"Is the balcony occupied?" a voice came from behind.
Deepak, now, Gerffron, looked behind to see his wife who has now changed her wedding attire into a blue dress that covers her ankles, staring at him with an unreadable expression.
Unsure of what to say, the word that came out of his mouth was more like a question; "Uh…no?", which seemed to tick off the woman but she never expressed it on her face. Once again, he hesitated a bit and then tried to walk away from the balcony to the noisy dancing floor but to his utmost surprise, he was roughly grabbed back by the woman, who is his newly wedded wife. Caught off-guard of this rough-handling, especially from his wife nonetheless made him speechless and wince out in pain.
Perhaps in the faded light of dusk, the woman noticed how he winced, but she did not blink an eye at it as she spat out the words; "I thought your family taught you well when they reassured me about it and even took a hefty sum of money to afford it, but now that I see it, it was all useless." She hissed at the end part.
The woman tightened her grip on her husband's upper arm even more that made Deepak pray that his bones might be broken at this rate; "C-could you please ju—"
He was rudely cut off by her; "Listen to me, Gerffron, don't think that just because we got married, and you happened to become my husband, you have some sort of control over me. To me you are nothing but just a tool of fulfilling the royal decree. You may have the status of my husband, but at my house, I shall never bed you, you will remain in a separate room, And! Dare you step your foot inside my room, I shall chop you into sixty-nine pieces along with your head and feed them to the hungry flesh-eating fishes of my lake. Understand?" Gerffron nodded feebly. "You better do. That is, if you want to survive."
Deepak massaged and rubbed his arm as she let go of him to smoothen the imaginary wrinkles off her blue dress.
"I shall arrange for your etiquette classes on my own this time, so that you don't make a fool out of yourself the next time you go to a social event like this. And Selfi shall be your maid." She went back to the glamorous room of social world without further sparing another glance at his utterly confused and hurt husband, not before peeling off her white gloves from her hands and throwing them into the burning lamp that was placed at the corner of the balcony.
Deepak stood stunned for a moment. He gave himself a moment to understand what the fuck is apparently happening with him….and why is this even happening with him before staggering back at the cemented railing of the balcony.
Such pure hate!
Sure despise!
True, Deepak is not new to this emotion directed towards him, rather he is used to it.
Dangerously used to it.
So used to it that he didn't even think much of such behavior.
Come to think of it, is it bad that he doesn't even know his wife's name properly?
Deepak never returned to that huge ballroom anymore. He didn't know why, but he didn't feel like going back there. For the rest of the evening whenever his stomach grumbled, he silenced it by drinking the glass of wine that he had brought with himself whilst staring at the marketplace that reminded him of his motherland. At one point, a cry of an emotion he cannot pinpoint threatened to erupt from his chest. He suppressed it because once again someone had stepped onto the balcony.
"Your Grace?"
It was his assigned maid, Selfi.
She stood wearing a humble dress of light yellow. "It's time to depart." She bowed.
"Yeah, let's—" This time Deepak's stomach cut him off by grumbling loud enough for Selfi to hear. He felt his cheeks becoming red.
Selfi must've heard it, but she thoughtfully decided not to make it obvious. "Are you allergic to anything, your grace?"
"Uh…no I think." Atleast not me, but I don't know about this body.
After Selfi made sure that Gerffron was safely seated inside the carriage meant for him, she swiftly rushed back into the wedding hall. Deepak couldn't help but feel impressed at Selfi's professionalism from inside of Gerffron's body.
Soon, his maid returned with two plates full of food…. foods that he has never seen before, well most of it.
Deepak didn't know he wolfed down both the plates full of food. Back in India, he had a small appetite, neither was he a foodie. Now there is a possibility that this body may not have been fed for a long time. Heck, he doesn't even know if this is reality or not, but the throbbing of his arm reminded him that this is reality.
After eating, the carriage started off, when he enquired about his wife, his maid replied that she'll be late and will be back on horse.
So, a few hours later, Gerffron was taken to a villa where he was left all alone on a bed that had roses strewn on. He blushed at the sight and sat down. He heaved a sigh that he didn't know how long he was holding back. And as he watched the moon that played hide and seek with him from behind the clouds, he didn't keep a track when he fell asleep.