A String Of Pearls

Settling in

Bhanumati's first night as a married woman went rather differently than she had expected. It was unfortunately a fact that on the night you got married, you had to consummate your marriage.

Unfortunate, because in case of them royals, most of the times, the two people did not know each other at all. There was no love or care involved, it was just a formality. A chore. But she of course, like everyone else, had accepted it.

Except, Duryodhan stepped into his-their chambers, took off his jewellery and then... just flopped on to their bed. Upside down.

.....What.

"I'm very tired." He said. "I bet you're tired too after all the rites and rituals today. Go to sleep."

"Seriously?" She asked, baffled. "You're just going to..... sleep?"

He cracked one eye open. "I'm sure you're not that eager to be intimate with someone you barely know?"

She stared at him. "When has wanting ever had anything to do with it? Isn't it something we have to do?"

He shrugged. It looked really weird when he was laying down.

"How is anyone ever going to know?"

She blinked. She had never considered somehow, that the other sex may also feel such reservations. She lied down as well.

"So we're really just going to ...sleep?"

"Unless you want to talk?" Duryodhan asked. "I normally wouldn't mind, but can we please do that tomorrow? All the useless rituals tired me out more than a hard day's training ever does."

"Uh....alright."

There was a lengthy silence. Bhanumati honestly wondered whether her new husband had already fallen asleep.

But then he spoke again.

"Don't worry about any of... that. We'll wait till you've forgiven me about the whole.... kidnapping thing."

Bhanumati raised an eyebrow, even though he probably couldn't see her.

"You might be waiting a very long time then."

She imagined him shrugging again as he replied, "That's fine. It'll be far easier than the waiting I had to do till I was crowned Yuvraj."

She snorted. Despite herself, she couldn't help softening towards the Yuvraj.

Just a little bit.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A little over a week after their wedding, Duryodhan had solemnly departed towards Anga from where he would join his friend going to Magadha. He had a slightly worried frown on his face but when Bhanumati enquired, he said he had faith that no one could ever kill his friend.

That seemed like a bit much to her but.... who was she to speak against her husband's faith in his friend, especially given that he was a great warrior.

But he was an archer. Was he a great enough wrestler to defeat Jarasandh in wrestling? Was he strong enough?

As it turned out.... apparently, yes.

They both returned with enormous grins on their faces.

The King of Anga's grin was exceedingly smug, while Duryodhan's grin was amazed and also a little contrite.

"You thought he might defeat me --" The King of Anga was saying.

"I knew he couldn't kill you." Duryodhan tried to defend himself but the Angaraj shot him an extremely scorching glare.