Shefali woke up with the pressure Aai pressed over her abdomen region.
"There indeed is a tiny mushy lump"
Aai whispered to the other maid who stood with a pot of hot water.
Shefali turned to Ekta who sat beside her, patting Shefali's face with cold water.
"Let's hope for the best"
Aai said with a grin and pressed a towel dipped in hot water to Shefali's bare waist.
"Does it feel better?"
She asked, expectantly.
"Not really"
Shefali said getting up on the bed shortly after.
"Don't be silly. It always helps"
Aai got up from the bed.
"Tell the Chauhan, the Vyad is not needed anymore"
Aai instructed the maids and walked out on her own.
Shefali touched her waist from over the cloth that covered her now. Is this real? She asked herself.
She had heard their conversation earlier and had seen her aunt going through the same when Shefali was a teenager. She is not new to the word 'Garbhabastha' which literally means pregnancy.
The door banged open and Rani-sa walked in with Bindya following her shortly after. Shefali had never seen Rani-sa without her veil but today she was too thrilled to put it on.
"What do I hear, Shefali?"
She exclaimed with anticipation in her wording.
Rani-sa almost ran to the bed with teary eyes. She was so full of emotions, something Shefali did not relate to but she did not break the shy smile she held. She knew she must look anything but confused.
She had seen how expectant her own grandmother was before and after her cousin-brother's birth. She starved to see that in Rani-sa's eyes too and fortunately, she was.
Before Shefali could react or refuse, Rani-sa pulled out her necklace and made it pass down Shefali's neck.
"Be blessed"
Bindya added, pressing Shefali's head gently.
"But I cannot-"
Shefali's interruption was overcast by the women.
"Why are you stopping Rani-sa from showering her love over her grandchild-to-be?"
Bindiya laughed as graciously as Shefali had ever seen someone do so.
Rani-sa blushed and looked at Bindya with an assuring smile.
Ekta's grip on Shefali's hand tightened seeing a bond growing between the two women she had never seen talking so casually before.
Is that how it feels to share equal rights? The right that is sincerely equal, the right to be a grandparent? Ekta thought to herself.
Shefali's silent sigh was about a different issue.
She feared the rift it might bring in the family or even the kingdom to see the younger brother's child first. I must do something for Devansh, being deprived of everything mustn't be normalized... Shefali thought to herself in vain when Devansh was out in town with Rajveer announcing with the drum's men about the new heir that was yet to spawn.
"You have made this day so much better, child. Have a blessed year"
Rani-sa kissed Shefali's forehead with sheer affection.
But how long would it stay is a question Shefali was more eager to ignore.
There was someone else in the whole kingdom who had not yet figured out how he was going to face a future he was not armed for.
"A father..."
Eshant whispered, caressing Kanha's back in the otherwise empty stable.
Baba is a term Eshant had all sorts of beef with. It was also a term that he loved and respected deep down. It was a term that brought him nothing but disappointment in the end, after years of infusing hope.
Just because we are so dependent on this one term all our childhood besides a mother, we fail to excuse them as humans. For children, their parents are no less than a form of the goddess herself.
We fail to recognize them as simple individuals who make mistakes like we do and that is treacherous. It hadn't occurred to me until now that I realize, it's haunting to be hated by your own child.
How will I stand so stainlessly in front of my own child? Will I be good enough? Eshant's mind was a storm of emotions. Unattended emotions from the past crowded over his distracted self.
It was more distressing to wait until the next morning to meet his wife before imparting gold coins among the masses as a form of gratitude in return for their overwhelming blessings for both the mother and the child.
"It must be a saint with no family who makes such depressing laws to avenge the ones who do have a family to crave for"
He said sighing inattentively and Kanha neighed in unison.
*
It was midnight when Shefali woke up to a knock on the door.
Ekta yawned before walking up to the door.
"Is the young queen consort awake?"
Asked a maid in a low voice.
Ekta looked back inside with a frown.
"I am"
Shefali informed from her bed.
"It is about the woman from the morning"
The maid started.
In her mention, Shefali stood up from the bed having forgotten about Dharmini completely after all that has been happening since then.
"What happened to her?"
Shefali asked with a tearing horror in her voice expecting something severe. It was too significant in her vision that how a woman alone stood in a wild sphere of dangers just by surviving.
"She left"
The maid smiled and Ekta shook her head in relief.
"But she asked Ram Kake, the guard, to tell you that she looks forward to the fulfillment of her desire"
The maid said with a wrinkle or two on her brows hoping to know what it was. She had a whole group of women waiting to know some more about the new trend in town.
Ekta looked back at Shefali and laughed hysterically.
Shefali, although, could not make out what she was supposed to grant exactly.
A/N
I am really hoping to see who are the ones still sticking around after almost a month🤪
Let's make the votes up to 40 so that we get to be in the top tier ranking again!💗
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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...
