Pregnant For The Royal Prince

SELENA was seated on a small wooden stool in the living room busying herself with her soapmaking, when the door forcefully opened and Rina entered, crying heavily.

What! She got up without ado, looked her over, then on impulse looked outside the house, to know if someone had chased her or something, she saw nobody.

Huh? She looked at Rina again, she was now going into her room, still crying.

“Oh my goodness!” She exclaimed and quickly rinsed her hands in the wash basin close by, and then ran into Rina’s room.

She entered the room and saw her lying with her face down on the bed.

What exactly could have gone wrong?

She had just left the house like three hours ago to visit the Tourist Site, what could possibly have gone wrong there?

She sighed and walked up to her, then sat beside her on the bed.

“Baby what’s wrong?” She asked, placing her right hand on her left shoulder.

“Why are you crying? What’s the matter?” She continued asking.

Rina suddenly jerked up, making her mom flinch. She turned to stare at her mother in her eyes, and damn it, her beautiful face was full of tears.

“Promise you are going to give me an answer to my question mom”, she said.

“O… okay, I promise,” she stuttered, nodding.

“Why are we called paupers mom, what does it mean?” She asked between tears.

Selena sighed and turned her gaze away, looking elsewhere. God, what could possibly have prompted this question from her? Someone must have upset her.

She rubbed her palms against each other, hesitating and unwilling to give Rina the reply she needed.

“You promised to answer my question,” Rina sharply said.

“Alright… alright,” she reluctantly said.

“As far as I’m concerned Rina, this is the first time you are asking this, and I guess you must have been upset at the Site by someone, so I guess you should get some sleep please,” she said.

Rina’s shoulders fell in disappointment.

“Alright, but be prepared to carry my corpse away from this bed,” she blurted and dragged her pillow to her, then rested her head, ready to sleep.

What! Selena flinched, hold on… did she just say corpse?

“Alright Rina, you take things too far. Why talking about corpses?”

“Then tell me what I want to hear”.

“Fine”, she gave up.

“Actually Rin, that pauper word means nothing. It is just a term used by the people of our kingdom for families or persons who had drastically dropped in their level of status in general. It’s really nothing to worry about girl”.

Rina sat up, assimilating every single word from her mother. Oh! Like seriously? Was this what the p word actually meant?

She cleaned up her eyes with her palms, staring into space. Then she turned to her mother.

“But mom, I’m always being humiliated and called this p word virtually everyday. If it really means nothing, then why am I being bullied and mocked?” She asked.

Selena exhaled deeply.

“You just have to believe it girl, the p word actually meant nothing so serious, what I’ve just told you is the whole thing and nothing more attached”.

“Are you serious mom?” Her eyes abating.

“Yeah, I am”, she nodded.

Rina shook her head vigorously, the whole thing was really frustrating. So it was just that? But why do some people see it as something damn serious?

“Is that why you are crying? Oh come on, cheer up”, her mom said.

“You really stained your beautiful face with tears”.

Rina forced a laugh.

“I know you didn’t have a swell time at the site, sorry about that. Let me quickly fix you something to eat”, Selena said and got up the bed, then walked out the room.

*

*

*

Aarti sat on the seat in her study, backing the entrance door when her little daughter Alisha, strolled in.

“Hey mother,” she said and ran up to her.

Aarti smiled as she got down the seat, then welcomed her daughter with a hug.

“Hi baby, how was your day at the site, I hope you enjoyed it?” She asked, grinning from ear to ear.

Alisha’s countenance suddenly changed, her shoulders fell, the smiling face began frowning. What was the matter?

“Alisha,” her mother called, “what happened?” She asked.

Alisha kept mute, hesitating to speak. She just stood pouting, and tilting her head sideways.

“I’m talking to you, speak,” Aarti blurted, she was getting impatient.

“I didn’t have a swell time mother, it was cut short,” she said, her tiny voice sharp.

Aarti then dragged her daughter along and they both walked to the sofa. They sat.

“By whom? Talk to me, let me understand. You were the one who insisted you wanted to visit the site, even against my wish, remember?”

Alisha nodded.

“I know mom”.

“Then speak,” she ordered.

“I was chasing butterflies when a lady put out her leg and tripped me”.

“Huh? Just like that? You sure did nothing to her?”

She shook her head sideways.

“Nothing mother. I was only chasing butterflies, running past her with her friends, and then she tripped me and I fell”.

“Goodness! You see why I hate you going out? Where was the guard and your nanny when this happened?”

“Don’t blame it on them mom, please,” she pleaded.

“No, I won’t listen to your pleas this time Ali baby, I’m so gonna spank them”, she got up.

“Mom what does pauper means?” She blurted.

Aarti suddenly stopped in her tracks and turned to her, goodness, where had she heard that word?

“Who told you about that?” She demanded.

“The lady at the site who had tripped me, she called me a pauper”.

“What! Who dares that?” She fisted her right hand in anger.

“Calling my daughter a pauper, does she know who you are? I need to see that lady,” she began walking towards the door.

“But someone else gave me a candy,” Alisha said, halting her mother.

“What did you say?” She turned to her, “haven’t I warned you to stop taking things from strangers? My goodness! Where the hell were the guard and nanny when all these were going on?”

“Mum, this lady isn’t a stranger to me. She was the one who helped me up when I fell. She carried me and cleaned me up, then gave me this,” she brandished the candy for her mom to see.

Aarti was instantly weakened and melted to the bones. This lady must be a kind human, she smiled.

“Oh really? Alright then, that is good of her. I think you should go upstairs now, freshen up and then come down for lunch,” she winked.

“Is that all you going to say about the kind lady momma?”

Aarti smiled.

“Oh no Alisha, that was really good of her, um, can you still remember her face?”

Alisha smiled.

“Yeah momma, sure,” she nodded.

“You can go now okay? We meet up later in the dining room”.

She smiled and got up.

“Call me the guard and your nanny,” Aarti said.

“Alright mom”, and she opened the door and walked out.

The door opened again a few seconds later and a young well built man together with a young lady entered.

The man was holding a brown envelope.

“My Lady”, they greeted, bowing slightly.

“My daughter had just told me all that happened at the site, where the hell were you two when that all happened?” She asked slowly, trying her best to keep her cool.

She had been working on her tempers these days and so didn’t want to lose it.

“We have actually been with her all the while, we knew when it all happened and My Lady, I have some stuff for you,” the guard said.

Aarti turned her gaze from him to the nanny, who was just nodding and concurring with what the guard had said.

“What stuff?” She asked looking back at him.

He quickly opened the envelope he was holding, dipped his right hand into it, and brought out some pictures.

“Those are the photos of the two ladies your daughter told you about. We also got a tip off that the Prince came around”.

“What!” She looked up from the pictures.

“The Prince?” She asked, her eyes widened in surprise.

“Yes my Lady,” the two replied in unison.

Aarti smiled and turned back to the pictures in her hands. She saw a lady helping her daughter up from the ground, that was the first picture she saw.

“That is the kind lady,” it was the nanny who spoke this time.

The second slide showed the same lady cleaning up her daughter with a napkin. She studied her well, she was a real total stranger, hadn’t met her before.

Aarti looked at them.

“So why did you take this?” She asked.

“We figure out there is something you might need,” the guard said.

She got to the third slide and halted. What!

“That’s the lady who tripped your daughter,” came the guard.

“And called her a pauper”, the nanny added.

“What! This is Vidya, Roshan’s daughter, the supposed bride for the Prince”, Aarti bursted out, her eyes widened in shock and confusion.

“Yes my Lady, we know”.

“We envisaged you might actually need it, that was why we took the pictures,” the guard said.

“Was she the one who had tripped my daughter and called her a pauper?” She asked, she just needed to be sure.

“Yes my Lady”, the nanny replied.

“My goodness!” She walked up to her seat and flopped on it.

“And she is about to get married to the Prince,” she said, staring into space.

“No…”, she shook her head, “I won’t let my nephew have such a lady as a wife”, she got up.

“She can’t be his bride…. never”.