"Badi Ammi," he called out with his back turned to the approaching woman. With his sensitive hearing, he already knew she was the one approaching his tent. That and that she would be the first of his court officials to confront him.
"Shehenshah-."
"Badi Ammi, you know you do not have to address me by such formalities," he said softly, turning to grant her the decency of facing her. Unlike the gentle facial expression he was used to each time her eyes glanced at him, he met a stone-cold mask that would have frightened a common man.
"Why?" She questioned, her eyes meeting his despite her insistence on using his title to refer to him. "Why did you agree to her conditions? It is your duty to keep the Mughal laws and customs yet you cave to her demands."
He anticipated this and while he owed no one an explanation for every decision he made, he still needed his Badi Ammi to know his reasoning for why he gave his assent.
"Have you heard of the king who refused the desires of his queen, Badi Ammi?" He asked rhetorically and the white-cladded woman seemed to understand his message. "If I refused her conditions, I would be seen as the king who could not fulfil the request of a little girl."
Of course, Rajkumari Jodha was barely a little girl being a few years younger than him. But against him and the power he wielded, she might as well be.
"She would still follow the Mughal laws and customs regardless of the freedom I have granted her."
"Still I wonder, Shehenshah, why you will put yourself through this?" Badi Ammi continued, her eyes staring into his as if to gauge whatever he was thinking. "You could just cancel this whole wedding and make her your concubine instead."
That was a huge mistake on her part as Jalal's eyes burned with venomous anger so cold it would have frozen her. This was probably the first time the Badshah would see true fear in her eyes. If anyone else had dared utter those words to him, they'd have met a slow and painful death for that suggestion.
Badi Ammi immediately backtracked her statement, "My pardon, Shehenshah. But-."
If she went any further, he was going to lose that bit of control he had over his fury.
"This, Badi Ammi," he started, his expression deathly serious now as he stared at the older woman before him. "This is to form a relationship between the Mughal Empire and Rajputana. Conquest does not always have to be won by war, Badi Ammi."
A lie, on his part. He lived for the bloodshed that came with war, after all, he was raised in the midst of that. But if could convince his Badi Ammi, why not?
She seemed unconvinced, her kajal-lined eyes bore into his soul at that. The room fell silent for a few minutes before she broke it.
"I do hope the Empire will not come to regret this decision you have made, Jalal," she said, finally.
His face lit up in a smirk as he looked away. Has she suddenly forgotten who he was? Every decision of his had the best of his plans to extend the territories of the Mughal Empire.
"You know me better, Badi Ammi."
Giving her another glance, he could sense she still was not satisfied and pleased with his answers, yet, she saluted him with a "Khuda hafiz" before making her way out.
He watched as his badi ammi left his tent, leaving him alone to replay the conversation he just had with her.
"You could just cancel this whole wedding and make her your concubine instead."
YOU ARE READING
the desert's rose
Fanfictionbased on the Jodha Akbar serial on Zee TV. she had believed fate was against her, but little did Rajkumari Jodha know that fate had brought her to him for a purpose. regardless, she is determined to make her mark on her new home even if she has the...
