4. Promises of ages ago

I watch as my father having heated conversation with Dharma uncle and the older man I know now is Samreshwar, chief conselor and younger brother of King Rameshwar Singh of Swarnalipuram.

I also watch Kumud Ma wringing her hands as she looks at them with concern for me.

And that boy who saved me. Yes that boy not man as he has really made my day from bad to worse. He says, " Either it is a king or a queen , their promise should not be broken. My grandmother would be most disappointed if you broke it. And I know how much you respect her."

I look at my father and see decision in his eyes and feel it's in not my favour.

Oh! How I wish I had not defended him in the woods.

Earlier that day…..

My father comes barrleing towards me and takes me away from that man and I wince as he has grabbed my right one whose shoulder is bruised. He sees my pain and soften his hold and asks, " Dear, are you alright? What happened? Were this people bothering you? " My father rambles on and before I could say anything he turns towards that man and says, " I will kill you all. How dare you hurt her. I-".

I cut in, " Stop! Father, take a deep breath. If you stop for one minute to look around, behind you there is big wild boar. It was because of him I got hurt, not them. And about them, this man saved my life. You should be thankful. I was not able get up because of foot injury and was gonna fall down when he got hold of me. No bad intentions here. Ok. But how come you are here?"

My father takes deep breath but I can still see some anger there, " I am sorry dear, I was not here. I got news late. You usually come back early from woods on Sunday but you were late today so I thought to ask someone when I saw that young boy appointed to keep an eye on you rambling on about a wild animal running after you. I asked him and he said he was foolish and now you are dead and I got angry and asked him where he saw you last. Then I gathered my men came to find you. And here you are. Thank God you are ok. Thank God."

My father hugs me tightly without giving any thoughts to my bruises which make me scream in pain and makes him leave me immediately.

"We have to take you to palace immediately. Your Kumud Ma is most worried and will also ring your ears for it." My father says.

" No worries she will not. I am going to bring her flowers so I am safe." I say. Then I look at the man behind me and say, " You all saved my life, so as a thank you I invite you all for dinner. You all are maybe tired of travelling and saving me. So please accept our hospitality" 

" No. They don't want to come dear. They must have some urgent business and should leave now." My father says. 

I gasp at his manner. Why my father is behaving like this? He never behaves rudely like this.

"But we can't reject princess' invitation now, can we? And yes we are little tired." One of traveller says.

" Yes we can't. I am hungry." Another gruff man says. He looks surly but gentle at the same time.

The man in front of me rolls his eyes like he is annoyed by them. Does he not want to accept my invitation or is he afraid of my father. But he proves my latter assumption wrong as he utters next words.

He says, " I want to accept this invitation, as my guards and brothers are hungry. And my uncle is tired as he is old."

"Hey! Watch your mouth. Who do you call old? I will show you who is old. Take your sword and I …" the older man rambles on but the man ignores him and says," And I also want to make sure that princess is alright." He looks at me and I do one thing I have never done.

I blushed.

You blushed. Oh my god. Hahaha you are so gone. He says something you blush. He looks at you, you blush. He touch you and you feel spark. You are embarrassing. My ESV says.

I think I told you to shut up. I am not blushing, it is just that I am in pain and I am standing under heat. And I feel spark because of him so something is wrong with him not me. Okay.

" I don't think you should-" my father starts to says when I cut him and say unexpectedly, " Father! What is wrong with you? Look I am already irritated because of this bruises and my foot is paining me immensely as I am putting pressure on it unforgettably. So can we please skip this argument and go to palace. And about them, they deserve our hospitality. They saved my life and I want to repay them and you are not going to stop me. Okay? Please father can we just go?" 

I look at my father with tears in my eyes. He sighs and I know he will not deny me but something in his eyes tells me that he is surrendering more than this. 

He picks me up and sits me on his horse. He moves to take another horse from one of his guard. I look in the direction where I put my basket, hoping they are not trampled on.

When I see him coming towards me with my basket. He gives it to me and smiles and says, " You may need this to save yourself from your Kumud Ma. And about your knife, I will make sure to extract it for your future prays, Princess."

I smile coyly as I say, " Thank you!"

And then I remember I didn't ask for his name. And one more unusual thing. How did he knew that I am a princess?

I go to ask him but then my father takes my horse's rein take to me towards palace. I look behind me and see our guards following us and behind them, that man and his men following.

We reach palace's front gate as my father was reluctant to show the travellers back gate. I saw Kumud Ma and Dharma uncle at gate. 

Did I forget to tell you that they are both married to each other? It was a love story. Dharma uncle didn't care about society or her status and married her for love. And my parents fully supported it. Kumud Ma's baby was still born, around that time my mother was also heavily pregnant with me. My mother said that she can't feed me due to some defency in her body. So Kumud Ma took care for me, fed me. Due to this she came out of her grief and focused on me. That's why I call her Ma not aunty.

After 10 year they were finally blessed with a boy. Anshavara. I call him my Anshu. He is my precious angel. 

I see him peeking from behind the side pillar of gate. Must be because Kumud Ma scolded him not to come as he is small and easily gets lost.

My father stops at gate. As he is leaving his horse, my uncle comes towards me and helps me down from horse and I stumble. Kumud Ma runs towards me and hugs me tightly when she see my disheveled state. 

She starts to say something when I grab the basket from horse's back and give it to her and say, " Can you please scold me later. Right now we have to welcome our guests and apply some medicine on my injuries so I can show my gratitude to them by serving them best dinner." 

"Fine. But we will talk later. Let's go. Your father and uncle and other maids could see for your guest welfare. I am taking you to healer." She says with authority.

I try to say something when she cut me with mother's special strict look and says, " Not one word young lady. Or no sweets and training for whole week. And you have to join me and other ladies at shopping of your upcoming birthday. Do you want to spend your days seeing us gossiping. And I mean it. Let's go."

She knows my weaknesses. I stay mute and start walking and signal Anshu to come to me. He rans towards me and hugs me. His eyes are teary and his chubby cheeks are red from constantly rubbing away tears. He says, " Where were Di? I was so worried? I will not talk to you ever?" He says angrily, but is sill clutching my skirt like I am going to run away never come back. 

" I am sorry my dear Anshu. I promise I will never go anywhere without telling you. Okay. Now please forgive me. Please." I puff out cheek and try to show as much cuteness I can. A smile comes to his face and he says, " Ok. I love you, so I forgive you. Next time I will go with you and protect you. I swore an…. an…. Ha an oath. Okay. Now smile Di."

I smile widely. Kumud Ma looks at us lovingly, then says, " Are you both done now. And what are you doing here Anshu? Didn't I tell you to wait inside? Manvi, you only say something. Atleast your little warrior will listen to you. Now let's go inside."

I look behind me and see them. But I don't get to see much as my Ma literally drags me to my room.

After getting washed up and wearing my simple blue blouse and skirt with dupatta. I sat myself in front of mirror.

Healer has already put some salve to my shoulder bruise and on scratches. My foot had gotten little swollen but it's alright. She bandaged it after applying medicine.

I look in the mirror and think about today's events. I ate my lunch in my room only with Anshu and Ma. I asked her what happened to my guests. She said that they had lunch and are discussing something with my father. There was something she was hiding. It feels like today's day is 'hide from Manvi and still show it on face'. Really! Do they take me for fool? I may not be math genius but I can always read face.

After taking much required rest, I start to get ready for dinner. I wait for Anshu so we can go together. We go together to the dinning room with the help Anshu and pillar's support and maids hovering like mother hens nearby.

Firstly there was no one. I asked maid what are we making for dinner and she told me menus. Kumud Ma already informed them so no worries there. I sit down and Anshu starts to play there with his wooden sword. 

My father enters the room and comes towards me.

"Dear I want you to tell me everything that happened. Okay. Everything even the guards mistake. And yours too." My father says.

And I know I am not getting out of it. So I tell him everything. He looks at me with annoyance and anger.

He stops a maid and says, " Tell the general that king told to send Divakar for kitchen duties. That ought to teach him a lesson."

I shiver at his words. Atleast he didn't humiliate him in front of me. I search for words to apologise but stop when I see him at enterance. My father starts scolding me without knowing that he has audience. Such an embarrassing moment. I try stop him but he doesn't stop when I see that man trying miserably to hide his smile. I had enough.

"Welcome! I hope you all had good rest. But I must ask for introduction as I don't know any of your name." I say loudly. So loudly that I almost feel like I am screaming it.

My father turns around and notices them. He again looks at me and gives me a glaring that definitely says we will talk about this later. I also give him same look meaning we will.

"Ofcourse! My name is Samreshwar Singh. I am from Swarnalipuram which is in north from here. Our four guards are outside for training. These thre are my nephews." Samreshwar Ji said.

I smile at them all but ignore that man as he was earlier laughing at me. 

Samreshwar Ji introduces me to them, " This one is my second older brother's older son Arjun and this one is his younger one Samarth. And the one who saved you is none other than Rudraveer, my first older brother's son."

I remember the one who said was hungry grumpyly is Samarth and the who accepted my invitation was Arjun. They both are like night and day. One has charming personality and other is Sir Grumps a lot. And the third one….

Oh! So his name is Rudraveer. What will you call him Rudra or Veer! Ha? My ESV says.

I immediately reply out loud, "Rudra" and realise what I did. Everyone is looking at me and I can literally see smoke coming out of my father's ears. Oh no ! I have to do something. I will kill you ESV.

Sure. Like you can ever. Hahaha. My ESV says.

Uhh I hate her. But back to damage control. I clear my throat and say sweetly, " Rudraveer Ji ! Thank you for what you earlier did this day." And smile gratefully. 

He was standing by side pillar with its support. When I said that and smiled he almost lost his posture. Wow is he ok. Maybe he is famished. That's why.

He looks at me weirdly. My father comes between us. He says," Dear you shouldn't have come here. Go to your room. I will send dinner for you there. Okay"

" No, Father. They are our guests. And now I am already here. So why waste time. You know I have injured my foot." I say to my father looking annoyed.

" You should tell her everything. There is no need to waste more time. She will know about this soon enough. It's better if it comes from you" Samreshwar Ji says to my father.

" What is he talking about father?" I ask him.

" Nothing dear! It's our family matter. I didn't asked you interfere. She is princess of Prabhakaran. And will be Queen of it." My father says angrily to Samreshwar Ji.

"We are not taking her throne. We just want to fulfill the promise which was made 12 years ago. A relationship was born that day. And we have to respect that. And don't forget it was your Queen of Prabhakaran who made that promise. Once the word gets in other states do you know what will be at risk here. People will slander your daughter's reputation for not fulfilling her mother's last wishes. Even though all of this is not her fault." Samreshwar Ji says authoratively.

My father face becomes red with rage. I try to process the words and one thing comes to my mind why would people slander my reputation when I even don't know my mother's last wish. What was it? I turn towards my father and ask," Father, please tell me what is he talking about? What was mother's last wish? I want to fulfill her wish. You are king of this state, you have to tell me the about promises which was made. I want to know so I can fulfill it for mother. Tell me."

My father looks at me with sadness and love in his eyes and says, " My little cub! Her wish was for you to be married in a family who will always protect you. So when both of us will ever die that family could look after you. So she married you to this boy when you were four in secret and promised her grandmother that Prabhakaran and this state where that boy came from will never fight each other. She asked for a promise from grandmother to always be there for you and protect you at any cost."

I look at father thinking this all might be a big joke. But nobody laughs. I ask him one thing which comes to my mind.

" Which state are talking about?"

"Swarnalipuram" Father says.

"What was this boy's name?" I ask him.

My father hesitates. But points at the man who earlier saved me and says that one name that I would not have imagined.

"Rudraveer Rameshwar Singh".