Chapter 7
CHAPTER 7
ISHA
“ S top yawning under that dupatta. It’s rude,” hissed Diya, adjusting the pallu of her white Chikankari georgette sari over her head.
That was easy for her to say. She hadn’t spent half the night running from smugglers in the desert, I groused silently.
Veer and I had snuck into the palace without waking anyone except the night security who had shot us a knowing look. In their eyes, the Maharaja’s sister and the Maharani’s brother made the perfect match. We didn’t bother to disillusion them because if they found out we’d been dodging bullets on what they believed to be a romantic drive in the moonlight, they would totally rat us out to Bhai Sa.
Instead, I gritted my teeth and batted my eyelashes at Veer as I led him into the house.
“Why are you making that weird face?” he whispered. “Did you bang your head on the side of the vehicle?”
I really should have buried him in the desert, I thought as I turned my back on him and stomped up the stairs to my bedroom.
“Sweet dreams,” he called out as he walked towards his own bedroom.
In response, I held my fist high in the air and slowly raised the middle finger without turning back.
The next morning, I was groggy and exhausted when the staff brought me a tray of bed tea. I had to force myself out of bed because there was one last prayer meeting to get through before we could begin to move on with our lives.
It took three cups of my favourite Vienna roast to keep me upright through the long-winded speeches. We were down to the last one before the guests dispersed for lunch.
“Why is it taking so long?” I whined, stroking the fine embroidery on Diya’s sari.
I was so glad the karigar was willing to revive his great-grandmother’s extinct design for the Maharani of Trikhera. He had created a full line of embroidered outfits for Diya’s new design venture, House of Trikhera.
“The Chief Minister certainly has a lot to say about your grandmother,” she said diplomatically.
“He’s just relieved she died before she could come out with her memoirs as she had been threatening to do for the past few years. I’m sure she had a few juicy tales about our CM Sahab’s misspent youth,” I replied with a snort. “But seriously… why is he still droning on about her? She’s not here to hear him.”
“Maybe she is,” murmured Diya, with a shudder. “I wouldn’t put it past her.”
“Oh no! I bet Dadi Sa is already rotting in hell. She was kind of overdue for her appointment there,” I replied with a grin that I hid behind my dupatta before my mother could notice.
After my shenanigans at the funeral, she’d skin me alive if she even caught me smiling at my grandmother’s prayer meeting. She had asked me to squeeze out a few tears if I could, but I just couldn’t do it.
My mother was a kind soul who could put up a decent show of mourning for the old hag who had tortured her when she was alive. Unlike me.
A good princess would shed a few tears over her dead grandmother, but I was sick and tired of being good. And I was never good at being fake anyway. As a child, I had feared Dadi Sa, and I had grown up to hate her with good reason. She made Cruella De Ville look like a fairy godmother and had only brought misery to Ma and me while Baba was alive. After all, like mother, like son.
Ma and I had survived their bullying that bordered on abuse, but I refused to feel anything but relief that we were finally free of both those monsters. Now all I had to do was wait for all these people to disperse before we got down to the main program of the day - the reading of Dadi Sa’s will.
“You’re squirming in your chair like a preschooler,” murmured my best friend-turned-sister-in-law.
“I can’t wait anymore, Diya! I’ve waited for this moment for years,” I replied.
“Are you so eager to leave us, Isha?” asked Diya sadly.
“I’m not leaving anyone,” I corrected with exasperation. “Gulab Mahal is just a short drive away from the palace.”
“But what about when I need a midnight ice cream buddy?” she wailed.
“Kick your husband awake,” I suggested sweetly. “He has to be good for something other than sex.”
“That’s not an option because we fight over the same flavours. You’ll just have to stay, Isha, because I’ll soon be too big to be lumbering around the city in the middle of the night every time I get a craving for pistachio gelato,” she informed me imperiously.
Diya was six months pregnant and had no qualms about leveraging her pregnancy to make me feel guilty for wanting to live my life.
“Nice try, but I’m still moving,” I replied, with a nervous glance at my watch.
When would all these people leave? Didn’t they have lives of their own?
“I could always lock you up in the dungeon,” muttered Diya.
“Lock whom up?” asked a deep voice, and I tensed at the familiar tingle that ran down my spine.
I ignored it and turned to flash a decidedly fake smile at Veer, who had lowered his delicious self into the chair next to mine.
“You,” I said sweetly. “Because the skeleton in our dungeon needs replacing.”
His caramel-coloured eyes flashed with anger at my rudeness and I braced myself for his reply in kind because Veer was a grade-A asshole even on his best days.
Diya glanced at me in surprise because she had never seen me start a fight with her brother. Until recently, I’d done my best to ignore the way he snapped and snarled at me. Not anymore. This new Isha refused to take shit from anyone, especially the high and mighty prince of Jadhwal. I was fully prepared to kick him out of the palace on his grumpy ass if he gave me any grief today.
“If you want to tie me up in your sex dungeon, you only have to ask, Princess,” he murmured meaningfully, and that tingle turned into a full-blown shudder. And my lady bits did a happy dance at the thought of tying Veer up and having my way with him.
I ignored the shudder firmly and ordered my lady bits to shut up and sit down as I pretended to gag.
“Don’t mess with me today, Veer. I’m so stressed that I’ll throw up all over your shoes again if you piss me off,” I threatened and Veer moved his feet away hastily.
I was glad because I had no time to bicker with His Grumpiness.
“Did you tell Dheer about what happened last night?” he whispered in my ear.
I bit back a moan when his warm breath tickled the sensitive skin beneath my ear. At this rate, I was going to melt into a puddle of need right here.
“No! And don’t you say anything now, either. I’ll speak to him after all this is done,” I whispered back, moving away from him.
“What are two of you whispering about?” asked Diya suspiciously.
“Umm…”
I couldn’t think of a reply that wouldn’t worry her in her condition, but Veer swung into action.
“I was just commenting that you look exhausted, Diya. Do you want to come home with us for the weekend? It might give you a bit of a break from all your house guests,” said Veer, leaning forward to talk to his sister.
He froze when his shoulder brushed against my chest, and we stared at each other for a breathless moment before I leaned away from him very obviously. I didn’t want any part of me touching the heartless bastard.
“I have to stay for the reading of Dadi Sa’s will. To support this idiot, if nothing else,” grumbled Diya, with a nod in my direction.
“I’m thirty-one years old, babe. It’s not idiotic to want to be independent,” I said mildly.
“Look around you, sweetie. You live in a fucking palace. The place is so huge that we can all co-exist peacefully without setting eyes on each other for weeks if we don’t want to. You don’t have to move out of the house to be independent,” she argued.
Veer shot me a surprised glance.
“Where are you going?”
“If you believe your sister, I’m moving to outer space. But all I’m doing is moving into my uncle’s haveli on the other side of the city. Don’t lose your head now, Diya. If you don’t get with the program, I don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of convincing Ma and Bhai Sa to let me live on my own.”
I had to be the most sheltered princess this side of the Aravalli mountains because I had spent my whole life under the watchful gaze of my mother right here in Trikhera Palace. I hadn’t even held a job in my life because my brother gave me a very generous allowance. All that was about to change now. As soon as Dadi Sa’s will was read.
Most of the family’s jewellery was held in trust for the Maharaja and Maharani anyway, and I didn’t care about any of Dadi Sa’s personal collection of jewels. All I cared about was the only un-entailed property she owned - Gulab Mahal.
Dadi Sa had promised me the house, so I knew she wouldn’t have willed it to my brother. But since I knew that woman was as trustworthy as a snake, I wouldn’t be at peace until the will was read and I knew that Gulab Mahal was mine at last.
Because I had plans for the house.
This was the start of the rest of my life. I loved my family, but it was time I moved out of my childhood home. Until now, the Trikhera princesses had only left their maternal homes in a doli to go to their husbands’ homes. This princess had different ideas, though. I wanted to be free.
I had no plans to get married anytime soon because I refused to settle for anything less than true love, and after deluding myself for years, I had finally made peace with the fact that true love wasn’t in my destiny. I was destined to be alone forever. And if that was the case, I was going to do it in style. On my terms. In Gulab Mahal.
When all the long-winded speeches were finally over, I bowed my head and greeted all the esteemed guests politely as they passed by me, wishing I could slam the heavy doors of the palace shut on them. Instead, I took a deep breath and told myself I could hold on for a few more minutes.
I was aware of Veer’s thoughtful gaze on me as I walked into Bhai Sa’s study for the will reading, but I refused to look at him because I didn’t want to give him a glimpse of the desperation I knew was written on my face. That was personal. Far too personal to share with a man who lived to make me miserable.
My family was waiting for me in the study. I slunk into the room quietly, avoiding Ma’s reproachful gaze. She knew I’d been waiting for this moment and was doing her best to guilt me into giving up my plans. But I was determined to have my way. I was moving out of the palace as soon as I got the keys to Gulab Mahal.
Our family lawyer read out the terms of Dadi Sa’s will, and as expected, it was fairly straightforward. I held my breath when he came to the section about Gulab Mahal.
He shot me a quick glance over his gold-rimmed spectacles, and my heart began to pound and my palms started to sweat. This was it! The beginning of the rest of my life, I thought triumphantly. If only the old geezer would get on with it.
The lawyer hemmed and hawwed until I could bear it no more, but before I could pick up the crystal paperweight on Bhai Sa’s desk and lob it at his head out of frustration, he began to speak.
“As for the smaller property named Gulab Mahal, I will it to my granddaughter, Yuvarajkumari Isha Shekhawat…”
I beamed at the little man, and he flushed and cleared his throat before he went on.
“… under the following condition...”
The lawyer broke off and took a long sip of water.
Wait! What? What condition? And was this the time for a fucking water break?
I took a deep breath and drew on my admittedly sparse reserves of patience. Be cool, Isha. Do not yell at the lawyer. Ma will never forgive you if you do, I told myself sternly.
My heart leapt into my mouth as he began speaking again.
“… That she is either married when this will is read, or agrees to be married within a month of receiving a copy of the will.”
“What nonsense,” roared Bhai Sa, and the lawyer flinched because my brother was not known for his patience either. Although, unlike me, he had a reputation for settling arguments with his fists.
“Dheer, beta, let him finish,” said Ma, trying to be calm.
“This is unacceptable, Ma,” argued Dheer.
“I agree. But I’d like to know exactly how unacceptable it is, so be quiet,” Ma said sternly.
I kept my eyes on the lawyer and desperately prayed for a different ending to that clause. Maybe it was Dadi Sa’s attempt at a joke, although she was the most humourless, nasty being I had ever encountered, who had never made a joke when she was alive, so why would she start now?
“I know this is not very pleasant, Your Highness, but please let me finish,” begged the lawyer.
Diya put a hand on Dheer’s arm and he sat down reluctantly.
“As I was saying, the princess can only inherit the property if she is married, or gets married within the next month.”
I forced myself to speak up.
“And what happens if I don’t agree to be married?” I asked, barely recognising the voice as my own.
“In that case, I regret to say that you don’t inherit the property,” said the lawyer softly.
“That’s okay, Isha. I’ll deed the property to you anyway. We won’t let that nasty cow shaft you like this,” declared Bhai Sa furiously.
But the lawyer shook his head.
“I’m afraid that’s not possible, Your Highness. If the princess does not agree to the terms of the will, the property will be donated to the Goel Foundation.”
There was complete silence in the room for a minute before everyone began to speak at once. Everyone other than me, that is.
The poor lawyer tried to fend off the questions coming at him from all directions, but he looked like he was about to wet his pants. I wondered where Dadi Sa had found him because he didn’t belong to the firm that our family had on retainer. My grandmother had clearly gone to great lengths to keep her will a secret.
When I couldn’t stand it any longer, I stuck two fingers in my mouth and let out a loud, piercing whistle. Everyone fell silent, and my mother shook her head at me disapprovingly.
“Haven’t I told you not to do that in public?”
“I think these are extenuating circumstances, Ma,” I said mildly. “Now, if everyone will just shut the fuck up, I have some questions for the lawyer.”
“Language, Isha,” snapped my mother.
Seriously? Of all the things that mattered right now, she was worried about my language? I ignored her and turned to face the lawyer.
“Mr. Batliwala…”
“My name is Bose,” he interjected.
For fuck’s sake!
“Mr Bose,” I started over through gritted teeth. “Do you mean to tell me that my grandmother actually considered leaving our ancestral property to the Goels?”
“Only if you don’t agree to the terms of her will,” he clarified.
“How old is this will anyway?”
“The will is four years old, but it was updated to add the clause about the Goel Foundation three months before she died.”
“This proves what I’ve always said,” I announced to my family. “Dadi Sa was a vicious, two-faced bitch.”
“Isha,” said my mother, her voice sharp as a whip. “You can’t say such things about your dead grandmother.”
“I can say much worse, actually, Ma. And she would deserve every word,” I replied quietly. “That woman hated me so much that she would rather give my dream house away to our biggest enemy. To the people who tried to kill Bhai Sa and Diya. And after she did such a horrendous thing, she had the balls to look us in the eyes and smile at us every single day until she died. She didn’t feel any guilt about doing this to us!”
“We’ll challenge the will, Isha,” promised Bhai Sa.
“It won’t do any good, Your Highness. The will is iron-clad,” said the lawyer. “I did my best to dissuade her from adding the last clause, but she was very insistent.”
“She was clearly off her rocker, Mr Bose,” said Diya.
“No, she wasn’t. She was as sane as you or I. Here’s a letter from her doctor certifying her to be of sound mind at the time of making her will.”
I let out a loud snort.
“She clearly thought of everything,” I said bitterly. “I guess this is it. The mean old bitch made sure I’d never get my house.”
The lawyer let himself out after he completed the formalities related to the reading, and I tried to hold it together because I knew everyone in the room was pitying me. They could keep their pity, I thought as I blinked back angry tears.
I should have known I couldn’t trust Dadi Sa. She had never been kind to me when she was alive, so why would she start now?
Diya came and sat next to me, and it was all I could do to hold back my tears.
“I’m sorry, Isha. I know how much the house meant to you,” she said, putting an arm around me.
“I won’t let her win,” I said slowly.
“What can you do, though? The lawyer was clear that there was no point in contesting the will.”
“I’ll bring the house down with Bhai Sa’s damn rocket launcher before I let it go to a Goel,” I raged.
“Or… you could agree to the terms of the will,” said Ma, slowly. “You could get married.”
I turned to check if my mother had suddenly sprouted horns on her head because why else would she play devil’s advocate?