Married For Three Nights (Complete)

1(The mad king's ship)

This is the first chapter of my new book - the mad king's  ship. Go add it in your library if it takes your fancy.

Now that she has nothing to loose,
She is free.
-Paulo Coelho

The palace of Bundi was beyond recognition tonight with the gold and crystal chalendiers that had replaced the silver ones, engraved and heavy golden cups had taken the place of normal glass candle holders.
Every single wall was emblazoned by the golden and red flag of Bundi and every single pillar had been draped with heavily embroidered draperies and strings of roses.

An enormous, engraved marble cauldron was placed at the centre of the hall filled with fresh water and swimming in it were hundreds and hundreds of little red cap fishes while over the surface were many gorgeous lotus floating about..... The celebration for the Queen's  latest pregnancy and all her children's return home was at full swing.
But that wasn't all, for Megh it was truly heaven, a place where laughter never ceased, songs never ended and the people you love stood around you, together.

'People you love!' That thought pricked somewhere in Megh's chest like a sharpenel but he shrugged it away, he was used to it now after all these years.

His best friend Nair's twin sisters were merrily dancing away, twirling like little girls in the company of their elder brother Nair and their new lovely sister-in law Meenakshi.
Meena was shying away from the cacophony of people and yet her young husband pulled her through, right in the middle of the hall and straight into his chest, she was blushing furiously now and even though people noticed them they were all too high on festive euphoria to say anything.

There it was again, the sharp pain in his chest as Megh watched the newly wed love bird's romance in the middle of the banquet hall.
He was happy for them, truly happy and yet there it was, something like sharp petty jealousy striking through him that made him look away from Nair and Meenakshi for quite a few moments. He looked around himself, seated on a low divan with a drink in his hands.
It was the palace of Bundi, it's halls and corridors, it was his home away from home.
A sanctuary for his soul when things get unbearable in his own palace of Bikaner.
Like, when his father drinks himself into a stupor and then orders to behead the first man who dares to wake him up in the morning. Or when he cut all the fingers the a Cook's hand because the potatoes in the curry being larger than 'his Majesty' liked.
And then when he would argue with the man who called himself his father, about all these injustice and demand those innocent men to be set free. 'His Majesty' would sit there smoking pot and puffing out the smoke right into his face, just to belittle him.

"Don't badger me boy, or I shall have their eyes plucked out before the beheading. It will certainly make things more interesting for them. Eh? Now, get out of my sight."
And so he would. After making sure that the families of the victims are well compensated. He would then come to Bundi, to live with his childhood best friend Prince Nair, the heir of Bundi and his younger siblings.

The queen and king of Bundi had always made feel welcomed here, all through these years while he pretended to be the part of this beautiful family, he otherwise had no business knowing.
His own mother had died when he was five and although his father had a series of mistresses and concubines to warm his bed, he never remarried or had any more children.
However, he never saw himself as some miserable git, lonely and isolated from the world. No! He knew Nair loved him like his own brother and his twin sisters - Maya and Mohini always showered him with petty insults to make sure he felt as a part of their family. And he did - he felt lucky to be a part of this little clan where he felt his mother smiling down upon him whenever Nair's mother queen lekha smiles at him or when he competes with Nair at everything like having the worst case of siblings rivalry.

This was just about his family.

Just about!

He looked back at the scenes of the grand hall - Chameli chachi who is Nair's lunatic, middle aged aunt was dancing and twirling like a little girl along with the twins in her bright lilac dress and although it looked very odd, no one said anything.
Although, giggles and laughter started to reverberate through the hall when people pointed out the pair of sandals she was wearing were mismatched. Megh couldn't help but laugh at it, himself.
The woman had a strange habit of wearing mismatched pair of things. One of her sandal was bright yellow while the other distinctly looked blue. Megh never knew if she did it deliberately for some reason of if she had indeed lost her mind like Nair and the twins seems to think.

His eyes suddenly caught someone from the corner of his eyes. A beauty he had never seen before. Her deep brown eyes were twinkling, while she laughed talking to queen lekha.
So, finding a good enough distraction from his morose thoughts for the moment, he decided to get acquainted with this brown eyed beauty.
"Good evening, my lady." He smiled, his most charming smiles at par as soon as queen lekha left and she was alone.
"Good evening your highness - you must be prince Meghraj, I saw you at Nair's wedding." She smiled back at him sweetly and it was then that Megh had the true idea of the extent of her beauty.
She was gorgeous with a pair of large deep brown eyes and soft brown curls framing her rosy cheeks and lush mouth.

"Yes, and you must be somehow related to Nair, since you know me."

"I think e every women here is somehow related to Nair." She chuckled. "But I am Suparna, Nair's second cousin, princess of Ajmer."

"Interesting!" Oh, make no mistake, Megh was very interested in this lady with her gorgeous smile and grace , it was hard not to notice her.
But before he could say anything else, the evil pair of twin sisters rampaged over them as always, like the rain over his parade.

"Suparna di what was Meghraj telling you?" Princess Maya, the elder one of the twins asked mildly amused.
"Nothing, just chatting." Suparna shrugged.

"Did he say how much he's taken by your beauty and want to marry you instantly?" Mohini, the younger one of the twins followed with her query which bought a long moment of stifling awkwardness when Meghraj wanted to nothing more than punch those two little faces and hear their teeth cracking.

"No! No, he certainly didn't!" Suparna spoke after the long awkward silence that had ensued.
"Well, I bet he is going to say it any moment now. You know it was just two nights ago that he asked the princess of Krishna- chuda to marry him, exactly an hour after he met her." The twins giggled as Megh's face grew redder every passing moment but to his amazement princess Suparna didn't come with an stupid excuse to get away from him as soon as she can as he had expected, instead she laughed at the twins. "I see!"

But the twins didn't like Suparna's reaction to their joke which was obviously on Megh and yet she was laughing at them, so they decided to leave them alone.

"So?" Suparna was giggling again looking at him and Megh distinctly knew how his face must look right now - completely red and blotted. "The princess of Krishna - chuda I hear she stutters."

And Megh grew ever redder. "Well yes, she told me very clearly that she Wii ma-wvy me." He poorly imitated as Suparna threw her head back and laughed. It was a delightful sight and Megh didn't mind standing there watching her laugh.

"So" Megh started the conversation again once her laughter had died down. "Now can I tell you - how much I am taken by your beauty and want to marry you instantly?" He quoted Mohini's earlier joke word for word and was again prized with her sweet laugh. Something that delighted Meghraj as a spectator.

"Your majesty!" It was then,that a voice arose over all others. "Your Highness!" A stout man was  hurrying inside the hall with a letter in his hand and Megh recognized him instantly, it was the security personnel of the palace. He stumbled over his own robes twice as if in a great panic while presenting himself in front of the king of Bundi and bowed.

"The...the pink diamonds have been stolen." The man had started speaking again. "They have gone missing my lord."
The chatter and laughs, the clinking of glasses and the rush of footsteps, all had stopped at once.

The pink diamonds had disappeared!