Chapter 9 The Private Bargain #2
“The magnolia plants were withering under the hot sun, so I brought them here, Mother—” Her eyes widened slightly upon seeing him. Then they landed on Sarun and, unless he was mistaken, alarm replaced whatever emotions his presence had evoked.
The gourd slipped from her grasp and crashed to the ground, splitting open with a fat crack, spraying the ground with seeds.
“Sarun! What are you doing here?” she asked. Her voice carried more than a bite of anger.
She turned to the queen. “Mother, haven’t I told you not to allow Sarun to stay this late? These aren’t safe times,” she said with a sidelong glance at Veer, whose eyes narrowed at her not so oblique reference.
Caught, Sarun crawled from underneath the table and hid behind Veer, clutching a fist full of his dhoti. “But, Chandra…” A single blistering glance from her was enough to silence Sarun’s burgeoning protests.
“Come here like a good boy and do what you are told,” she said, extending him an arm and then snatching him when Sarun reluctantly went toward her.
She forced herself to raise her gaze to Veer. Their eyes locked and he recognized the barely hidden hints of fear behind her anger.
Veer glowered. Just what was she afraid he would do? Even at his worst, he never indicated he would harm innocent children. He contemplated Sarun with renewed interest. Who was this child that Chandra seemed to protect and care for like her own?
“What are you doing here?” asked Chandra, finally addressing him. He wasn’t surprised that it wasn’t a polite greeting but a blunt question. But then he remained seated, so he couldn’t exactly throw stones about decorum.
The queen signaled something to Chandra that stiffened her back. She replied in rapid hand movements, but the queen was already leading Sarun away from Chandra.
Veer looked toward Billadev for an explanation. “The queen wants you both to talk to each other. Alone,” Billadev clarified, departing behind the queen and giving a cheeky wave.
Once they were alone, Chandra turned her back on him and walked toward the door she had come from. “We will talk in the gardens,” she threw over her shoulder, not waiting to see if he would follow.
Veer walked behind her, cataloging the changes brought by seven years. Yesterday at the meeting, he could hardly see her behind the heavy hair ornaments and the yards of saree.
She had filled out her almost scrawny frame, but with sleek muscle instead of soft flesh.
Her skin was a burnished bronze and gleamed in the late afternoon sun.
Her braid, thick and long as ever, tossed about around her waist. And Veer remembered this, deducing how annoyed or angry she was by its movement across her hips.
She was still a temperamental person, showing her emotions freely.
More importantly, she appeared no worse for wear from his annual punishment.
“Who is Sarun?” he asked.
A minor stumble was the only indication that his question disconcerted her.
“My maid’s son. Why do you ask?”
“He seems very familiar with you,” he said, testing waters.
“Kalpana is more than a maid to me. I consider her to be my friend. She has been with me since childhood and I’ve known Sarun since he was a baby, so naturally he is close to me.” There was nothing odd about what she was saying, and yet his instincts said she was hiding something.
“What about the father? Does Kalpana not live with her husband?” he asked, persisting with this line of questioning that had no bearing on what he had come here for.
“He is not in the picture,” she said in a clipped voice.
“Ahh…she isn’t married to the father, is she?” guessed Veer. “Sarun is a bastard.”
She whirled around and fixed him with a glare. “You will stop referring to him as such if you want our conversation to go forward.”
“It still doesn’t explain why you were afraid to see him with me,” he asked, carefully gauging her reaction.
“I don’t know what you are talking about,” she said, not meeting his eyes. “It was nothing more than a knee-jerk reaction to seeing a child in the company of a dangerous enemy.”
“But I’ve never given any indication that I would hurt children, Princess. I’d wager there is more to it than that. Something you’re not telling me.”
Her expression went blank, her mouth firming obstinately, telling him without words that she had no intention of satisfying his curiosity.
“Very well,” he said. “Tell me what a princess of the land was doing roaming with a group of men in the dead of night?”
“It’s Amaravathi’s business and has nothing to do with you,” she said with forced nonchalance.
“I won’t have my wife mixed up in anything unsavory that reflects poorly on my family and Rajgarh,” he said, with a hint of warning.
“You should’ve kept a closer eye on me then,” she retorted.
“Are you complaining about my abandonment, Princess?” he asked, baring his teeth in a smile that they both knew was false.
“I didn’t realize you were pining for my company.
You killed my best friend. On the evening of our wedding, no less.
If anything, I’ve been lenient letting you live when I would’ve preferred to throttle you to death with my bare hands. ”
“Careful, Prince Veer,” she said, her eyes flashing.
“Statements like that are not going to help your cause. And you need all the help you can get to convince people I am safe with you, after the little stunt you pulled the other day. And I can deal with my own problems. I’ve been handling them ever since you left me here after our marriage. ”
A brief silence fell as they pitted their wills against each other. “Very well, Princess,” he said softly. “Keep your secrets and may they serve you well. However, be warned, I won’t be sympathetic when whatever you are hiding comes to light.”
Chandra shrugged and walked away once more, continuing on their journey to…Veer glanced around and realized they had left the ordered harmony of the gardens and entered the chaos of the surrounding woods.
“This is far enough,” said Veer. “We’ll talk here.”
Chandra halted. “But there is a spot just ahead. This area is still part of the forest. Wild animals are not restricted.”
“Here, Princess,” he said. “Who knows what you have planned for me there? A group of assassins, maybe?”
Chandra raised an eyebrow at him and Veer ignored that reaction, aware of how paranoid he sounded. “Very well. Here it is. What did you want to talk about?” she asked, giving him her undivided attention.
“I heard your mother had some objections in sending you with me?” he began his well-rehearsed speech.
“Shouldn’t you be discussing this with my mother, then?” she asked, mouth pursed.
“How exactly am I supposed to do that when she refuses to speak to me? And before you ask, yes, she refused to converse with the writing tablet and in sign language with Billadev.” He paused. “She was very polite about it.”
Chandra shrugged once again. “My mother is stubborn. What do you want me to do about it?” She hesitated, as if she realized something. “Your friend can understand sign language? Our sign language?”
“Billadev has a knack for picking up languages. It’s his specialty. You saw him earlier. He can get by adequately. He is annoying, but has his uses.”
“Our sign language is quite difficult to master. It took me an entire year just to learn the basics,” she said with a trace of envy.
Veer gave her an impatient look. “I’ll pass along your praise, Princess. Now can we get back to our discussion? I want you to convince your mother to let you come with us.”
* * *
His autocratic words caused a thin blade of annoyance to slice at Chandra, and the words slipped out reflexively. “I’m sorry, was that an order or a request?”
She took a deep breath and held up her hand. “Sorry, forget I said that. I am willing to come with you on this quest.”
Veer had opened his mouth, no doubt to deliver more arguments, but halted non plussed. “Why?” he asked. His eyes hadn’t lost their suspicious gleam, and it was clear he didn’t trust her.
“Because there’s no one else,” she said simply, cutting to the chase.
“I don’t believe you’ve secured the help of Thianvelli’s queen or their prince, Aditya.
Amaravathi’s spy network is a little behind on this news, but I know for a fact that they’re both in hiding and have bigger problems than involving themselves in this quest. You were bluffing when you made that statement during yesterday’s meeting. ”
“If you knew all that, then why did you keep quiet?” he asked, sounding more curious than mistrustful now.
“Because it suited my needs. Just like you kept quiet about my nighttime activities because you gain nothing by revealing it to everybody. But I don’t do this for free. I have my own three conditions that I hope you will fulfill.” She crossed her arms, hiding the nervous fidgeting of her fingers.
It was important that he agree to her conditions.
Without them, they had no hope of ever finding a solution to the mess created seven years ago.
And with Kalpana threatening to reveal everything, she needed to secure a promise from him to safeguard people close to her.
Who knew when she would get an opportunity like this again, when he really needed her help?
“Name them,” he said tersely, matching her pose and leaning against the sturdy trunk of a shady peepul; although on him, it was way more confident.
She cleared her throat nervously and began. “In this journey, I’ll not do anything that goes against my faith or morals. And I ask that you don’t compel or force or otherwise coerce me to do the same.”
“It’s interesting that you think I inevitably will,” remarked Veer, tilting his head.
“You’re a morally ambiguous man, so yes, I think you will. I haven’t forgotten the incident at the Navari Woods, when you burned them a few days after you let us go.”
“Fair enough,” he said, brushing her concerns aside as if they were of little importance to him. “The second request?”