𝑰𝒍𝒍 𝑭𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅 (previously Vaidehi) ✎

[20]

note: since my updates have been earratic, i'd suggest to re-read chapter 7 again in order to be able to understand this chapter's context perfectly.

Two months later

Maneka's pov

Its been two months to my marriage with Samay Pratap Rana. The Yuvraj of Talya. Famous for his womanizing ways and sharp mind across all the kingdoms in Bharath.
The rumours I have grown up listening to were right afterall, I have realised in these few months itself. My husband is a strategist, a good leader to run a kingdom but his warrior skills are average to say the most.

So when a month ago we were attacked by the bandits of Mahej van, my husband was scared off his ass. The bandits of Mahej van are notorious for being the most brutal bandits in the current time. They don't spare women and children either and their plans are not limited to looting and temporary destruction but they aim for full control and permanent destruction in order to fracture the kingdoms who become their victims. Which is why their attacks mostly always start from the Palace. This attack was very unexpected, considering Mahej Van bandits and the Yuvraj have had quite amicable relations until only a few months ago. But like I said, my husband is a strategist so he did was he does best-Tried to calm the situation and get the leader of the bandits to spill the real reason behind the attack.

It was the Delhi Sultanate's plan, the leader had admitted. They had been paid an immense amount by the sultanate and promised more wealth after the completion of the task. The task being fracturing Talya enough so that when the Delhi Sultanate comes with an offer to help us we can't refuse or even if we did and a war had to begin, we would be at a condition where the result would only be in their favour. After this confession, my husband used the workings of his mind to shoot the bandit leader with a counter offer. The leader accepted it almost immediately which I found suspicious at the time but I went along with it because Ofcourse no one was asking for my opinion.

While Samay was an agreeable husband he wasn't anything extraordinary. He would talk to me respectfully and had the decency to deny any rumours I heard about him with courtesans. And he was a pretty good lover when we decided to try for a heir a few weeks ago. Since then he has taken me to bed a handful of times, I guess the true reason behind his skills is because of how often he practices it....but honestly, I don't care. I am afterall picturing Raghavendra eveytime I am with him. So no one is blameless here.

However, coming back to the topic at hand. One question remained in almost everyone's mind in the Kingdom. Why had the delhi sultanate taken a sudden interest in our kingdom. We had a powerful army and good fortune, any relational ties were out of the question because The King of Talya was a patriot through and through and this knowledge was as famous as it could get.
But everyone was just happy thinking we had dodged a bullet. It had been a month to that news, and everything was falling back into routine now.

"Really? So soon into their marriage?" I overhear a maid say incredulously. A group of four servant women sit in a circle, chopping vegetables in one of the rooms of the kitchen quarters. I had just stepped into to oversee if the food was being prepared well but now their conversation has caught my attention.

The group is still unaware that I am around, so they continue to talk.
"Yes yes. Infact I heard she is alreadytwo months along, and they had gotten married barely four months ago anyway. Its pretty obvious..." She tithers,
"Yuvraj of Mewar is a shotgun."

All the air whooshes out of me. In a way that it feels it has been forcefully knocked out. Are they talking about what I am thinking-

"It's not unheard of." Another woman giggles, "But it is still too soon. They should have held out atleast six months...but I guess in a way it is good only, because if it is a girl they can start trying for a boy quicker and then get it over with unless ofcourse they want more."

My heart drops further down. It has reached my stomach, I am sure. That illegitimate bitch is already pregnant. I can not believe this. For all I know, she must be lying to my Raghavendra. It's probably not even his child. How otherwise can she get with child so soon, in barely a month. That...that witch.
Now she has made herself permanent in that Kingdom....and now there is no hope left. Not a ray of light.

"Rajkumari Maneka?" A hesitant voice startles me. I look to my right to find one of the assistant chefs standing, their eyes wide. He looks concerned.

"Are you okay, your highness?" He asks,
"You look a little...pale..."

I raise my chin up higher and roll my eyes trying to brush away the tears that are threatening to spill.
"I am." With that little response I turn to the opposite side where the exit is and practically run away. I need to be alone.

I had thought I had resigned to my fate when I took the pheras with Samay...but hearing that godawful news has made me realise just how much I was still attached to the idea of Raghavendra. I wanted him just as much as I did when I was a mere girl of fourteen.
Thinking about him with her makes me nauseous. It makes me want to rip my hair out in anger. And her hair out in jealousy.
It should have been me! I want to scream.
In the clustering of my thoughts I almost miss the loud sound of a trumpet. Almost. Maybe I would have ignored it had I not suddenly had an ominous feeling in my gut. Maybe I would have locked myself in my room and blocked it out had I not heard the sudden sound of collective footsteps up and down the halls of the palace. Maybe....there are a lot of maybes. But the most important maybe is that....
Maybe the universe could have been kinder and things could have gone better for Talya and we wouldn't have had to face the wrath of something so awful. But it happened. So the maybes don't matter.

I had halted in the ground floor without any thought and my eyes took in the sudden chaos. I knew what a trumpet really warned, ofcourse I did. But in that moment it almost didn't register until I saw a frantic Samay descending the stairs. His father, the king, who had been suffering with one of his worst bouts of joint pain just this morning was limping behind his son. Both their faces only showed one thing- We were absolutely screwed.

I didn't know it then, but I would later realise in a few weeks, that the misfortune of Talya would end with a great fortune for me.

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A/n: hello lovessss
As u can see I am trying to get back to updating regularly. I know as well as you how it feels to be left hanging in a book you put time and energy into reading so I really really do not want to leave this book incompleted and I swear we will get to the end of it soon. So bare with your author and be kind in the DMs