Meethi’s undoing. She stifled her fears and accepted his proposal.
But her fears had eventually come to roost, and Veer had come to resent their hasty marriage.
She had thought that by running away she would set them both free.
She slid into an uneasy slumber but woke all of a sudden, catapulted up, perspiring heavily, her breath coming in gasps.
Her eyes alighted on unfamiliar surroundings and then it all came back. Veer had found her and brought her back to Samogpur.
A sudden movement beside her, she saw the maid, a young girl, hovering solicitously, bowing down low in greeting. ‘Namaskar, Maharani Saheba!’
Her breath sticking in her throat, Meethi asked her, ‘Maharaj Saheb?’
‘He has gone riding, Maharani Saheba,’ she replied deferentially.
Some things never change, Meethi thought, feeling old wounds buried deep down begin to tauten. He had always preferred the company of his beloved horses to her. She recalled numerous occasions when, after a disagreement, he would simply storm off to the stables and go for a long wild ride.
‘And Maaji Saheb! Where is she?’ Meethi asked haltingly, dreading the answer.
‘Maaji Saheb is at the haveli in Haridwar. She has been living there for the past two years,’ the girl said confidingly.
Meethi looked at her incredulously. Maaji Saheb was no longer at the Mahal! How was this possible?
Seeing Meethi’s confusion, she said in a low voice, ‘Maharaj Saheb had a huge row with her and he ordered her to go to Haridwar!’
Meethi felt a slight easing of the clenched-up feeling inside. She wouldn’t have to face Maaji Saheb. Though one part of her mind clamoured to know the details, a nameless dread, familiar and omnipresent, kept her silent.
What would happen now? she thought dispiritedly. Where did she go from here? She couldn’t relive the terrible ordeal that their married life had been.
What did Veer want? Questions clamoured in her brain till it felt as if her head would burst.
Meethi tried to pull herself together. ‘What’s your name?’ she asked the maid.
‘Simran,’ the girl answered with a shy smile.
‘I haven’t seen you before,’ Meethi said thoughtfully. The girl seemed very young and sweet.
‘Maharaj Saheb appointed me a year back. He said that I was to look after you when you came back,’ Simran offered tentatively.
Meethi was stunned to learn that Veer had been completely sure of finding her a year ago and bringing her back.
‘I think I’ll have a bath,’ she said. Simran’s revelations had confirmed her dread that Veer wouldn’t let her go. Maybe her brain would start functioning better and find a way out of the current predicament.
Simran brightened up and said with a smile, ‘Ji, I will show you the dressing area.’
She went into the adjoining room and Meethi followed. It was a huge double dressing room divided by a thin wooden partition.
‘Maharaj Saheb’s dressing area is on that side,’ Simran pointed out. ‘All your clothes are neatly arranged in the wardrobe,’ she said.
‘My clothes! Where did they come from?’ Meethi asked, stupefied.
‘Maharaj Saheb had them moved here from the old mahal. And I was given the responsibility of arranging them,’ she added with a note of pride.
Meethi opened her wardrobe. It contained all her old clothes. Since she had feigned her death, to avoid any suspicion, she had left all her belongings behind and taken just a couple of old churidaar kameezes, a pair of jeans and some tunics. Memories came rushing in when she looked at the rows and rows of opulent and expensive banarsi saris, antique brocade lehangas and elaborate anarkali churidaar kameezes. The best designers had put together her trousseau, as befitting her position as the Maharani of Samogpur.
Simran bent and took out a silver chest from the bottom of the wardrobe. It contained jewellery—necklaces, earrings, bangles, nose pins, toe rings and anklets that she was supposed to wear every day. There were several heavy jewellery sets that were kept under lock and key but which she had to wear periodically.
As the wife of Maharajah of Samogpur she had to always remain dressed to the hilt in a nine-yard saree or a lehenga, dripping with jewellery, her head demurely covered. She couldn’t leave her chambers dressed otherwise.
She had no say in choosing her clothes. And she hated her wardrobe down to the last piece. The clothes were gaudy, elaborate and cumbersome and she had always felt trussed up in the heavy fabrics.
There were no jeans, trousers or skirts in her wardrobe except for the ones she had owned before marriage. And once or twice when she had tried to wear clothes of her own choice, her mother-in-law had frowned and looked askance before acerbically humiliating her so that she had given in and changed.
Turning away from torturous memories, she rushed to the bathroom in desperation.
Veer was galloping furiously. For a Rajput, pride was paramount, and his wife had insulted him in the worst possible way.
She had played on his weakness for her.
She had seemed so sweet and innocent… Unbidden, his mind went back to the first time their paths had crossed.
He had driven down to Jaipur to attend the wedding of his school friend, Gauravendra Singh. Itching to drive his new Jaguar at full throttle, the Delhi-Jaipur highway had seemed perfect, and he had set off with his driver and bodyguards.
He was enjoying driving the powerful car at a breakneck speed when suddenly a puppy appeared from nowhere. He had braked frantically.
To his utter shock, a wisp of a girl appeared as well and she dived in front of his car to save the puppy. He almost lost control, and the car swerved, but he managed to bring it to a screeching stop.
Aghast and furious, he had jumped out of the car and shouted, ‘Are you blind?’
‘No! You are!’ she retorted immediately, militantly.
He was taken aback. No one had ever dared to answer him back. Even his driver and bodyguards, who had leapt out urgently, were shocked into silence.
The chit of a girl continued her tirade. ‘Fancy car owners don’t own the road, you know! This puppy has as much right to this road as you have! Big car, small heart!’
Veer looked at her, stupefied. She barely reached his chin and she was staggeringly beautiful.
She had a heart-shaped face, almond-shaped eyes with impossibly long eyelashes and a rosebud mouth. A thick long braid that seemed almost too heavy for her swanlike neck lay sideways on her ample bosom.
His stupefaction wore off when he realised that the ample bosom that he was admiring was heaving with indignation. She was spitting fire, hurling insults and berating him.
He held up his hand to silence her. ‘Enough! You could have been terribly injured if I hadn’t braked in time! Have you no sense?’ he asked.
‘You don’t have any sense! If I hadn’t been here, this poor little puppy would have been dead!’ she retorted heatedly. ‘Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll see to this poor thing instead of standing here making small talk with you!’ She stomped off, the puppy held securely in her arms.
Veer looked at her diminutive figure, bemused. He felt as if a tornado had just whizzed past him.
He had gone to the wedding, unable to shake off the bemusement that had beset him.
To his astonishment he had run into her there again. She was from