The Compensation

Badnaami

Badnaami
(Defamation)

She had been placed like an statue on her marital bed, her face covered by her blood red coloured veil. There were strings of jasmines and roses all around her bed. The room had been beautifully decorated like if it was the bride.

How she wished that instead of her somebody else would have been the bride! During the rituals and vows of the marriage, she had been facing a double mind about whether what she was doing was the right thing again.

She had always been accustomed to wearing heavy jewellery yet the wedding jewellery irritated her. This was all due to the nervousness she felt; what shall be her fate after this?

"Bloody aristocrat!" She exclaimed to herself.
"He has some nerve to kill my father and then marry me! Shouldn't I be killing him instead of marrying him, sitting on his bed, awaiting his gracious presence?

No, no, no! Hey Devi Maiyya! Tarini, have you gone mad? How can you think of killing your own husband? Do you want to roam around in colourless clothes, without any jewellery and eat raw morsels? Or worse, get married to some king who attacks this kingdom! Thank heavens that your husband is alive!

But..."

And she started arguing with herself, once again! First in her mind, then in whispers and then loud enough for the guards outside to hear and wonder,

"Has the new princess gone nuts? She has double opinion over marrying our prince and she is speaking ill of our country."

The rumour spread from servants to guards to workers,

"THE NEW PRINCESS WANTS TO MURDER OUR PRINCE. GOD SAVE THE PRINCE!"

Tarini, lost in her own arguments, failed to realize that a pair of chocolate brown eyes were stuck at her veiled face.

What on earth is she doing?

At that time, Tarini wasn't sitting on the centre of the bed, blushingly awaiting the arrival of her Pati Parmeshwar.
Instead, she was walking - partially jumping on the bed, voicing her thoughts aloud and yelling curses for her husband, who according to her words was a "monkey with raised eyebrows."

Arnav couldn't control his laughter on looking at the sheer cuteness of the girl jumping on his bed.

At one instance, she would be planning to murder him by feeding him poisoned apples or by stabbing him with her nail scaler.
The other moment, she would be scared at the thought that he might reincarnate as a ghost and scare her.
Then, she would be pitying on the fact that she doesn't want to kill such a 'handome' man because the other girls of the kingdom and also herself shall be deprived of the opportunity to drool on him!

What is this woman?

Tarinii gasped on realising that she was being observed since the last god-knows-how-many minutes. She turned slowly and tried to get off the bed but slipped due to low visibility through the veil.

Damn the veil!

She closed her eyes and shrieked out of sheer fear of falling off the bed but instead of the cold floor her soft body met a warm pair of masculine hands. She gasped and opened her eyes in shock.

"Careful, princess, careful!"

Tarini cautiously came out of his arms and turned away her face abruptly as he tried to lift her veil.

"What were you saying about me? I am a monkey?" he asked.

If you want to stay safe and in one piece, never back answer your husband.

Tarini remembered her foster mother's words and decided to keep shut.

"Don't worry I shall not let any harm reach you." Arnav sighed, noticing her hesitation to speak out.

She turned towards him at that; could she trust him?

"I know you might be feeling quiet uncomfortable here but this is your palace too now. You are safe here both from weapons and words as long as I'm alive, princess." He made her turn towards him.

Tarinii's heart clenched. This was the first time somebody had talked to her so lovingly, caringly and politely. The prince's words touched her heart.

Arnav turned to arrange the cushions for sleeping when Tarini decided to break her silence.

"My mother said that I cannot address you by your name but... I would like to know your name. Can you..." Tarini stutterred, clutching her veil tightly.

"Arnav, Arnav Singh Raizada."

" You have a beautiful name." She looked up, realizing it's meaning. " Oh my...! You know, your name signifies the waves of an ocean, probably a storm in the ocean and my name is..." She spoke in excitement.

"Tarini. Literally a river. You are actually just like a river, soft and at her own pace. Do you realise, your destiny, as suggested by your name, was to meet me someday?"

"How do you know my name?" She looked at him, stupefied by his philosophy. She didn't expect him to interpret such a romantic aspect out of their names.

"Well, I had seen you in the Mrugsarovar forest some days ago with a deer and I must say, you got me curious. Then I came to know that you are my enemy's daughter and then I met you on the warfield..."

"Was this all previously planned? Your meeting with me? Did you plan this all?"She widened her eyes.

He inched forward to Tarinii and said, "I wish I had but sorry to disappoint you, I didn't do anything like that.

You know you looked really beautiful in your war attire."

Tarini blushed, Arnav smirked and turned.

"You don't look like a hunter, just like I don't look like a witch. If you will call me a witch, I will call you a hunter! And hunters are very ugly and unkempt."

Arnav laughed at her sentence making Tarini feel more comfortable at conversing with him. Tarini felt like she could trust Arnav.

"Yuvraj(crown prince)...Uh..."

"Yes, princess?
Princess seems too long, doesn't it? You are reluctant to say my name, so even I won't ever call you by your name. I will think of a new way to address you." He smiled making her even more comfortable.

"Will you be my friend?" She spoke out.

"Excuse me?"

"Would you like to become my friend? You see I have no friends, except for the deers in the forest. They are my true friends." She shrugged.

"Why not, princess! But, you know friends always share everything so you need to tell me something. What were you saying before you noticed me in the room?"

"Woh ...That! I am so sorry! I didn't mean to be rude but I was just angry that you murdered...

because of which I had to marry you. I mean marrying you isn't a problem, the way I got married to you like as a war compensation... I don't find it respectable enough. I don't think I deserve this. So I was just weighing the pros and cons of our marriage"
She looked at his changing expressions while speaking and bit her tongue.

Why do I have to be so outspoken? Is he enraged now?