Princess of the dawn

Chapter 73

His hands sneaked under her odhni and lay gently on her midriff. His fingers lightly stroked the silky fabric of her dress and sent shivers down her spine. The butterflies in her stomach began to flutter wildly. Her hands gently stroked his back. Jalal was overwhelmed by her confession. Breathlessly they broke away from each other and he leaned his forehead against hers. His hands made their way upwards and pressed her tightly against him. Her soft chest pressed against his torso and blood rushed into his loins. He pulled her even tighter, enjoying the feel of her closeness and her gentle fingers on his back. He tilted his head and his lips pressed gently to her shoulder. Jodha gasped softly and Jalal's lips traced a burning trail up to her neck and to her ear.

"Delbaram, you don't know what your words mean to me!" he murmured in her ear. "Always you pulled away from me as soon as we got a little closer!" Jodha broke away from their embrace, breathing heavily, and turned away. Silently she stood there for a moment before she began to speak.

"Shahenshah, this is all so new to me. I... I didn't know what to think. Didn't know where I stood. But I realised that you had wormed your way into my heart a long time ago. I... umm... it was in Delhi..." Jodha's hands agitatedly crumpled her odhni in front of her stomach. Jalal had stepped behind her and grabbed her hands from behind. Gently he held them in his and their entwined hands rested on her stomach. He had pulled her against him and was holding her tightly. Quietly she continued to speak. "The young ruler who had just ascended the throne... His story touched something in me. I... I felt a great loneliness in you. I didn't realise what it meant. Then you sent us the ring. From the first moment, it forged an invisible bond between us. I felt it as friendship. Then I felt drawn to you. But even then, I couldn't explain why. We became closer and ... and then in Agra at Bakshi Bano's wedding, the conspiracy. The warning that you were just going to use me like a toy... Well, the seed was planted! The doubt had taken root. But the invisible bond of the rings, it was always there! Then in Sambhar, the meeting behind the mandir. The wedding... I felt more and more attracted to you. And the loneliness, I could still feel it in you. Then after the poison murder, when you defended me and we... the night in the garden... I... umm... the feelings your closeness triggered in me... I couldn't fool myself anymore." She fell silent and stiffened. Jalal led her to the bed and meant her to sit at the headboard. He sat down beside her and took her hand. Their fingers intertwined.

"Jodha, you have slowly but surely made the wall I had built around my heart crumble. It took me a long time to understand what was going on. I had to learn early on that not everyone meant well with me. No home. My parents fled to Persia and left me in the care of badi ammi and Jiji Anga with my uncle Askari Mirza in Kandahar. When it became known that my father would return, I was taken, on my uncle's orders, by Atgah Khan in the dead of winter with Bakshi Bano through snow and ice to Kabul to Khanzada Begum, my grandfather's sister. She took good care of me. But I was a little boy who missed his mother! When my father arrived in Kandahar, Khanzada Begum went to him with Bairam Khan. Kamran Mirza then took me to his household. It was not easy there. Khanzada Begum did not come back. She fell ill and succumbed to her ailment in Kandahar. After the capture of Kandahar, my father marched towards Kabul. Kamram Mirza separated me from Atgah Khan and kept him away from me in an undignified place. My father laid siege to the citadel. On my uncle's orders, I was taken to the citadel, which was bombed by my father. Someone let my father know that I had been taken to the citadel and he immediately forbade the guns to be fired any further." He was silent.

"Shahenshah! Your own uncle! How could he! A little boy!" she shuddered and looked at him, startled. He pulled her close and she rested her head against his shoulder.

"It's long past, Jodha! It was about power and competition among brothers! My uncles envied my father's title. Kamran was goading Askari. Only Hindal Mirza was on my waalid's side. At first he too wanted to join the rebellion, but then he joined my father. Kamran Mirza could not get over the fact that my grandfather had made my waalid his heir. Hindal Mirza was fatally wounded in Nangnahar in an attack by Kamran Mirza's Afghan men. On his deathbed, he asked my father to marry his daughter to me. So Ruqaya and I were betrothed at the age of nine. Khair. We both knew each other from our time in Kabul and were friends. That's all we are today too." He paused for a moment and pressed his lips to her hair before continuing.