Vaidehi | ✎

[5]

This chapter is dedicated to everyone who had voted on the last chapter, you know who u are :))
And to all the silent readers : PLEASE VOTE. You guys honestly break my heart.

__________

Today is the day. The day I meet my husband to be for the first time.

In the last few days I've had a lot of time to introspect and that has made me realise that this was a huge mistake on my part. Saying yes to a marriage without even knowing a tiny bit of information about the man is sheer stupidity. If I go by what Radhika and Suman, my assigned handmaiden, told me then Raghavendra Pratap Singh is a handsome man and his royal upbringing has moulded him into a person with good manners and righteousness. But I have my doubts.

A man cannot be so perfect can he? He must have flaws. I am sure of it.

As I stand beside Radhika who is leaning against her windowsill, we silently watch the sight of the palace gate secretly from her room. In my clear view is Pitaji standing at the gate with garlands to welcome the King of Mewar and his family and Devyani is dutifully standing beside him. My heart tugs at the thought that my mother will always be Pitaji's illicit affair and will never get to command respect in the way Devyani does. The thought stirs an inkling to ask him about his and maa's story but I push the it away.

Suddenly the sound of chariots echoes across the street and in a midst of flying dust emerges three chariots and two palanquins.
"Its them." Radhika confirms and points to the flag on the front of the chariot.

I wait impatiently as one by one the palanquin bearers set down the palanquin and the chariot curtains are drawn.

A middle aged man with graying hair, is the first to step out. His headgear and authoritative but friendly voice that exclaims my father's name doesn't make it difficult to understand that he is none other than King Shivraj Pratap Singh. Pitaji welcomes his friend with the garland followed by an embrace. Next a bunch of ladies emerge from the palanquins. The one that looks the oldest heads straight to Devyani and both women greet eachother with folded hands.

Two giggling young girls, who don't look older than twelve shyly stand beside the Queen of Mewar as she makes their introductions. I can't hear them clearly but still manage to catch a few words which don't make any sense so I stop trying and instead focus on the fact that the man I was waiting to catch a glimpse of has still not made his entrance.

"Where is the Yuvraj?" I whisper to Radhika, who shrugs.

"He should be here. Maybe he was...." She trails off when a loud horse screech reaches us from downstairs. And in mere two seconds, the horse stops right in front of the Chariot and a young man dismounts his horse in one smooth motion.

Radhika elbows my arm and wiggles her eyebrows. "There you go, that's your Yuvraj."

I roll my eyes at her and focus back on the Prince. He is currently bowing down to my father to take his blessings and its after he rises up that I get a good look at his face. Albeit it's not very clear from here but one thing I can say for sure is he is infact quite handsome. With the whole angular jaw and tall height. As he greets Devyani, she mutters something in his ear and he laughs at whatever she said before mumbling something back.

Within the next few minutes, father ushers all of them inside, leaving the charioteers and Palanquin bearers to to park their stuff in the designated places.

"He is quite handsome." I confess to Radhika. She smiles and squeezes my shoulders, "Wait until you see him up close. You'll fall in love right away."

I smile sarcastically, "Oh really?" I continue, "If that's the case then why didn't you end up falling for him?"