The King's Vow

Chapter 2

"Yèyé Oba, e kaaro. (Queen mother, good morning.)" Làbáké greeted the Queen Mother who was seated on a mat outside her hut, eating ogi (pap) and akara (beancake) fried in Palm oil. There was an unpleasant smell emitting from the older woman as usual, that even the scent of the akara couldn't mask it. Labake had noticed the foul smell ever since she had moved into the palace and she tried not to scrunch her nose in order not to offend the old woman. In fact, she had been too scared to ask the king why his mother stank because she didn't want to incur the hatred of the Queen mother and the wrath of her husband, but as she spent more days in the palace, she eventually gotten accustomed to the odour.

As she lowered herself and sat on the mat too, the Queen mother invited her to join her. "Wa jeun. (Come eat with me.)"

"Thank you Yeye, but I just finished my breakfast not too long ago." Labake replied. After a slight pause, she presented the issue that had brought her to the Queen mother's hut. "Yeye, I've come to report your son to you?" She said with a pout.

"What is it again this time, Omolabake?" Asked the Queen mother, lifting her bowl to drink her almost watery pap.

"Yeye, it's been four weeks now..." She indicated with four fingers with an exception of her thumb. "...Four weeks that your son married me and he has refused to touch me."

"And I thought I advised you to exercise a little more patience that he'll come around soon." Yeye gave her a levelled look.

"Yeye, you told me that two weeks ago and the gods know that I've been patient enough. If my pregnancy does not start showing in the next three months, people will think that I'm infertile and tongues will start to wag."

"Let the tongues wag!" Yeye answered. "I know that you are not infertile and with time you'll fill this palace with as much children as possible that you'll not even remember that you once had this hitch in your marriage."

"But Yeye, when? When? I can't impregnate myself, and your son is showing no sign of even deflowering me any time soon. When I was being escorted down to the palace by my people, I was told that every man's joy is to have a virgin as a wife. I presumed that my husband, the king, would be proud to have such a young beautiful woman as myself, but no, I was dead wrong! He doesn't even look at me the way that I've seen other men look at their wives! Did he just marry me so that Lagbedu could have someone to call a Queen? Did he only marry me just to stop the rumours from flying? Yeye, I want to be made love to; I want to know how it feels to be owned by a man." She complained bitterly.

"Omolabakeeee! You worry too much!" The old woman tried to comfort her. "The king is yours and his attention is not being divided by any other woman! I can assure you that he has eyes for you alone."

"Then where does he go to at night?" She blurted and Yeye flinched a bit while Labake continued without noticing it. "For the past four weeks now, I've noticed that my husband goes out at the dead of the night twice a week! Where he goes to, I know not! Just last night, I wanted him to touch me and I realized that he had ejaculated a few minutes before he returned to our chamber as if he had been with another woman."

"Hmm!" The old woman heaved a pensive sigh. "Omolabake!" She called, cocking her head sideways towards the young wife. "Omolabake!... Omolabake!"

"Yeye." Labake grudgingly answered.

"How many times did I call you?"

"Le meta, Yeye. (There times, mother)." She replied, her gaze averted with a defiant frown.

"Don't go looking for answers that you are not ready to know. A child who dips his or her hand in fire would be badly burnt. Do not trouble your husband about his disappearance at night. Just be a good wife and keep your nose out of his business and everything will be just fine." The old woman warned.