Enemy's Woman

Chapter 9 - Falling for you

The person who was suffering the most in this ordeal was Poonam. In spite of her trauma, she had to pretend everything was normal.

Chitrangda was in Malwa.

She had to lie to other court ladies specially Indu.

Indu had her misgivings regarding Chitrangda. It was unlikely that the princess would travel all of a sudden to Malwa with no prior planning.

She had tried her best to pry out information from Poonam but it was futile. She didn't dare ask the queen or the King directly but she was keeping her eyes and ears open for any nugget of information.

"Come on give me some information. You people have been going on so many raids. Yet you got nothing about the Princess? "

Indu stopped in her track as she overheard the chief advisor talked to the Commander General.

"Nothing Sir, we have apprehended one of the major bandit leaders but they know nothing about the Princess. There is another letter though which arrived today morning".

Indu was on alert "So the Princess is indeed missing! What about those letters ?"

Concealing herself in the shadows she listened patiently "Now all I need is to get my hands in those letters" She smirked.

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Chitrangda had got a female attendant who barely spoke, all other attendants including Jayaraj were polite to her but they didn't give out any information about Shiv.

A rope had been fastened to work as a temporary handrail for the stairs so she could walk around.

Shivaditya came into her room with a pair of leather slippers. He placed it near her feet and said "I got these for you the floor is pretty rough it might chafe your feet".

He gently placed the slippers in her feet.

She said, "They are lovely thanks" and smiled.

He escorted her down the stairs into a large paneled room. It was converted into a study. There were ornate furniture and oriental rugs. Tall windows let in the warm light. Two walls held books on a broad selection of subjects.

She looked around and remarked, "You are fond of reading ?".

Shiv smiled "Yes I like reading".

Chitrangda was impressed "A well-read bandit !!" she thought.

When she looked into the adjacent room Shiv said "That is my bedroom".

Chitrangda blushed and hastily retreated. He said, "The double doors lead to the garden but I fear you must wait a little longer before getting out".

She smiled "This will do fine for a while."

He said, "Excellent..be at home I have other business to attend to."

Apart from the fact that Shiv's ability to make her desire him frightened her out of her wits, the days passed in pleasant leisure. She could go around

anywhere. There were other men too in the fort, busy in some sort of training but they didn't even look at her forget about talking to her. Probably it was Shiv's order not to disturb her.

She thought "Probably he's the chief of the bandits".

Jayaraj whom she found quite entertaining never revealed much about Shiv.

Most of the time Shiv joined her for lunch, sometimes he used to be out on his business. She dare not think what business.

She had started to enjoy his company now and looked forward to their chats. She found him to be very knowledgeable and a perfect gentleman. He always joined her for dinner and stayed on his side of the table. She was amazed at his manners and knowledge. She found him to be was more cultured and educated than Vikram. He was fit to be a prince!