Ragini and Reetu started fighting but Reetu stayed adamant...
"I'll make you meet the king and queen personally, but only if you eat properly, take medicines and rest, and get well soon",Isha said and Reetu gave her a shocking yet wide grin, pulling Isha onto the bed and kissed her cheek tightly...
"I love you Ishu, a lot, maybe more than Ragini, um no, for now, equal to Ragini, when you make me meet them, I'll love you more than Ragini, I promise", Reetu said and Ragini sighed, whereas Isha cursed her fate... her friend is so obsessed with her and her husband without knowing that it's them...
"Okay, Ragini, Reetu, I have to leave, I have to take care of the arrangements, will see you soon...", Isha said looking at the time, it's 4 in the morning and she has to take bath and sit for rituals till 6 along with her husband...
Isha sat in the passenger seat and apologized to Abhyansh for getting late, he just nodded and drove to their palace, he is mad, and she got it...
"Rana sa...", she called but he didn't even hum... "Rana sa... I'm sorry...", she said softly, her voice slightly breaking, and he knew one more minute and she would turn into tears... he sighed and took her palm in his left hand while he controlled the steering with the right...
"Hm... don't apologize but just know this... nothing related to you is a stress for me... you are mine Isha and I wanted to be the one to help you with everything, I want to be the only one", he said very possessively and for a second his tone scared her... "it's my right and you can't stop me... do not ask me to leave you and go next time...", he warned and she nodded wondering about his weird ways of showing affection... "this is how I'm, I am incapable of sweet talk, you have to bear my brooding-self for life...", he said and her eyes widened, how did he know what she is thinking?? And brooding?? That word sounded very familiar..."don't be surprised, I heard your talk with my brother, brooding and arrogant are the adjectives you describe me with?? Huh??", he asked, and she gulped in fear... seeing his cold face, her heartbeat raised, and she started sweating, she is claustrophobic and she is locked inside that car with her husband alone...
Seeing her demeanour changing, he held her palm and rubbed it softly...
"Relax, I was teasing you, it's fine Isha... sh... calm down", he said gently, and she huffed in relief and glared at her husband...
"This is how you tease, looking at your face expression, none could understand that, actually there is no expression on it, just a plain handsome face with eyes, nose and lips stuck on it", she said, realizing what she said, cupped her face with widened eyes, he smirked, his wife finds him handsome, yes he knew he is extremely good-looking but his dominant and fearing reputation and cold aura never let people realize that, 90% of the people who knew him couldn't even look at his face out of fear, out of that 10%, leaving Isha and her brother, none could stare into his eyes, and notice his face hard... his pictures are what help people know how he looks...
He is proud of the compliment he received from his wife that minute, she is the first one to call him handsome, people described him with 100 other adjectives but never handsome...
"Isha... calm down, you are reacting as if you killed someone...", he said sighing, looking at her wide eyes... "you complimented your husband, it isn't a crime", he said cracking up a bit in the end and she glared at his teasing...
"This is how you tease, with at least a bit of slight curve on the lips... at least now I understand that you are teasing", she said and he shook his head at his wife... he likes it when she converses so freely with him but it's a luxury, he hardly sees her getting this comfortable with him... she is sleep deprived and maybe that tiredness is making her do that...
They reached the palace and quickly walked to their chamber, to get ready for the rituals...
"After the function, you'll come straight to the room and sleep, got it??", he said
"Can't Rana sa, have to wrap up some things, otherwise it would be a problem for tomorrow's Maha Shivaratri puja", she said taking out her saree for the day making him frown for two things, one is she took out a saree from her clothes not the ones he gifted, secondly, she didn't sleep for the whole night and refusing to take rest even after the coronation...
"There are hundreds of staff in the palace, they will take care of wrapping things up, you will come back and take rest, am I clear??", he said sternly and she nodded with slight fear... "and why aren't you wearing from the things in the closet inside??", he said pointing to their huge walk-in closet, he hardly saw her going in there, she only goes when she had to place his clothes in his shelf...
"I'm good with this... and I'm getting late, please", she said politely and slipped to the bathroom before he could ask more questions... he sighed deeply with a frown... he should teach his wife how to claim what's hers...
Isha came out of the washroom after wearing her saree... she is getting late, hurriedly wearing her jewellery, and applying vermillion, she turned to leave, and that's when she spotted her husband staring at her with his intense eyes...
She wore a Banarasi red saree with rich golden work covering the whole saree deepening the richness of it in borders. She paired it with a red banarasi blowse with simple polka dots on it. Her jewelry included traditional maangtika and Passa, extending to her earrings(jhumkas). She wore the nose ring connecting to the hair (Nath). In necklaces, she wore a choker and her mangalsutra highlighting the later one. Her hands are filled with bangles and her rings are attached to them with small intricate designed chains giving her delicate and beautiful palms a stunning look. Her heavy payal(anklets) and toe rings completed her look. Every piece of jewelry she wore is made of pure gold complimenting the banarasi saree she wore.
"You look absolutely gorgeous...", he said walking to her and kissing her forehead, she blushed looking down... "but there are better outfits in the wardrobe, you are my queen, you deserve the best", he said, and she looked at him with hurt...
"It's my mother's saree, this is the best outfit I could ever get to wear", she said and a realization passed in his head, he remembered how he made her change her mother's wedding lehenga she wore on the day of their wedding, he manhandled her, pulled her by her hair, treated her worse and by the look of it, she too remembered the incident...
"I'm sorry...", he said kissing her forehead... he took her nuptial chain out which is hiding behind her heavy necklace, and proudly displaying it, she gave him a smile and he again kissed her head... The fact that his wife is wearing that woman’sclothing who was responsible for his and his family’s agony made him furious, but he controlled his emotions as he didn’t want to hurt or upset his wife. To bear the fire burning in his heart is much better than tears wetting her eyes. For now, he ignored his hatred for her mother and focussed on his beautiful wife.
"I'm going down", she said, and he nodded still staring at her intently, she blushed looking down... "Rana sa... leave me...", she muttered shying away and he left her with one last kiss on her head...
"I'll be down in 15 minutes, we have some rituals here before we move to the temple, and we had to walk to the temple from here barefoot, wear some socks...", he said and went to freshen up...
They had to walk barefoot then how can she wear socks?? But she didn't want to defy her husband, so she took the only pair of socks she possesses thanks to her brother, who bought them in London, as it has cute kitten print on them and she loved such cute things...
She went down and just as said, Abhyansh walked down in 15 minutes, she sighed, her husband is a man of his word, in the literal sense, if he said 15 minutes, then 15 it is, not a second less or more...
Their Kul guru and other head priests instructed the couple to take a seat near the Havan Kund(sacred Fire pit), Abhyansh removed his footwear and she is surprised to see her husband's barefoot, he didn't wear socks today?? Huh... she too removed the socks without the BEAST noticing, if her husband is walking barefoot then she will do too.
Amruta guided Isha the basic things like on which side she should sit to Abhyansh and all, and she followed her mother-in-law's words religiously... after the ritual is done till, they took their kuldevi's idol in hand and started walking towards the temple which is a few kilometres from the palace... it's around 11 in the morning and the hot sun burned both of their feet, Abhyansh suddenly noticed Isha's barefoot and glared at her...
"Didn't I tell you to wear socks??", he whisper-yelled to her while walking...