raised his eyebrows.

“Many of them do.” With her own entourage, she could be comfortable.

She had wanted to meet Madhumita before leaving, but was informed that she had gone for a walk in the garden. He couldn’t make Bhumimitra wait until Madhu could be called back. So, reluctantly, she left with him.

But once inside the jungle, she lost all sense of caution and propriety. She was in the open wilderness after long. She rode so carelessly and so fast that nobody other than Bhumimitra was able to keep pace with her. Finally fearing that everyone would get lost, he asked her friends to wait at a marked place. While doing that, he also lost track of her for a while. But he re-located her soon.

“Chandrika!” he shouted after her, “Stop and get down. Right at this moment. Now!”

Him addressing her angrily by her first name sent tremors down her body. Scared to the core, she stopped and got down as he had ordered. He caught up with her and continued in the same tone. “What do you think you are doing? Where are you going without a care in the world? How would you have come back?”

“I… I was… marking the trees. I… would know… how to come back,” she stuttered her response.

He frowned, “Marking the trees? You mean like the jungle-dwellers do?”

She nodded. She had those skills too! If he had not been so angry, he would really have been impressed. But right now his mood didn’t allow him to be indulgent.

“You had come with your friends, right? What about them? Do they also know this voodoo of marking the trees? Who was responsible for them?”

This complain was genuine. She was ashamed and stood with bowed head. She had completely disregarded others in savoring her delight of the jungle.

“Come back with me now,” he ordered and she followed him meekly.

—

“Madhu!” she ran to her sister and put her head in her lap. Then she started crying.

“What… What happened, Chanda? You were with Maharaj, right? Riding?”

“Keep me away from him, Madhu. Send me back to Chandranagar. Or lock me up in a room.”

“Don’t scare me like this, my sister. Tell me. What has happened? Why are you crying?”

Through her tears and hiccups, she somehow managed to tell Madhu about how Bhumimitra knew about her jungle sojourns in Chandranagar. And also what happened during the ride that day.

Before Madhu could react or assure her, Bhumimitra was announced. Chandrika jumped out of the bed and made to leave as she always did when he came to her sister’s room. But before she could leave, he had already come in. He looked relieved on finding her there and stopped her. “Please do not leave, Princess.”

Chandrika froze right where she was. She kept her eyes downcast. Madhumita could not bear to see her sister like that. She did have motherly instincts for her.

“It’s all right, Chanda. You made a mistake. Everybody does. Just apologize. He will forgive you, won’t you Maharaj?”

“She has apologized already. She doesn’t need to,” Bhumimitra lied. She had been too stunned with his angry reproof to open her mouth even to apologize and had ridden back in silence beside him. He repented being so stern on seeing how miserable she was, “It was I who wanted to apologize. I was very rude to you, Princess. I had no business scolding you like that. I am sorry.”

Chandrika stood still, neither uttering a word, nor showing any change in her countenance.

Madhumita was flustered at her reaction, or the lack of it. She should have been quick to say that he needn’t apologize and as the head of the family it was his right to reprimand her if she made a mistake. But she was just standing there like a statue.

“Chanda. That’s so rude. Say something,” she prodded her sister.

“Let her be, Rani Madhumita. You can go, Princess.” As soon as the permission was uttered, she ran away from there.

“I apologize on her behalf, Swami,” she addressed him not as Maharaj but as her husband in private, “She isn’t the most tactful woman you would see. She has grown up motherless and is…”

“It’s all right, Madhu, it really is. It wasn’t her fault. I also know what she is like. I should have been more careful in chaperoning her. Don’t badger her about it. I hate to see her distressed. And you too. Don’t stress yourself in your current situation. Had Vaidyaraj come to see you today?”

“Yes. He had,” she replied and looked gratefully at her husband. He was a kind and generous man. It was possible to fall in love with him. Not just out of duty, but because of his persona.

“I am going to see Maharani Padmaja,” he said, “Will you please check up on Princess and assure her that she need not be distressed.”

“I will do that, Swami. Don’t worry about her.”

—

Chandrika’s maid informed Madhu that she had already gone to the bed.

“So early?” This was another peculiarity of Chandrika. She was a night owl. She often painted or read till late into the night.

“She said she wasn’t feeling well.”

“Is she unwell? What happened?”

“I checked her forehead and pulse. There were no signs of fever. I think she might be tired after the jungle excursion. She rode too fast. Maharaj had to go after her to bring her back.”

“Hmm…” Madhumita went in to check for herself.  There were indeed no signs of fever. But she probably wanted to sleep her moroseness out. So, Madhumita decided not to wake her up and came back to her room.

—

To be continued

Bhumimitra had been an effective administrator since he was very young. It hadn’t been so for no reason.  He knew people. He could detect a lie in shrewdest of the people, in the most conniving of women. Princess Chandrika was far too simple. He could see that she was being truthful when she said that her father didn’t know. But not so in case of her sister. But he wasn’t going to give her grief about that. What had impressed him was how much she cared for her sister. Coming forward to talk about this could not have been an easy decision. She could have stayed away, pretending to not know him. But she didn’t do that. It showed such simplicity, and so much sensitivity. She was not of this world!

“I understand,” he replied in as reassuring a tone as he could manage.

“I am really grateful for that, Maharaj. And I assure you that you will not have to trouble yourself on my account in future. I will have the plan changed so that I do not accompany Madhu to Raigarh…”

“You must not do anything like that, Princess. I’m sorry if my assurance was not emphatic enough. I have taken no offence at all. In fact, your presence there was godsend for me. Else I would have eaten that fruit and would have fallen sick on such an important day.”

She sighed on hearing that. She had forgotten about the fruit altogether.

“Besides, I would hate to disappoint your sister, who would be looking forward to your company in her new home,” he added.

Their eyes met for a moment. And for some reason, Chandrika felt that he wasn’t really thinking about Madhumita when he said that. She averted her eyes immediately.

“I will get going,” she said and got up, “My sister will be here shortly.” It was their wedding night and Madhumita was already getting ready.

He nodded and sat up to see her off. She stopped abruptly at the door, turned back and started speaking on an impulse, “I didn’t want to scare you then. But the effects of that fruit are more dreadful than just an upset stomach. If it is not treated in time, and often it is not, because people think of the symptom as regular stomach upset, it can be fatal. That fruit can be processed to make a very potent, quick-acting poison. So, yes – despite the embarrassments it caused, even I am happy that I was there.” And she left.

—

When Chandrika left, a stupefied Bhummimitra immediately sent for the doctor who was traveling with him. He had brought the fruit back with him from the jungle. He showed it to the doctor and asked about the edibility of the fruit. The doctor corroborated the effects that Chandrika had mentioned including potential fatality.

“Who gave it to you, Maharaj?” the doctor asked with concern. Was there some danger? Was someone trying to kill him?

“Nobody gave it to me, Vaidyaraj. Someone stopped me from eating it. Someone saved my life.”

Soon after the doctor left, a shy and nervous Madhumita was pushed into his room by her giggling friends. As they greeted each other and walked to the bed, he noticed that that she was beautiful. Not wild like Chandrika, but gracefully beautiful. The sisters did share a lot of facial features though.

The short conversation he had with Madhumita convinced him that she had all the tact and understanding to make a good queen. Ever since his first wife had lost the hope of conceiving, she had been disinterested in her family and royal duties. She spent most of her time in her temple. The antahpur, being managed by servants and relatives, was not in a great shape. Bhumimitra was worried about the politics going on there. So, he was relieved when he felt that antahpur could be entrusted to Madhumita.

And yet, as he took her to bed, he could not help fantasizing about Chandrika. It didn’t help that they had similar looks. While his wife would make him a great queen, it was her sister who excited a lover’s passion in him. How messed up things could be!

—

“Bravo!” his voice startled everyone in the courtyard. Chandrika was practicing sword-fighting with her friends. Her opponent had just lost her sword and Chandrika had her at her mercy.

Everyone stood up startled and bowed to him, including Chandrika. Then her friends looked at her to see if she wanted them to do anything specific. Since that was not the case, they left, leaving them alone. Chandrika knew, though, that they were not alone. Madhumita, pregnant with her first child, had been watching from the balcony upstairs while they practiced. There was no reason that she would have left now. But Bhumimitra was not aware of her presence.

“I had no idea that you are not just an expert in jungle’s flora and fauna, but sword-fighting too.”

“I am no expert, Sir. I do not get to practice with professionals, just my friends, who are worse than I am.”

“Would you like to practice with me?”

“You Sir?” she smiled dismissively, “You are very indulgent. But I’m sure there are more important demands on your time.”

“Don’t worry about that. Humor me.”

“Now?”

“Why not? Are you tired?”

“No. Not in the least.”

As Chandrika knew very well, she was no match for Bhumimitra. He fought seriously and put her on defensive from the very beginning. She was sweating profusely soon enough. It was then that his eyes fell on a bead of sweat falling from her temples and running down her cheek. He was distracted. And in an aggressive move that surprised Chandrika herself, she was able to break his sword.

“Whoa!” he exclaimed and then started laughing, “A man has to fight much more than bodily strength and skills with swords.”

She flushed knowing fully well what he was referring to, and also with the realization that her sister was watching all this and she would have understood as well.

“Anyway Princess. I had come to you with a different request. I am afraid you would be getting rather bored in the antahpur. I was thinking of taking a ride in the jungle. There is one that starts barely five miles from here. Would you like to accompany me?”

—

To be continued

Bhumimitra keenly observed as his bride walked to the mandap. She had her veil on and walked with bowed head as modesty demanded. So, he could not make out her face. He tried to focus on her height and gait. Could it really be she? No. She was of shorter height and heavier built than the girl in the jungle. A prank it was then. He was about to slip into his usual disinterestedness in the proceedings, when he felt someone’s looking at him. Not liked other curious guests, but… He looked in that direction and found himself staring into a pair of shocked and terrified eyes. But they still and there was no mistaking them. She had obviously recognized him and was anxious about the consequences. Who was she? She was walking with the bride. Some companion playing the prank in the name of her mistress, he thought at first. But then he noticed her dress and jewelry. Those were next to only bride in their splendor. And then it struck him. It was no prank. She was Maharaj Chandravarna’s daughter, all right. But not the one he was getting married too. The younger one. He tried to think what her name was, but could not remember. He hadn’t been paying attention when he was getting those details. The only reason he remembered his bride’s name was because he had seen the invitations being sent out.

Even though he could marry her if he wanted, but today he was marrying Madhumita. And fantasizing about her sister on their wedding day just didn’t seem right. He averted his eyes and tried to focus on the ongoing rituals.

—

Chandrika felt her world coming tumbling down the moment she laid her eyes on King Bhumimitra. She had tugged at her dupatta to cover her face before he could see her. But it was her sister’s wedding at her father’s place. She hadn’t planned on being in purdah and her dupatta was not arranged to allow it. Before she could think of an alternative, he had already seen her. If her presence weren’t required for several of the rituals, she would have fled the scene. But as the luck would have it, she was obliged to sit next to her sister throughout the wedding, and in consequence, to be in close proximity with him. He did not give any signs of remembering the jungle-meeting all this while, but she knew better.

Chandrika lingered around the room in antahpur where Bhumimitra was staying after the wedding. She had to meet him and clear the air somehow. He was supposed to be resting; so just barging in won’t do. She was cursing herself for her recklessness. Of all the things, why had she introduced herself to him? If she hadn’t declared who she was, she could now have pretended that she had nothing to with the jungle and he must be confusing her with someone else. She didn’t usually go about revealing her identity when she rode around. But it was her last time there. Once she went to Raigarh with her sister, she knew that she would be confined to the antahpur. She couldn’t take these liberties there. That’s why the heedlessness had taken hold on her. Announcing who she was had felt empowering. Nobody was going to see her in those jungles again. And if some soldier did claim to have met the princess of Chandranagar there, who would believe him? If only she had known what potential calamity she was bringing upon herself, and more disastrously, on her sister in that one rash moment…

She saw a maid going in with a glass of juice and some refreshments. “Is Maharaj Bhumimitra awake?” Chandrika intercepted her and asked.

“Yes Princess. And he has asked for these…”

“Let me take it…”

“You Princess?” the maid was appalled at the idea of her mistress doing this, “Am I doing something wrong? There hasn’t been a royal wedding in years here. But we are trying our best…”

“Nothing is wrong, Champa. But nothing is wrong in me carrying it either. He is our guest, isn’t he? And the son-in-law of the royal family. Don’t worry. Give it to me. And stay around in case he wants something else.”

“As you say, Princess,” the maid reluctantly handed over the tray to her.

Bhumimitra and his aide were also startled when they saw who had come with the tray. Bhumimitra stood up. The orderly did not need to wait for his master’s signal. He hurriedly took the tray from her and set it on the table. Bhumimitra and Chandrika exchanged greetings silently by folding their hands to each other. Then he motioned his orderly to leave.

“Princess Chandrika. You need not have troubled yourself,” Bhumimitra spoke as soon as they were alone. He had found out her name by then.

“You are the most important guest this palace has ever seen, Maharaj. There can be nothing wrong in my being of service to you.”

“Please do have a seat,” he waited for her to sit down and took a seat himself before continuing, “You are too humble, Princess. I appreciate it. But you must not do this again. Servants will do just fine for me. Your people here are well-behaved and well-trained. They have not given me any reasons to complain till now.”

“I’m glad to hear that, Sir. And I am sorry that my actions repeatedly offend your sensibilities. I will try to stay out of your way from now on. But for the sake of my family and my sister’s honor, I must explain one of them.”

Bhumimitra knew where this was going, but he waited for her to complete.

“Firstly I must apologize. My address to your in our earlier meeting was crude. I did not recognize you…”

“You weren’t supposed to. That was the whole point of disguise.”

“My presence there itself was offence enough. But I assure you, Sir, that I had no dishonorable motives in my jungle trip. I just love being there for myself. But it doesn’t reflect in anyway on my father or my sister. Despite my childish boast, my father knows nothing about my sojourns there. He wouldn’t have allowed it. Nor would my sister.”

—

To be continued

“Oh Madhu!” Chandrika put her arms around her elder sister, who was painstakingly getting ready for her wedding. “Aren’t you scared? Not even a little bit?”

“What should I be scared of, Chanda?” Between the sisters, they didn’t speak Sanskrit. They spoke the commoner’s language which they used with their friends and servants too.  That’s how her pet name did not sound out of place in their conversation.

“He is married already.”

Madhumita chuckled, “Oh my baby sister. For how long will you remain a baby? Since when has it become news that kings have multiple wives? And in this case, it is hardly a concern. I am the one who will have his heir.”

“But his affection? Who will have that?”

“None of his wives, in all likelihood. It is probably a mistress who already has all his affection. Why worry about all that?”

“It’s not like they stop when they have an heir. When they have mistresses to fulfill other needs, for providing variety and for doing all their biddings, why do they still keep marrying?”

“It’s politics, Chanda. Why do you think this wedding is happening? Any princess could have given him an heir. But only this alliance could have given him Chandranagar.”

“But our father never remarried. Even after mother passed away…”

“May be he made a mistake, Chanda. May be he should have married. Then we would have had more well-wishers and friends.”

This brought tears to both their eyes. With their father’s failing health, things hadn’t been easy on them. Their mother had died when Chandrika was little. They had no brother and their father never remarried. Now all sorts of relatives had their eyes on the riches of the family and kingdom. They were going to depend on Bhumimitra now to keep them at bay.

“What are you sisters crying for?” Mrinalini, one of their friends and companions, came in just then. “Princess Chandrika, you are also going with Princess Madhumita. What are those tears for, then? It is not like you are going to be separated.”

The sisters forced a smile on their lips. They couldn’t have discussed their troubles, especially the political ones, with their companions.  Younger sister accompanying the elder sister marrying a king was a common tradition in their age. This kept them from being lonely. The younger sister could also be married to the king later, if he so wished. Else she would be found a suitable groom in the royal family. In this case, however, there was a very practical reason for Chandrika going with Madhumita. The political intrigues of the court were always reflected in the dynamics of antahpur too. The same enemies who were a danger to King Chandravarna, also had their shadows in the antahpur. Chandrika was not worldly-wise like her sister. She wouldn’t have been able to protect herself against the intrigues once Madhumita went away. She had to go with her for her safety. But all this could not be told to Mrinalini.

“Why Mrinalini? You aren’t sparing a thought about us leaving our father behind. Don’t you think we will miss him?” Madhumita came up with an alibi for their tears.

“Ah! You princess, once you are in your husband’s arm, would not have a thought to spare for your father. I can grant that princess Chandrika would indeed miss him.”

“Why? If it is only about finding a husband and she would be comfortable away from her father’s home, then we will find her one quickly,” grinned Madhumita, “Probably Maharaj himself…”

“Madhu!”

“Well.. My kid sister wants Shri Rama for a husband, who would promise to be faithful only to her…”

“God forbid anyone should have Shri Rama for a husband who would throw her out at the slightest pretext! Madhu…” she had started off bitterly at the mention of Shri Rama, but grew emotional as she came to her point, “You are not just a sister to me, Madhu. You are my mother. You have brought me up like one. You have protected me like one. How can I ever be a rival to you? No. You must not say such things. Otherwise I will not go with you. Let me perish, if that’s what must happen.”

“Oh Chanda. My baby,” Madhumita hugged her sister tight, not only to comfort her, but also to stop her from speaking too much while Mrinalini was still there. “Mrinalini. She is worried about nothing except her jungle sojourns coming to an end,” Madhumita continued jocularly, “And that, I am afraid, you must give up, Chanda. Else it would create an unprecedented commotion at Raigarh palace.”

Chandrika smiled understanding that her sister was trying to lighten the mood. “Don’t worry,” she assured her sister.

“By the way, if anyone is interested,” Mrinalini said excitedly, “I have some reports of what Maharaj of Raigarh looks like.”

Chandrika noticed that despite the cold practicality with which her sister regarded royal marriages, her eyes shone at the mention of her groom’s name. But she wouldn’t say anything out of modesty. So, Chandrika decided to come to her rescue and asked, “Out with it, Mrinalini. What does he look like?”

“Like Lord Krishna…”

“He is dark-skinned?” Chandrika made a face to tease her sister, whose face fell.

“Oh no, Princess. How you twist my words. What I meant is that he had those looks which would make any woman swoon. He could have women eating out of his hands like Lord Krishna. And fair as marble if you must know. You know what they say? That he has led thirty-six wars and won all of them. But nothing in his countenance looks like he is a war-torn soldier, so perfectly groomed he is. He is war-toughened, I would say.”

Chandrika winked at her sister. But her thoughts, at that description, went back to the soldier she had met in the jungle yesterday. Fair as marble. That he was! And didn’t look war-torn at all. Was he even a soldier? “You are tempting my sister, Mrinalini,” she said outwardly.

“Are you tempted too, Princess Chandrika?”

“Shut up, Mrinalini. Else I swear I will have your skin ripped off.”

Mrinalini grinned insolently and then went away on some errand.

—

To be continued

“Oh Soldier! You cannot be a native.”

The voice had been startling enough, and he turned to meet a sight no less astonishing. A young woman, dressed in a curious mix of men’s and women’s clothes, was riding a horse skilfully. She came to stop near him.

“Why would you think so?” he asked cautiously, though still disconcerted by the absurdity of the situation. There was nothing in the soldier’s attire to give away that he did not belong to the place. She couldn’t have divined it from his speech, because she hadn’t heard him speak till then. And what on earth was a woman doing in a jungle, dressed like that, riding a horse? Did they have female dacoits in this area?

“If you were, you would have known better than to pluck that fruit to eat. You won’t have any control over your stomach from the moment you as much as smell it.”

“Is that so?”

“You can try. But don’t tell me I didn’t warn.”

“It seems like a divine warning. I won’t dare.”

“Divine?” she frowned.

“Well – it isn’t every day that I see women riding horses and cautioning soldiers. Either you are a dacoit, or an incarnation of Devi Durga. And you look too kind, despite your severe clothing, to be the former.”

She laughed. He had never heard a woman laugh like that. It was a hearty laughter. A laughter with no pretense, not agenda, no hidden motive, nothing except the expression of amusement she felt. He found himself mesmerized by it and had to exert some efforts to come to himself.

“I am sorry to disappoint,” said the woman with a mischievous glint in her eyes, “That I am neither a dacoit, nor an incarnation of someone divine. I am a mortal woman.”

“Am I to understand then that citizens of Chandranagar are used to sights such as these?” he referred to her attire and horse-riding.

“Not at all.”

“How am I, an outsider, so fortunate then?”

“Because you have had the fortune of meeting King Chandravarna’s daughter,” she said haughtily, “Nobody can stop me from doing what I want.” With she turned her horse back, and before he could recover from the shock her declaration had caused, she was out of his sight.

—

King Bhumimitra returned to his quarters in Chandranagar’s royal guest house. His impending wedding to Chandranagar’s pricess Madhumita was arranged with the view of making the two states allies. King Chandravarna had no son of his own. It was decided that Madhumita’s eldest son would succeed him to the throne of Chandranagar, apart from the Bhanumitra’s own kingdom of Raigarh. What was also implied, but not said, was that given King Chandravarna’s age and falling health, Bhumimitra would be the practical ruler of Chandranagar too, until the son was born and was of age to hold the reins of the kingdom.

His sojourn in the jungle was a preparation for the responsibility of managing Chandranagar that was to fall on him with the wedding. If he had to rule the state, he needed to know the terrain, the people and everything about the kingdom. He wasn’t the kind of depend on his assistants for ground-work. It was a recipe of disaster for the ruler to lose touch with the ground realities, his father used to say. He had built his kingdom in Raigarh from scratch. Bhumimitra’s own experience had never given him the reason to doubt this wisdom.

Until now this wedding had been nothing but a necessary chore to him. He was disinterested in the preparations and had mechanically done what people around him had asked him to do. Once they had reached Chandranagar, most of his time had gone into information gathering and planning for the political and military tasks that lay ahead of him. He had never had a moment to spare for the thought of his  would-be wife. His second wife to be exact. He hadn’t been particularly interested in his first marriage either. He was much younger then. And was much more interested in his sports and hunting than in acquiring a wife. Although neither then, nor now, was he unacquainted with the pleasures of female company. But princes and kings didn’t marry for those pleasures. Pleasure was available more readily and in better form elsewhere. They married for duty.  With his second marriage, he would expand his military influence. Besides he needed to beget a son. His first wife, beautiful and graceful as she was, had failed to give him any children.

But now he was restless and for the first time thought about his bride. Was that her he had met? That woman wandering in jungles on horseback wearing that strange dress? Just a day before her wedding? Could she really be the princess of Chandranagar? After changing into comfortable resting clothes with the help of his aide, Bhumimitra tried to think carefully. He recalled the horse. No doubt it was good enough to be the star of even a royal stable. What about the woman herself? She hadn’t conversed with him in Sanskrit, but in the local tongue of commoners.  She couldn’t be the princess… But she had taken him to be a common soldier. That could explain her choice of language. How did she look? There was obviously no attempt at a purdah, and yet he couldn’t recall a lot about her face. The features were soft and kindly for sure. But most of her face was obscured by a scarf and a bandanna she was wearing. He hadn’t had a glimpse of her hair either. He couldn’t recall any other feature of hers vividly, except her eyes. They had glown with amusement, laughter and mischief alternately. And yet, were there signs of the grooming of a princess? Probably…

But what was he to make of the situation? If that woman was indeed going to be his wife, what did it mean for him?

His thought about his preferences. He had always liked women who challenged him. He didn’t expect to find it in his first wife. She surrendered out of duty. And he didn’t expect anything different from his second wife either.  His mistresses and professionals were different. Because they were adept at sensing their client’s preferences and were ever ready to play to his tastes. He knew it was a pretense, but it was best that could be had. But now… A smile formed on his lips. If she was indeed the princess, how he would love to tame her wildness in the bed. And otherwise, if necessary.

But it could all be a prank. It could be some common girl living out her fantasy of being a princess with such announcements. That horse though… In any case, he would not get too excited.

It was the eve of his wedding. He would relax and take a break from planning the future of Chandranagar’s administration. He deserved a break once in a while. His well-wishers often accused him of overworking himself. Even if he agreed with them, he couldn’t be otherwise. Apart from the kingdom of Raigarh, he had also inherited workaholism from his father.

—

To be continued