The Village Girl

Chapter Eighteen - [Seetha]

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-Luckycharms <3

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After my stitching lessons, my fingers were swollen and throbbing. If there was one thing that I did not learn how to do back at home, it was to sew.

My mother did all the sewing, and when Mayu joined the family, she took over. I mean, I knew how to fix holes in clothes and do simple things like that, but I found it hard to keep up with the other noblewomen as the stitched beautiful embroidered flowers into silks.

I knew they were judging me... whispering about not only my inability to stitch, but also the roughness of my hands, which were not easily pierced by the needle, and the darkness of my skin. Might I also mention that my peasant-ness seem to mean I was also deaf.

It did not bother me though. My rough, dry hands came from all the hard work I used to do back at home.

And my skin colour? I had my father's skin, and no one could ever tell me that there was something wrong with that. It was dark, yes, but dark was beautiful, and all the important people in my life thought so too. So yes, I was not bothered by that.

What did bother me, though, was how long these lessons were. Why did I need to spend so much time learning how to embroider flowers onto cloth? What was the use of it?

It bothered me that all these women sat in a cool room, sewing flowers onto pieces of cloth that they would most likely toss out anyways, while hundreds of other women like them were working to the bone in their fields.

That bothered me.

And I was bothered mostly because I was slowly being made into one of them. I didn't want this.

I was following Lady Suhanya rather absent-mindedly so I did not notice she was taking me to some place that was not my room. She stopped in front of a door that I immediately recognized as being the room where Aaryan and I had made love for the first time. The Council Room.

My cheeks began to burn.

"Make sure you bow," she reminded me as a guard from the inside opened the door. Before I could ask her for more information, the door was already opened and we walked into a room that was filled with men.

I bowed, as she told me to.

The King was there, and when I rose, I saw that Aayu was as well. "Ah, there she is," the Maharaja smiled warmly. "Daughter-in-law, how has your day been?"

The stares of all the men was rather nerve-wracking. "Fine," I said. "Thank you for asking."

He chuckled. "Do you know it is unwise to lie to your Maharaja?"

That made me laugh. "Truly it was fine," I said. "It was neither good, nor bad. Just fine."

"Fair enough," he responded. "My Suhanya has been keeping me updated with your progress and tells me you have a few requests?"

I noticed that he almost always referred to her as "my" Suhanya. I had heard that the two were very close as children, but I also could not help but be reminded of what Lalitha had said to me back in the village... about how the King was once in love with a midwife... or a midwife's daughter. Lady Suhanya was a midwife... was she that girl? Could I even ask her this?