Loyally Royal

Chapter 4

Meera wiped a lone tear that escaped her eye as she sat in the palanquin with restrain, she held her knees close to her chest. It was quite a tearful and emotional farewell that she had bid to her family and kingdom, she could feel the continuous jerking of the palanquin. She would have preferred a horse carriage but by the Rajput tradition, the bride had to be carried in a palanquin while the groom sat on the horse. It particularly pained her that a bunch of men in the scorching heat had to carry her for such a long way while she comfortably sat in it. They had a carriage that carried a lot of her stuff as well as a few chambermaids from Jaipur. 

She was a married woman but she had neither met nor spoken to her husband. They had left Sambhalgarh in the early hours of the morning and were due to reach Jaipur by the evening.

They stopped when the sun was at it's peak. The entire convoy came to a halt, they sat down for refreshments. 

"Choti Rani Sa, Rani Sa, Choti Rani Sa" The continuous calls from the maid woke princess Meera from her trance. She was accustomed to being called RajkumariSa or Princess. She looked at them with a plastered smile, "Yes?" 

"Would you like any refreshments?" 

"No, thank you" She replied politely. The maids didn't insist and left her in the Palanquin. The young princess fanned herself with the heavy silk dupatta that she was wearing. The brides weren't allowed to get rid of the veil till the wedding night. She cursed her kismet even when she was grateful for all that she had. What awaited her made her very anxious. That's when she heard two people talking

"What do you say, is there no water!?" 

"Only a little bit but that is left for the King and Queen, perhaps someone left the lid open and half the water leaked away" 

"Oh dear, what now?" 

"We'll only have to make do with what we have" 

The princess looked around. She found two large clay containers full of water, placed in the palanquin just for her. She contemplated if she should leave the palanquin and then decided to do so. 

Mahraja Vikram had just got off his horse, he was standing with his minister Chanda discussing the route to be taken, a group of chamber maids passed by them giggling 

"Her brother waited for her to turn 19 to be married off, I hear she is very odd looking!" 

"Oh yes, crooked teeth, facial hair, freckles and fat mole on her cheek!" laughed another maid 

"I hear she is very short tempered and her attitude is soaring! apparently when things aren't done her way she breaks and vandalizes!" 

The Mahraja was rather amused at this piece of information, wondering who their source was. There was a possibility they had seen the princess herself, perhaps it was true, maybe that's why King Arjun sounded so skeptical during the last drink they had together. The Marhaja didn't want to be bothered by all this he sighed and looked away. 

He suddenly spotted a girl in extravagant read clothes, a minute later he realized that she was his young bride.  She was walking by the eating men pouring water for them in their glasses. 

"What is she doing?" He spat involuntarily quite taken aback. 

"Well, you've got a waiter for a wife!" laughed Chanda 

"I don't mean that! I just mean that she is one of the queens of Jaipur and a newly married woman in between the forest" the king mumbled as he quickly walked towards Meera. 

"Just be frank Vikram, you are possessive of your young bride and you don't like the fact that she stands among a lot of men even with her veil covering her face" whispered Chanda who found the situation rather amusing as he walked briskly with the King.