Pregnant For The Royal Prince

THE cab screeched to a halt adjacent the Tourist Site. The girls alighted and paid their t-fair, then began walking into the site.

“Khubasurata mahila… beautiful ladies”, the security at the gate called at them as they strolled past them.

They turned to the men and laughed out.

“Dhanyavaad”, they smiled and replied in unison, putting their palms together.

The men understood and nodded their heads in reply. It was a typical way of saying thank you in their Indian dialect.

“Beautiful ladies, enjoy your stay here”, the shortest amongst them shouted, laughing.

“Your wife is around Gigi, don’t get carried away”, one of the men said to the shortest one who had spoken and they all burst into laughter.

The girls continued walking further into the large and vast beautiful compound.

It was a serene atmosphere with big trees, shrubs and beautiful flowers planted all over.

Large and small buildings scattered around. At a far distance by the right, was the playground section, and by the left was the parking lot large enough to carry about two thousand cars of different sizes.

At spectacular positions stood crafts, paintings and sculptures of different sizes and types, each portraying a message.

People moved about, they were so much that Rina had thought the whole of Shimla kingdom was present at that particular time.

“Oops! The people present here are as much as sand, I hope we don’t get mixed in the crowd”, Vidya said as she looked around.

“What’s up? It’s weekend and what exactly were you expecting?” Roshni said laughing.

“They are probably here to cool off”, she added.

Rina nodded, concurring with her.

They continued walking and Rina spotted a sculpture metres away from them, she was tempted to stop.

She walked up to the sculpture and the others followed. They got to the work of art and began feeding their eyes with it.

The sculpture portrayed a fat well-to-do looking man who dressed on a kingly regalia. He was sitting on the back of a slave who formed a chair with his stooping position.

The man’s feet was resting on another slave who was lying prostrated before him. A bottle of wine with a golden cup containing some wine was on the back of another slave who formed a table with his posture.

Two other slaves stood fanning the man.

Just right under the sculpture stood an inscription which read, “Man’s Inhumanity to Man”.

Rina sighed as she shook her head in pity for the slaves. This sculpture reminded her of how they are being treated by some ne’er-do-well in the kingdom, as paupers.

She sighed again.

“Wow! What a great art,” Roshni applauded.

“Yeah,” Vidya slowly replied.

“Can we start our tourism now please? The time is ticking,” Rina said glancing at her wristwatch.

“Sure, let’s move over to the sit-out over there first, I need to cool off a little”, Vidya said, pointing to a few distance away from them.

“And from there we move to the museums to see the rich arts and history of our kingdom,” Roshni winked, and they all chuckled.

They continued chatting and laughing until they got to the sit-out. It was a large space under a large umbrella tree, with wooden seats in the form of a seesaw scattered around.

They were people loitering about as expected, but a lot of seats were still empty.

They walked to a particular seat and sat, using their face napkins to dab at their faces.

“Woah, the scorching of the sun today is something, I guess the sun is damn angry,” Roshni said and they laughed.

“It would be different inside the buildings, I mean the museums,” Rina said.

“Yep, it gonna be damn cold in there”, Vidya concurred.

Just then, a little girl ran past where they sat, laughing and chasing a butterfly, interrupting their talk, they looked at her and continued talking.

She ran past again and Vidya glared at her, pulling up a disgust face. Rina noticed the cranky look and became suspicious. What was the cranky look for?

Seconds later, she ran past again and Vidya put out her right leg, and the little girl tripped and fell.

Instantly, she burst out cry.

“Vidya!” Rina shouted as she got up and ran towards the girl to help her out.

“Baby are you hurt? I’m sorry,” she said to the little girl as she carried her up, then used her face napkin to clean up her face.

She sniffed as she swallowed back her tears.

“I’m fine Miss, thanks”, she nodded.

“Where is your momma? Who did you come with?” Rina asked looking around.

“She is over there,” she pointed towards a direction and Rina’s eyes followed.

She shook her head.

“Oh, I can’t see anyone actually, everywhere is filled up”, she said as she dropped her down, then ransacked her small bag and took out a candy.

“Here baby, help yourself,” Rina said, handing her the candy.

The little girl flickered her eyebrows and hesitated.

“I mean no harm, just take,” she winked.

The girl looked around, then with a flash she grabbed the candy and ran off.

Rina stood and watched her leave, then she walked back to the others, they were just looking at her with disgust faces.

She exhaled deeply, ignoring the looks.

“Vidya that was a little girl, a kid,” she said.

“I know,” she nodded, “I’m not blind, but I just hate the sight of her likes”, she rolled her eyes.

Rina was taken aback, her likes? What does she mean by that?

“She is just a kid, what do you mean by her likes?”

“She meant the little girl is a pauper, her parents… her damn family. Gosh! Couldn’t you see the kinda dress she’s putting on?” Roshni blurted.

“Oh!” Rina mouthed, she instantly understood what they meant.

“I mean, a pauper just can’t be running past me like that, the bride of the royal Prince, interrupting my discussion”, Vidya said rolling her eyes.

Rina sighed, she wanted to ask how they had known according to them, that she is a pauper, wanted to talk more in defense of the little girl but stopped, when she found out she was a victim herself.

She shook her head and quietly went to sit down.

“It’s time to go in girls, let’s get going”, she said.

*Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

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Raghav exhaled deeply as he relaxed more comfortably into the car seat. For what looked like hours they had been on the road, heading for the tourist site, and he had wondered if they ever would get there.

Well, he had gotten a message from one of his unknown private investigators that she would be going to the Tourist Site that particular day together with her family.

He didn’t want to speak with her anyway, at least not yet, he just wanted to see her, and her cute family. He had missed them so much.

He looked out the window and for the first time, noticed they had reached their destination.

Zoya was now negotiating a bend towards the parking lot, he finally halted.

“Here we are Maharana”, he announced.

Raghav’s eyes travelled round instantly, surveying the environment.

Hmm, the site was really as Zoya had explained it. He kept mute for a while, surveying the place.

“Leave the parking lot”, he suddenly said.

“Huh?” Zoya said taken aback.

“Take me down the sit-out”, he said, his voice authority filled.

Zoya didn’t wait for a third order, he immediately revved the engine into life and began driving slowly towards the sit-out.

“Stop!”, Raghav suddenly blurted making Zoya flinch.

He stopped immediately and looked around, the sit-out was just a few distance from them.

“Park the car well”, he said.

“Straightaway my Prince”, he said and found a suitable place, then parked.

As soon as the car screeched to a halt, Raghav sat up, wind down the tinted window a little and began looking out, running his eyes as he scathed for them.

There was silence in the car as neither Zoya nor Raghav spoke. He was afraid to speak to his boss, he just kept mute and let him do whatever he had come to do.

Soon Raghav spotted a little girl few distance away run past, happily laughing and chasing a butterfly, he adjusted in order to get large view of her.

“Where is the binoculars?” He suddenly asked.

Zoya jerked, the binoculars? The one he had told him to always carry with him whenever they go out.

Oh yeah, it was in the pigeon hole. He opened it and brought it out, then handed it over to him.

“Here Your Grace”, he said.

Raghav turned to him and collected it, then fixed it on his eyes and looked towards the running little girl.

It was her, her cute little daughter, he knew. He had known her from infancy, so it was no mistaking. But wait… what!

Why had she dressed tattered like that? What is wrong?

Anyways, he waved that aside and focused on her. She ran past a bevy of ladies who sat on one of the wooden seats, he noticed one of them glaring at her disgustingly.

The little girl ran past again, and this time she fell.

Oops! The glaring lady had tripped her.

Then instantly he saw another lady got up and ran to the little girl, he watched as she cleaned her tears and then she happily ran off.

He adjusted on his seat, who was she? Who was that kind lady?

As for the little girl whom was the reason he had come to the Tourist Site, he was gonna meet up with her later, but who was the kind lady who had picked up the fallen girl?

He relaxed more comfortably into the car seat, dropping the binoculars, he was gonna find out.

“Zoya”, he called.

“Yes my Prince”.

“I’m going out there, whatever happens to me, no matter what happens, don’t come over”, he placed his hand on the knob.

“Huh? My Prince?” Zoya called, his eyes widened in shock.

“Stay in the car and wait for me, don’t bother coming”, he opened the car.

“But my Prince, your security”.

“I will be safe, do as I say”, and he got down the car.