And then, in an answering response, she placed her wrists in his hands.
Karna simply stared at her, his eyes wide as though in an intense search for some unspecified treasure of much value but still obscure to the searcher himself.
"Panchali?" he whispered, tentatively raising her hands slightly, making her bangles clank against each other, breaking the odd yet not unpleasant silence of the room.
"Aarya" she answered back, a tinge of impatience in her voice, partly drawing in her lower lips.
Karna observed she was bending down gradually. It had been a struggle for her to sit with the panoply of riches, how would she stand with those on for long?
He nodded at her as he gently spun her around. The ornate dupatta covering her head hung down in his line of vision. For a few seconds he stood transfixed, as his archer's eyes attuned to focus on the tiniest detail, made out even the most inconspicuous of flowers embroidered on the red silk fabric.
He turned his face to his right and inhaled deeply, careful that his breathes did not fall on her. The fire-born princess's demands were becoming more and more unpredictable by the day and his ability to deny her anything diminishing.
"So, Panchali, you said your elder sister sent you many pretty gifts" he said, unpinning the duppata from her hair and laying it on the carpeted floor near their feet, "Mind showing me them, sometime?"
"Sure Aarya" Draupadi replied, her eyes fixed on the duppata laid on the floor and Karna's feet retracing their steps to her back, wondering whatever had possessed her to make such a request to him.
"Why did you put me to such task Panchali?" Karna asked as he proceeded to her head jewelleries, bringing them out along with some strands of her hair with relative ease.
"I don't know Aarya" she answered softly, "I really don't. I just did not want to see anyone else now...The girls would look at me curiously...I know they mean well...but I just did not..."
"Or you are more afraid you might scare them with an angry outburst?" Karna questioned humourously hoping to lighten the mood.
"Um...both. I don't want to upset my maids with my temper, which they certainly don't deserve" she muttered more to herself as a soft laugh left Karna's lips.
Karna wished he could see her face but he focused on making some quick mental calculation of the innumerable intricate clasps joining her neck pieces together, and then with some dexterous motions freed them from her body.
They necklaces pooled in his hands as he swiftly spun forth her and daftly caught them before they fell on the floor. He looked at the mass of gold in his hands and then at her. He could see her chest falling up and down rapidly as though an immense relief had been granted to her.
Karna's eyebrows crumpled, for the first time in the day he felt a pang of guilt course through him for having compelled her into wearing so many heavy jewels.
He reached out to her ear, fumbling with the earrings. He moved closer to her, his eyes in deep concentration trying to find the backpush when she suddenly pressed her head to her shoulder in a hasty motion nearly trapping the tips of his fingers.
Karna withdrew his hand instantaneously at the abrupt motion from Draupadi who too seemed surprised as she slowly straightened her head, gesturing for him to resume his work with her eyes.
"And you won't lose your temper with me?" he asked again trying to break the awkward silence, "Or it does not matter with me?"
"Aarya, thank you for standing up before my father" she said gravely after some time.
"You don't have to thank. You too defended me" he replied before continuing in a rushed manner, "You are after all my wife, and protecting your honour is my responsibility and nothing more—"
"Yes I am bound to you now, if anyone attempts to pull you down, it will also effect me..."
She watched his deep brown eyes flicker and soften, they burned with an intensity that could scorch but it only warmed her at the moment. She could not stop her mind from galloping to a multitude of thoughts and questions from the point he said 'nothing more'.
Was it nothing more? She wanted to shake off such impractical girlish impressions from her head but when she saw the composed and strangely satisfied look on his face when he removed her large nose ring, she could not impede these new, nascent feelings from seeping deeper into her.
"Panchali" he whispered, bending down to the level of her waist, pressing a finger to the large red stone of the gold flower, set in the middle of the elaborate kamarbandh (waistband).
She quivered imperceptibly as the stone dug into the skin of her slender waist, while her husband's eyes were fixated on the gold floral creation as though in some deep contemplation.
--------------------
Hello everyone
I got caught up in some important work so I could not write further, and since I have received many DMs requesting me to update, I decided to give out whatever I have written so far while I continue the story :)
I hope you are enjoying the chapters. Please drop by your opinions generously:) It is a pleasure going through your comments :)❤