Her friends made fun of her when
she told them about her status. They said that there is something
wrong with her hormones or worst, something wrong with her! At that
time, she had merely laughed but had seriously considered the
options after the meeting got over. She was helpless, she thought,
royal princesses are not allowed to hook up with any Tom, Dick or
Harry! They are to pray a lot, eat a lot (for their imaginary
future children or heir, which they will give to the groom’s family
and bring honour to their own) and respect the guidelines which are
meant for their own security. Sadhiya, being the elder, was forced
to succumb under her dad’s order. She never wanted to spoil her
image in front of him! She wanted to show him what a dutiful, loyal
and intelligent human his elder daughter was! She wanted to set a
good example for her younger sister’s. Shara, the middle one, was
adopted by the royal family. She was more of a boy then a girl.
Noor, the younger one, was blind by birth and on top of that, an
illegitimate too. Poor Noor, she thought, to live in royal circle
like that!
Dwelling in these thoughts, she went to
sleep.
*********
“ Good Morning, my lady” soft
voice crooned Sadhiya out of her sleeping state. For a moment, she
forgot where she was. As the memory freshened up, with a jolt she
sat up on her bed. Her bangles tinkled and immediately, she
recalled. It was her wedding night yesterday, wasn’t it? Then why
was she dressed till now… “Your morning coffee, my grace” “Wait!”
she said, “Where is Reyhan?” “His highness is having breakfast on
the balcony; would you like to take your Coffee there,
Sheikha?”
“ No,” she said and sipped
her brew. What would she say to him? What sort of a person leaves
his wife on the first night like that? Maybe, some work was to be
done urgently…Work! Really! It could have had waited, wouldn’t it?
Or else, he could just have come, told her about it and went back
to it? What sort of a person was he? Sadhiya’s perplexed thoughts
were making her more fussy and irritated. Didn’t she already have
too many things on her mind? Leaving the coffee, collecting her
gown from the nearby chair, she headed towards the direction of the
bathroom. Reyhan had to give some answers and soon.
**************
His gaze was on the frontline of the
morning newspaper but his mind was elsewhere! Reyhan-al-bin-Hukum,
ruling king of Buktsar, was married to Princess Sadhiya of Sehar!
At that thought, he lifted his gaze off and stared towards the
horizon. Things were changing; he could sense it in the air, who
knows whether for good or bad! Ameera, his guardian, had forced him
to take this step for the welfare of his kingdom and his people; he
had no intentions to get married in the first place. Why? What for?
To disgrace himself? To let the world know of their ruler’s one
hideous secret? A secret so dark, if revealed, it had the power to
shake their belief in him? He was a failure inside and one more
mistake he had committed was destroying somebody else’s life by
getting married!
Sadhiya, his mind went to the day when
Ameera had shown her photo to him. What had he been thinking? He
wasn’t thinking. He was going along with everyone’s wishes and no
one ever asked him if he wants to take that step or not. He had
deliberately not slept yester night with his new bride. In future,
so many questions would have been raised if he had done that thing.
The problem was, he was already suffering in his own misery, he
didn’t want someone like Sadhiya to suffer along with him! Second
problem, Sadhiya was a walking temptation in her own self. All
those long hair locks, innocent smile, sensuous mouth, firm
breast…! Reyhan clamped down his thoughts there and then. It was
bad he was going to dump the bitter reality on her today. She was
made for a man’s pleasure. He wanted to do all those things to her.
Kiss that lovely mouth…wrap his finger’s around those
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