A good marriage would be between a blind wife and a deaf husband.
-Michael de Montaigne

And for the second and the major factor for her discomfort were two rough strong hands and a warm hard chest that was eating away her sanity. Her breath fell in pants, each time he pulled the reins of the horse, almost deliberately brushing across her bare skin of waist.
And THAT was making her increasingly uneasy.They rode so fast that the others were left far-far behind because she could no more hear the gallops of other horses. And after what felt like eons later the torture finally stopped as he kicked the side of the horse and with a soft neigh it came to a complete standstill.
But he was her husband, wasn't he? Degrading her would mean degrading his-self.
He would not do that! He would not!She tried to assure herself while her own heart was racing at at speed higher than the horse she had rode a while ago.'He had forced her to marry him! Now would it really be a surprise if he forces her to sleep with him? '
No! No! He wouldn't step that lower....or-or would he?
Chandra silently studied her expression while he tied the reins of his horse on a near by tree and she was buzy eyeing a pebble lying near her feet? Her head was lowered down while her eyes were a open window to let him see how the storm inside her created havoc.
'She was afraid of him! 'He understood. And she must be afraid of him and stay within her limits but quite not the way she was thinking.
"Afraid not, I wouldn't hurt you if you don't try something ridiculous like this...."He turned his wrist around which was now a swollen purple mass of blood clot.And he could swear he heard her sigh in relief.
Although she wanted to beliave on nothing that this man said. Those final words were enough to pull out a sharp pin that was continuously pricing and scrapping at her delicate heart. The fear slowly ebbing away!
Her eyes finally focusing on the rest of the encampment.
A sence that had her internally cringing.Three dull little tents. Empty bottle of beers. Dirty blankets. Broken pots. Smoked residues of cigars and not to forget the rotting cooked rice and meat in a corner."I thought you are a prince? "The words flew out even before she could think better of them.
"A Prince without his palace, kingdom and army is as good as a beggar on streets..... but atleat now the Prince have his princess. "
A pink hue spread across her cheeks then.... while she wanted to do nothing else but to rub that away from her face. What was she doing? Why was she behaving this way?
'He was one hell of a cheeky bastard!'
But why did he say that? Was it another one of his underhanded tricks? To lure her into bed tonight willingly or was there a better motive?
And while she kept on hypothesizing about the reasons behind his words only he knew that the last part was just a cover up... lest she hears his pain laying underneath!"Go in! "He pointed at the tent that stood in the middle. "That one....I will join you a in a little while. "
He doesn't know why he was behaving courteously to her and talking all that.... he doesn't need to....maybe because he was too exhausted and wanted to cause no more drama?"J-join m-me?"her high pitched squeal bought him out of his thoughts. "Yes why? You're my wife now and it's our first night together! "He raised a suggestive eyebrow keeping his smile at bay.
He waited for her reaction. While she waited for him to take his words back, but neither did what the other wanted.
"I am NOT going to sleep in the same tent as you. "She spatted finally realizing that silence was going to get her nowhere.
'Goodness!'He mused. The fire in her eyes was something he had never seen before. And might he add that it was suiting her to the hilt because of that similar fiery dress she was donning tonight?
It was an alluring fire, a type of fire that was promising, delicate and yet attracting him towards it like moth.
But then again, he thought, it would be a pity indeed when he would that tame that fire and then douse it forever.For she was now his wife who must be prim and proper somebody who will follow his every command instead of being a fire spitting dragon.The sounds of galloping horse could be heard again and that means his men were near.
"That one..."he pointed at the middle. "Is my tent. The next one to it belongs to my chief General and the last one is where the arms are stored. Now if you would not stay with me....you have two more choices. Either to General's bed or I could surely arrange for an extra blanket so that you can stay here under the open sky surrounded by my men."Her mouth left agape as she looked at her husband. Was it some kind of nightmare? Where was she caught in? Because never in her nineteen years of life had she imagined herself to be subjected to such humiliation and now when that was happening it's none other than her husband doing it.
She did not say anything then for she was still reeling from the shock his words created. Instead she turned around and slowly retreated to HIS tent.
For one thing was clear now. She needs to escape from this monster and his godforsaken territory.
If her father helps her then it would be an easy chance while if he doesn't....she needs to think of another plan.
If the chapter took your fancy then do comment.
And my end semester exams would end on 14th so I would update daily after that.
Thank you.If you need Violence to enforce your ideas, then those ideas are worthless. -AnonymousA lady who had always been amongst the cream of the society, had been pampered like princess and had been raised like one as well, it was no doubt appalling to envision herself living here in such a sickening and repulsive habitat. For what she saw inside the tent was nothing compared to the scene outside. A dwelling garbage of stinking unwashed laundry, empty bottle of beers, residues of cigars and numerous maps rolling across the length of the tent.It was very small place and consisted of nothing but a thick mattress consuming half of it and a glass lantern by its side, which was still glowing, but its golden flames did little to illuminate the dark place.'It was still very dark for her! 'She had barely removed one or two of his dirty shirts from the mattress to make space for her to sit when she was graced with the presence of her arrogant drunkard husband of two hours. "Oh I see....you
 I write fiction because it's a way of making statements I can disown.-Tom StoppardShe was still in her wedding attire except the fact that she had gotten rid of the jewels and golds. Leaving those precious pieces of stones for the hungry prince. 'Perhaps he could buy another mattress with this!'she had scoffed taking out her strings of pearls and depositing them in a corner. She would never see them again because she would not be coming back. For now the bandage over her head would have to do as her new adornment. Rubbing her face vigorously after splashing a cauldron of water, her fingers stopped short by the towel lying beside. She looked at it for the second time, although it looked clean but she could only imagine how frequently these men wash their towels now that she had seen the dirty laundry of the prince himself. So she decided better. With a corner of her veil she patted her skin dry. She had no mirror or comb and she wasn't going to ask for one hence, not botheri
 "I would rather fight with you than kiss someone else."-AnonymousDevika tried to shrug away from his grasp when Chandra told her to step up the paddle and onto the back of the stallion. "I want to go back! ""I can't believe this! "Chandra gave her a hard look but not for long because the troops to Maniteek were getting closer."For a woman who can try to burn her husband alive and can tear his muscles in tatters with her bare nails, you are a very weak woman, very....very weak."he tusked with an expression so grim on his face that Devika was forced to believe that he pitied her. She forgot why why she was fighting. Loosing herself in those stormy eyes that held nothing but sympathy for her, in those same eyes she tried to find the moto of her life? The reason of her living. 'Was there any at all?'And in that point of weakness the will to fight was lost as well. In a daze of self pity and the burden of her father's words she felt herself being lifted and settled into the bac
 Now a soft kiss- Aye, by that kiss, I vow an endless bliss!-John KeatsHe forgot why he had married her in the first place. Trampled on his own vow to be never lured by another woman ever again, he stepped into the water, dissolving every ounce of self control in its sweet cool currents. "Wha-why are you coming here?"she took a step back. "Are you afraid of that? "Chandra asked depicting two unblinking eyes over the water in the golden light of the fire. "Oh God! "She squealed unable to decide which way to go. For if she stayed here a little longer she was sure, she was going to loose a limb or two and if she dashes for the land then the consequence is going to be far more humiliating than any other tragedy could cause. He would see her unclothed! And that thought was enough to keep her pinned at her place and watched as the animal's long spiny tail moved and it maneuvered towards her. "Hushh..."he indicated her to stay silent, an half smile spreading across his face.Just at
She closed her eyes pretending to be asleep when he entered. She nipped at her lower lip making sure the sounds of her agony that were suspiring in the four walls of that tarpaulin tent doesn't reach his notice. And thankfully it didn't, because he did't spare a single glance at her napping form and went about his chores, unconcerned.In the golden gleam of the lamp she peeped through her closed eyelids and as soon as caught him unbuttoning his shirt, shut them tight once again. "Ram-Ram!" She mused in her mind. 'He's indeed a shameless man, even though he knows a lady is here under the same roof and he's undressing.'"But you're no common lady......You're my wife."His smooth husky voice was a well planned trap and she fell right into it by looking straight at him."Oh my!" She failed to close both, her saucer shaped eyes and the gaped mouth witnessing him standing proud in all his glory. His chest rippling with taut muscles in her clear view.For a moment her pupils refused to move
Running her fingers through her messy tangled tresses, she tried to straighten her locks that had been unkempt and untidy for far too long. 'A futile way!' She scowled at her reflection in the river. 'Anywhere why would she care?' Binding her unruly and now frizzy hair at the top of her head and decided to leave; The prince was yet again waiting for her behind the bushes."Why are we going to the town today?"She asked as innocently as possible, despite knowing the very reason of the sudden visit. Perhaps since she wanted him to say it out and aloud to her, that indeed- he 's a failure, that his life is a failure and that he was repenting his disicion of, 'biting of more than he can ever chew!' That he had wedded the hiress of one of the richest house hold in all over Hindustan and now he wasn't able to provide for her.She sneered internally.While blinked at him innocently for the answers that were now long due.'To send you back to your father.' He must have stated her, despite of w
 From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate.-socratesTHE SAME NIGHTThe low howling of the flesh eating predatory creatures of the dark can be clearly heard from where she lay on yet another murky mattresses.It was an irony indeed that from the ill-fated night two moons ago when she had crossed path with that so called prince for the first time. She had been reduced into but a common maid. Had eaten nothing but stale distasteful cookery, eversince. Sometimes boiled rice with wild beans and now dried chapattis with nothing but chopped onions to pass the days...........and at nights waited her an old flattened mattress, reminding of more unfortunate times when there was nothing but dewy grass on the hard ground to make a bedding for her under the green tarpaulin roof.It was the outhouse of her own residence or the villa that had been once her residence. 'Unbelievable!' but truth nonetheless!When she came back here, she knew not how to confront her father. After all th
 Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.-Martin Luther King JrHe himself in all his flesh and blood stood at her door, leaning over a tree trunk with his eternal, exasperating smirk.For a moment or so they stood there looking at each other. Neither saying a word and while Devika did not know what to say, her husband was contemplating how to!But soon enough Devika returned to her true mind, reminding herself how he had made her feel like a shabby insubstantial woman over and over again while he used her worse than an article. And now that her use was over, he had tossed her aside with no life line whatsoever! 'what are you doing here?' the words were on the tip of her tongue but she decided better than that and slammed the rickety wooden door hard on his face. Now THAT she hoped was a very clear message to leave her alone but then she barely knew this man!He didn't feel humiliated when she thrust the door close on his face, not one bit becaus
Thirst of power and of riches now bear sway, the passion and infirmity of age.-James Anthony Froude7 weeks laterPeople say that there's just this small slit between life and death, perhaps a wide enough berth between happiness and despair but hope and an anguishing state of hopelessness seems two different worlds far beyond the reach of one another.And in seven weeks time Roopak had not only understood but experienced the vast difference between these two worlds. Seven weeks ago he stood at the same spot outside this same courtroom with his heart beating like a wild horse while his mind raced through options to save his brother.And seven weeks later now, here he was, standing on the same spot before the courtroom, his heart yet again racing while he watched the embellished adorning of the palace walls while his brother stood beside him and grinned.He grinned back, it was his crowning ceremony after all!The crackers whizzed past him, burst and cracked in the evening sky and the
"But first I require assurance that you are going to let my brother go and hold up your part of the bargain after I get married to your sister." He spoke unable to grasp the significance behind her empty expression. 'Was she going to accept? Or her hunger for revenge far greater than any love she had flaunted for her sister?'But everyone want something and whatever that she may want, Roopak would give her, anything. If it means to save his brother.The silence prevailed for a long time, hanging like a thick curtain of uncertainty between them and Roopak almost came to believe that she was going to refuse when the acceptance came."And what will you require as an assurance?" Her words were almost a murmur but he heard them anyway and a surge of relief went through him when at the same time another part of him was going through something he was unaccustomed in feeling. 'Dread' a foreboding angst for himself.He had married once before, danced on that crazy tune and after how it had end
All pain is punishment and every punishment is inflicted for love as much as for justice. -Joseph De Maistre"Arrest him!"There was no necessity to repeat the command. The very loyal lords and soldiers of the former king marched forward with blood in their eyes and nothing or nobody was able to stop them. They didn't stop at thousand and one orders from Roopak, as the heir to the throne .....since until his official coronation, he held on real power and until then the queen will remain as the chief of the kingdom and its people.They didn't stop or even flinch at Chandra's very explicit threatening, that they were making a mistake neither did they paid any heed to his petite wife who continued to holler the fact aloud that he could not have possibly murdered his father since he was in his chamber the whole time.But it was all futile. He was lead away with a hundred blades at his throat through the darkest corridors and tunnels of the palace and thrown into a muddy underground dunge
The closing hours of life are like the end of a masquerade party, when the masks are dropped.-Cesare Pavese"My lord!" Her voice sounded hoarse as she entered, her body trembling with anxiety as she looked at the man in front of her. With those eyes filled in nauseating and despicable kind of appetite for erotism that all she wanted to do was to abscond and flee before the lecherous old man can put his hands on her.But he will, she knew. And that nothing can stop him now that she was here alone in his presence. She closed her eyes as soon as the last lamp was dosed, she knew what was coming next and she was right!With the room enveloped in utter darkness, all Sunayna was left with were her senses and she could feel his warm breath behind her back, sucking in a deep breath, she waited in silence."Where's your sister?""Coming in a moment." Oh! How did that statement left her throat with a sickening rancidity and her body with abhorrent and horrid ache. 'No, she sister wasn't coming
"At last!" Sneered the king. "At last." Sniggered the courtiers as the queen stopped right in front of the thrown. "Where's your sister? Wasn't my message clear enough, that I want both of you here?" Sunayna stayed silent, not daring to speak let alone to put forth the fact that it was she who had told her sister to not to show up in court, that she could handle and maneuver it on her own. 'And she will!' "Send someone to fetch her now and if she dare show any resistance drag her here by her hair, it is an order!" Sunayna's heart skept some beats and some more thereafter as the guard left to follow up the order. 'No!' She wanted to scream but if anything it would make her situation even worse, so downing yet another bitter pill tonight she tried a gentler approach instead. "My Lord!" She finally spoke. "If I may..." But none listened. The silence prevailed, getting thicker with every passing moment so much so that it became a tangible presence amongst them. Devika didn't say a
A small shiver ran down her spine in the fear of unknown, the warm night seemingly turning frost with every moment that passed. Never had she felt this alarmed of stillness. The seemingly endless stretch of placid tranquility stifled her senses and the cold air of garden felt tempting. 'But it isn't the time for that.' With this untimely arrival of Chandra all her plans and strategies hence fell down and crumpled like a palace of cards as a result leaving her open in vulnerability. Moving in the darkness, she gripped the handle of water jug from her bedstead, treating herself with a massive gulp of water. 'Yes, she had lied but it wasn't as simple as that, was it? She had lied right in front of the whole court and that meant just one thing, a crime against the throne. ' And after all that, her purpose still as unaccomplished as it had always been. Her ears strained to listen to the in growing sound of foot steps towards her chamber and for a moment she stopped breathing. '
 It is indifferent to me, where I am to begin, for there shall I return again. -Parmenidies Devika was thankful that she was left in relative peace for the whole day and though there was very little assurance in what Roopak hard said, somewhere in her subconscious mind she knew what he said was the rational thing to do. 'Wait until he comes back?' 'And then what? What if he repeats the same thing the Queen had said?' She will then have two choices, either to brave that utter humiliation for the rest of her life here or to go back to her father to face yet another kind of degradation, forever. And if she is doomed either way, she will rather have her eyes plucked out by her father than watch the man who had betrayed her for the rest of her life spending a joyous time. 'But for now, she will have to wait.' 'Oh! How does this wait tormented her sanity!' The orange evening glow of sun lay spreaded throughout the land of Maniteek and her eye lids were heavy with the lack of rest a
It's hard to wake up from a nightmare if you aren't even asleep.- j.sDevika staggered back with darkness that came to overshadow every other sense that she possessed. She went numb against the loud chattering of people around her followed by a round of applause and then the series of congratulations and good wishes showered upon both the king and queen for securing another holy bond of matrimony between their families. The queen smiled brightly.... the king nodded, enthusiasm and triumph in his eyes and none bothered to look upon the poor soul torn down by the truth and lies. None except one. Roopak."Come on sister let us get out of here." His soft tone snapped her out of the stupor but the darkness barely receded. It was horrendous....the pain that rippled through her body and soul but it did not ache as much as she expected, rather settled inside her in an all too familiar fashion like an old friend. After all this time she had gotten used to it anyway since there was barely anyt
People prefer the certainty of misery than the misery of uncertainty.-John Bradshaw It hurt and it agonized and left her crushed, yet and still Devika didn't express any of it. She crumpled the bed sheets instead to stop her fingers that itched to get hold of him. Bit the quivering lips to stop them from begging him to stay and not leave her like this....and sucked in a deep breath to stop the tears from flowing free that would reveal her suffering. But if she had to be honest with herself, she will have to accept that, more than misery and mere hurt to be abandoned by her husband on the dawn after their first night of intimacy. 'It was something else that bothered her even more. Much-much more.''Fear!' Indeed, she had put on the facade of bravado when that condescending queen had descended upon her to tear her flesh off. Yes, she had instead left the vulture scraped and wounded for now but she knew it was just for the time being and now that her only amour, her refuge, her husban