Mistress Asthana

CHAPTER TWELVE: JASMEET

Fannah.

We spent four days in the camp house and had to come back to begin with the preparations for the henna ceremony which was the next day. Our stay there was fun and we made a lot of happy memories there. Huda taught me a few amazing recipes, apparently, Aas was very passionate about cooking, so they used to cook together whenever they went to the camp house.

"This is what you'll wear for the henna ceremony tomorrow, do you like it?" Huda asked beaming with excitement. "Mind you, it can't be simpler than this" she announced. She held up the dress in it's hanger for me to see. I gasped at the sight of the dress.

It was a patterned Ankara fabric seen into a simple straight gown. Her other hand  held up a  Long red Cloak with cut out patterns of the Ankara fabric around it, what made it more beautiful, was the shiny stones that were scattered generously around the dress and cloak.

"Wow! It's so pretty, I really love it. I didn't know something simple could be this beautiful" I replied. I was happy that I wasn't going to have to battle with a heavy gown that day.

" I know right, that's what you get when you choose Huda Santalma to be your personal stylist" she said. She did a  dramatic 360 spin in the room and we both laughed out loud. I had asked Huda earlier to be in charge of the dresses I'll have to wear for the ceremonies, I knew nothing nothing about such dresses and I knew very well that I was going to do a terrible job at choosing an outfit.

"So now that everything is sorted out for tomorrow, what next?" I asked plopping down on the bed.  she made a show of putting a hand on her hip and a finger on her chin in a thinking gesture.

"What should we do? Go to sleep and prepare ourselves for a hectic day tomorrow" she replied as she jumped on the bed. I shook my head at her antics. I pulled the covers over us and bade her good night.

I woke up to the calls to Subhi prayers. The palace was already very bubbly and the activities were in full swing already. Thank God the queen restricted the room to just the two of us alongside Tabassum and Yamini. If not, we probably wouldn't have had a proper sleep.

"Huda, wake up. It's time for prayer" I woke her up. At the same time, someone knocked on the door "Come inside" I replied knowing it had to be Tabassum or Yamini.

The door swung open and Tabassum and Yamini walked in together. They had gotten a lot closer these past few days. "It's a new day, wake up wake up" Tabassum hollered making Huda kick off her blankets in annoyance. Huda loved to sleep and she hated to be disturbed.

"So you guys won't let me oversleep just for one day? What did I do to..." She began bickering but trailed off as if she remembered something. "Oh my! Today is the finally the day, Fannah is going to begin her journey to being officially part of us" she squealed as she jumped off the bed and began flapping her arms like a chicken.

I shivered at the sound of me being officially part of them. In just a few days, I was going to be bound to this family and Ahmad Santalma by marriage. The thought scared me, but I didn't let it show.

"Wow! You haven't even put on the dress yet and you look so beautiful, my brother is going to flip when he sees you" Huda squealed in excitement and the make up artist smiled at her. She was sporting an A line gown made with an Ankara fabric which was what the female members of the family wore. She also looked gorgeous with her nude make up. I loved how she managed to  always look gorgeous in anything she wore.

The palace was already bustling with people  moving up and down looking all beautiful and loud blaring music. The beautician was here earlier and she made sure to torture me all in the name of beautification, and then she bombarded my bathing water with all kinds of scented oils, at least that was kind of relaxing.