The Battle Of Hearts A Choice Between Power And Love

Chapter 2 Amongst The Raging Storm

philip's pov 

At sea, a boat, filled with our men of all posts and regiments and ranks. With the difference in the uniform, you could easily find their rank. An officer had reported in with the new-found 'sea sickness' and was admitted to the medical wing of the boat.

We went by the European-Asian sea route. It's a long journey. We came with men in ten ships, five ships of men were to divide themself and settle in different princely states in South Hindustan and the men from the other five ships were supposed to go to North India and settle down there.

The five boats of men under Cpt. Williams and my watch will be going to North India. It will take our men more time to reach North India as the sea route will only lead us to the Cape of Good Hope, a harbour in South India. Then we have to travel through half the country to reach our final destination. Williams was an able captain and my fellow friends i put my trust in him to get us there in the estimated time.

India is widespread. It has had different kings and queens, the lands and states divided by their rulers. The one thing we can count on as our advantage will be the lack of harmony between the rulers.

The order from the Crown states that we must conquer this country, especially its princely states, because it was filled with heritage so rich and powerful - be it its various different landscapes, flora and fauna. It is a land of diversity.

But this is not going to be an easy task. These people - even though they look naive and easy to conquer at first glance - were warriors by birth and they are known to respect their lands above everything else.

So the plan is to go in as merchants - be it traders for spice or jewels or businessmen who wanted to start factories and employ their men.

We needed to get on their good books and earn their trust, make them believe that we are doing all of this for their own good. We will provide them with jobs and all the facilities we can offer and we shall present them the Rajput al charter, signed and sealed by the Queen.

This nation was not to be taken under the direct power of the Crown but we still were supposed to send out monthly reports back to England.

We had one problem though: we were running short of our rations, in the middle of the sea.We had to do something. William was informed immediately about the crisis we were facing and it seems the conditions of the sea were not in our favour.

There was a storm stirring up. We hope we don't get stuck in the middle of the sea, that too in a raging storm. We had to get there at any cost to save ourselves from falling prey to nature herself.

William took full control over the boat, his crew working to their full potential. Some of the men even lent a helping hand.

"William, did you see Amaia? She's been missing for a while. I thought she was in her cabin, but she's not there" I asked, my voice sounding frustrated, as I couldn't find my sister.

"She might be in the medical wing. Did you check there?" he asked. His eyes still focus on the endless blue sea in front of us.

"But I told her not to go there! I told her to stay away from the sick men. She never listens to me" I said, with a sigh of annoyance.

"Philip, has she ever listened to you? It's not a new thing. It's the usual"

"William, I will literally chuck you off the boat if you keep supporting her!" I warned him.

"You can't possibly throw a Captain off his ship! You can't survive without me, my friend. You should just accept that!" he said, with a chuckle.

I stormed off to the medical wing, only to find Amaia checking the medical supplies and assisting the nurses there.