To Be A Queen✔️

Chapter 15

Olanna's POV

Eka took me to her hut or rather dragged me to her hut. It's just similar to mine but more beautifully decorated with colourful chalks. She hung her wrappers at the corner and her beads in a basket beside were she hung her wrappers. Her bed was beautifully laid with colourful wrappers. Everything about her seems colourful if you ask me. But I like it. A mat was laid all around the floor of the hut.

Supper was served in her hut. This time it was boiled yam and red oil with smoked fish by the side. A washing basin was brought and we washed our hands.

For someone who is always cheerful Eka Iyene was quiet as we ate. Adaeze always said it was bad manners to talk while eating.

Flashback

"Olanna it is unladylike to talk with food in your mouth"  Adaeze said with disgust on her face "Oh"  I said and kept quite as I ate. "When is the next market day?  Ineewdtobuysomecloothes" I said in between chewing my food. Adaeze just sighed and continued eating without saying another word as I continued blabbering until we finished supper that night. 

End of flashback

By the gods it was so easy to rile my sister up. I almost smiled at the memory, almost. I just shook my head and continued eating. It's not like it would help suppress the memory anyways.

We continued eating in silence. Eka might be an older woman but within my short stay in the palace I have observed that she is a cheerful woman. The silence was not suiting at all. Maybe we should have brought Eno with us.

I couldn't help it anymore. I just hoped that talking while eating was not that very "unladylike" like Adaeze had said.

"So?" I started. Eka looked up from her food. Stupid as always I didn't think of what topic I could have brought up. So I just said what came to mind. Hope I won't appear more stupid.

"Plate?" I said pointing at the plate of yam. Surprisingly she caught up quickly and said "Usan" she said translating it in her language as she smiled. I pointed to the yam "Bia" she said. And that was how the rest of our supper went.

Eka Iyene's POV

By the time the cloud hid the stars and the moon was shining brightly Olanna was already making little sentences with the little ibibio (Eket language) I taught her.

She had being so quiet the previous day she came. But one look at her I had known that she would make a good Queen. She has this air about her that commands attention when she walks in a gathering even thou she doesn't like being the center of attention. She looks at things she hadn't seen before with genuine interest.

I was a bit skeptical when I heard that the maiden Edikan has to take as his wife was not from our lands. I knew what it felt like to marry a total stranger. I have being in that position before. Where you know no one or have no friends. The only thing that was guaranteed for you was protection.

However, Olanna's case is... more complicated from mine. She wasn't just married to a stranger but a foreigner. Everything must have seemed so foreign to her. The language, the food, the clothing and more.

I promised myself that I won't force her to learn our ways. That I would give her time to absorb the fact that she was in a strange land and among strange people. To give her time to adapt even thou her coronation would be in the next seven nights. I could still teach her our ways after she was still crowned after all.
But she has surprised me yet again by bringing up her lessons herself.

I couldn't help but notice that she and Edikan has similar traits. The love challenges.

We have being using signs to explain what we say as she take her lessons.