A/N: I have ZERO knowledge of Rajasthani wedding customs so if there is wrong information ahead then please let me know so that I can correct them immediately! I searched all over the internet to write the chapter ahead lol
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The journey for three days was tedious for Shefali, especially because she has never ridden a horse for so long before.
Now, as Udaipur keeps coming closer, Shefali closes her eyes and rests her head on Eshant's chest who has been sitting behind her.
As she closes her eyes, she remembers the holly fire they vowed encircling together, the hand-in-hand ritual they did with her brother's blessing and approval, and the red sindoor that glorified her head. She remembers how every one of the women shouted, 'Look! She will rule him all her marriage life' when some of the sindoor sprinkled over her nose tip.
For Eshant it was something very new, nothing like the marriages in Rajputana yet somehow so familiar.
Eshant smiles at the head that rests on his chest with so much ease.
Even when he was certain he would have made this day a reality someday, it was certainly not something he thought would take place so unexpectedly.
Shefali cried in her Bidayi but not as much as she cried leaving Rajputana back then. She was guilty from within for such hypocrisy.
A jerk made Shefali wake up from the little unexpected sleep she had drifted into recently.
"How long will it take?"
She asked in her tired voice.
"A little while longer and the whole estate is yours"
Eshant joked.
Shefali frowned without looking back.
A certain type of happiness colored her from within when she touched the Shakha-Pola (the two symbolic bangles a married woman wears along with any other bangle she might desire to wear) that glorified her wrists.
She felt different.
The good type of different.
She could not wait to meet Aai, Shakti, Tara, Ekta, and everyone who loved her there and everyone she missed being with.
The skies made it clear that it was the slow steps of the Rainy season ahead.
The partly sun-lit roads were now full of people moving about.
They walked out of the horses' way. Some of them pointed at their Chote Chauhan who was unexpectedly running his horse through the market way.
Some smiled at Shefali and her attire, and a few children grinned at them.
This was the second time the town men had seen Chote Chauan with Shefali on his horse but this time, Shefali was not almost bleeding to death.
Some remembered her from the judgement day and some assumed she was the same girl Bare Chauhan was about to kill.
To Shefali, this walk was like a victory.
This time when she was advancing towards the royal palace of Rajputana, She was not tied up, she was not coming here against her will, she was not burdened with a service she would do anything to avoid. Instead, she gloriously sat on her favorite man's horse with a wide smile.
She did not care if he was the Chote Chauhan, the only thing she cared about was he was a man who respected her choices. That was the kind of love she ever heard of.
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𝟏𝟓𝟐𝟗: 𝐀 𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐑𝐚𝐣𝐩𝐮𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐚| Indian Historical Fiction
Historical Fiction𝐁𝐎𝐎𝐊 Ⅰ 𝐎𝐅 𝐑𝐀𝐉𝐏𝐔𝐓𝐈-𝐁𝐀𝐈𝐒𝐀 𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐋𝐎𝐆𝐘 Shefali Roy had lost her parents in a pandemic when she was just one year old. That was the first time she was orphaned. The next time she was orphaned was when she was seventeen. The army of...
