Love and Redemption

Chapter 49

Maharani Aparajita Singh Rathore had a hectic day in the royal court of Vijaygarh. She took a deep breath, as she came back to her luxurious chambers.

She sighed infuriatedly as she remembered a group of ministers who questioned her new taxation policies which were beneficial for both the peasants and the treasury of the royal kingdom. It was difficult to explain things to everyone, she thought as she let out a defeated groan.

However, she soon realized that she was a strong woman in a male-dominant Rathore clan so it was necessary for her to prove her point every time. In her short span as a ruler of prosperous kingdom of Vijaygarh, Maharani Aparajita Singh Rathore had realized being a woman was not easy in the royal court.

A small smile crept on her face as she reminisced the aura of the prince of Shivgarh, Yuvraj Veerbhadra Singh Rajput. She wondered the chivalrous royal of Rajput clan indeed, respected women and her father’s decision of crowning her the queen of her kingdom. Aparajita was truly attracted to the prince, his thoughts on women empowerment and his appearance.

However, her face soon lost the smile as she remembered their conversation about the attack on her palace five years ago. She sighed as she realized that the prince of Shivgarh advocated about innocence about his Rajputana army. With several questions coming up in her mind, she decided to probe into the matter by herself.

Adjusting her soft peach colored silk veil on her head, the queen of Vijaygarh, Maharani Aparajita Singh Rathore rushed to the royal library of her palace. She was determined to know about the royal Rajputana army of Shivgarh, its values, its deeds, its victories, its defeats, its attitude and most importantly the treatment it gave to the innocent people of other rival kingdoms.

Aparajita left the dimly lit royal palace and passed through the horse stables during the dusk. The blue sky was turned into the hues of red, orange, pink and purple nd faint moon could be seen in the evening sky. She was going to the ancient portion of the royal castle which was situated on the backside of their magnificent royal palace.

Earlier, the antique building was used as the main palace but Aparajita’s grandfather, Maharaja Ranvijay Singh Rathore constructed the opulent palace where the queen stayed with her father.

Entering the old wing of the palace in the backside which was lit with huge flambeaus, Aparajita nodded as the royal guards bowed down at her paying their respect. This archaic styled portion of the royal palace had ancient chambers where the ancestors of the Rathores lived which were now filled with royal treasure; the locked storerooms with variety of swords, arrows, cannon guns and other weapons required during the war; the royal granaries containing food-grains for any case of emergency; along with an old dusty royal library that told the historical saga of the powerful Rathore clan.

The royal guards looked at her suspiciously as she gestured one of them to open the locked library. The creaky, wooden door opened with a screeching sound and the queen gestured the guards to carefully light flambeau inside so that she could access the library. As the sun had set, the old library was dusty and dark.

Once the library was brightened with the flames of the huge flambeaus, Aparajita instructed the royal guards to wait outside. Ensuring privacy, she directed herself towards the huge shelf containing the accounts of battles fought by Rathore clan at the end of the huge room.

Taking out the recent account of the battle between Shivgarh and Vijaygarh, she sighed as she had forgotten to bring the clean cotton cloth to clear the dust from the books. Frustratingly, she took a corner of her peach colored silk veil which was embellished with valuable rubies to wipe the dirt from the book removing a dead spider lying on cover-page of the book.

Next, she moved towards the shelf on the right side that contained accounts from the ambassadors and envoys sent to neighbouring kingdoms from Vijaygarh. She rummaged through the shelf to find an account of Shivgarh. She let out a defeated sigh as she could not find any records about Shivgarh. She sat down on the floor as she looked in the bottommost rack of the shelf and her eyes shone with brightness.

Finally the queen, Maharani Aparajita Singh Rathore was elated as she had found what she needed. In the cupboard, lied a small booklet containing few palm leaves tied with a red thread. It had ‘Lessons from Shivgarh’ scribbled over it. The booklet seemed to be very old as the letters seemed blurry.

Aparajita realized the booklet was perhaps, fifty or seventy years old. She wiped the dust from it and took it along with the other book.

Moving out the library, Aparajita instructed the royal guards to remove the flambeaus from the old library carefully as she rushed towards her room. Carefully, keeping the books on her side, she changed her heavy, silk attire, a peach colored blouse embellished with rubies and a heavy matching skirt with a thin golden border embroidered with golden threads because her veil had thick soot of dust and dirt.

Changing into an icy blue cotton skirt and a matching blouse, tired Aparajita slumped on her luxurious bed and closed her eyes as she planned to collect information about Shivgarh by reading those accounts early in the morning. Closing her eyes, Aparajita remembered about the gift, the portrait the prince had painted for her. Last night, the queen was dead tired and confused too so she had hid the painting in her closet and slept.

Little girl inside Aparajita smiled as the queen got up from her bed and rummaged her magnificent, royal wardrobe searching the scroll anxiously. Her breath hitched as her heart fastened its pace. She smiled eventually when she found the scroll but unfortunately all her soft silk dresses were all lying on the floor.

For now, the royal clothes lying scattered untidily all over her room was not a matter of concern for the queen right now. The seventeen year old girl in Aparajita was excited to see what the prince had painted for her. The queen quickly rolled down the canvas which was encased in the metallic scroll-case of Shivgarh.

The queen was utterly shocked. Aparajita could not believe her eyes, as she saw her beautiful portrait depicting her elegance and royalty. She could sense butterflies erupting in her stomach as her eyes got fixated at the black mole on the collar bone of the portrait which the prince had highlighted with a black dot. How could this man notice the smallest of all the things, Aparajita thought as she caressed her beautiful portrait donning the pink royal attire she had worn when the prince had come to visit her in the palace disguised as a cloth-merchant. Aparajita flustered as she admired her portrait painted by her friend, Veer that too with his sharp memory.

“He is truly a terrific painter”, the queen mumbled as she was awestruck at her gorgeous eyes meticulously drawn on the canvas. However, her smile was not long-lasting and was soon replaced by a frown on her face as she realized that the magnificent piece of art could not adorn the beautiful walls of her bed chambers because being a woman she could not say that the prince from neighbouring kingdom drew it for her.

She sighed as she quickly rolled of the beautiful portrait and hid it inside an iron trunk, the secret treasure box of hers, where she stored the valuables which were close to her heart.

She clapped twice gesturing her royal maids to enter her bed chambers. Instructing the two young royal maids to arrange her wardrobe, she sighed as she laid on her bed and slept with a smile portraying on her beautiful lips.

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