Raksheet reluctantly shifted his gaze from Ira to the necklace she was showing. It was beautiful. The red and white beads were strung well one by one tightly. A golden pendant with a red stone in the middle of the necklace was making it look more beautiful.
He smiled looking at it and touched it. She immediately gave it in his hand to let him see it carefully.
He took it from her and said "It's beautiful."
"Really?!" She asked excitedly.
He looked at her and nod. He placed his hand on her head and caressed her forehead with his thumb "I didn't know that you can make necklace. Why didn't you tell me before?"
She shook her head "No, i didn't know how to do it. It's Advika who taught me how to make it. I was getting bored staying in my chamber until the evening. I have a lot of time till the evening, till I go to practice fencing. So i asked her to help me to do something like cooking, gardening or anything else. But she refused to let me do that."
"Why so?" He asked.
"She said it's not my work to cook. If I want to cook something for you or others, I can cook but not daily. And about gardening, she said it's too hot outside. Since I am from Aaro, may be my body can't take that much heat and I may get dirty as well. I can do gardening with mother and grandmother when they do. So she suggested me to do something like sewing, embroidery, knitting or making some jwellery. Making jwellery is easy and i like jewelleries too so i choosed to do it." She explained without taking any pause.
"Is that so?" He asked, raising his eyebrows in wonder "You did it for the first time? Yet you did it perfectly!"
Ira leaned in to hide her face in his embrace, feeling shy after getting the compliment.
Raksheet hugged her back and asked "Will you make one for me? I will keep that necklace always with me."
She looked at him in his eyes "Of course, I will. Not only necklace but bracelets, rings and so many things."
A smile spread on Raksheet's face and he held her chin to pull her closer in a kiss. She closed her eyes responding to his initiative. Now She don't mind if he want more than a kiss. She will happily give him everything he have craved for from such a long time. But when she opened her eyes, the lonely and sad expression on his face made her heart ache.
Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion and worry. She slowly broke the kiss and Raksheet opened his eyes to look at her. The sadness was still there on his face.
She gently touched his cheeks and asked "Is everything ok? Why are you looking so disturbed? What happened?"
Raksheet held her hand that is on his cheeks and kissed her palm. He looked at her and shook his head. "Nothing happened. Everything is fine."
"Then why are you sad?" She asked.
"I am not sad." He said, pulling her in a tight hug "It's just work stress."
Suddenly something clicked in Ira's mind. She immediately broke the hug and asked anxiously "Is it about grandfather? What happened to him? Is he alright?" She held his hands, tears welled up in her eyes. "Please Raksheet don't lie to me. Tell me what happened."
Raksheet quickly cupped her face with both of his hands and tried to calm her down "It is not about that." He said, reassuring. "Your grandfather is fine. If I get any news from Aaro, I will tell you immediately. So don't worry about it. I will not let anything happen to him."
Hearing that her grandfather is fine, she finally calmed down and asked "Then what is it about? Why are you sad? Please tell me."
Raksheet held her hands and took a deep breath. "Do you trust me?" He asked.
She wiped the tears from her eyes and nod "Yes, I do."
"You know that I love you a lot and can't live without you?" He again asked, looking deep in her eyes.
"I know."
"You will never leave me alone in any situation, right?" His voice cracked at the end.
She don't know what happened to him and why he is asking such weird questions all of a sudden. He was fine in the morning when he left for work. Then what happened that is bothering him so much that he is even thinking she will leave him?
"Why would I leave you?" She kissed his cheeks "You are my husband. I, my life, my soul, my body, everything belongs to you. Don't you remember? The day we got married, we promised to the lord that we will always be together, in every crisis, in every pain, in bad health, in happiness, in old age, untill death do us part. Then how am I supposed to leave you alone? You are the only one who loved me so much after my grandfather. You are the only one who want to stay with me doesn't matter how useless I am. How can I lose such a great man?"
Raksheet pulled her in his embrace and hugged her tightly as if she will never leave him if he always hug her tight like this. "I love you princess." He whispered.
"I love you too, my king." She wispered back.
She broke the hug but still layed in his embrace "Now that you said you love me..." She looked up at his face "You should tell me what happened?"
He inhaled deeply, preparing himself to tell Ira the true reason that is bothering him so much.
"We got an invitation from Bayar....Of Pavan's coronation."
Ira furrowed her eyebrows in confusion "So? What is there to be sad about? Is he a bad person? Will he created problems for us in future?"
Raksheet tightened the hug "Yes, he is very bad person. We should stay away from him." He wanted Ira to stay away from Pavan. That's why he is talking bad about Pavan so that Ira will ignore him, but he is not lying. Having an eye on someone else's wife is indeed evil.
She giggled on his comment "Ok ok. We will stay away from him. But we have to attend the coronation, right?"
Raksheet nod "Yes. That is the biggest problem. We have to face that evil man and his family."
Ira raised her eyebrows "Ohhhh, so that's why you were disturbed. You don't want to bring me there."
Raksheet chuckled to see how smart his wife is "My wife is so smart." He kissed the side of her forehead "Yes, I don't want to bring you to Bayar. They are our enemy and I don't want them to hurt my sweet wife."
"If that's the case, I will not come with you. You can go without worrying about anything. I will be fine here. It will take only one or two days as I know you will not stay in your enemy kingdom for a long time." She suggested. Even if she was afraid that Seya will try to seduce her husband, she still wanted him to go alone because she know her husband will never cheat her.
"I wanted to do that too but I can't." He replied "You have to come with me or else people might doubt our relationship. Everyone will be with their partner and I will miss you."
"But my presence will only tense you." She said, looking at him innocently.
"It will not tense me. I just don't want you to get hurt."
"Why are you saying that they will hurt me? They just met me once. So why would they hurt me in such a grand event?"
"Of course because you are their enemy's wife. They will never leave a chance to hurt you or manipulate you. To instigate you against me."
"And you think I will be manipulated by them?" She asked challenging "Do you think I will trust a stranger over my husband?"
He chuckled "Of course not. But i don't want them to come near you and talk to you."
"If you don't want me to talk to them, I will not. I will be with you." She said while playing with his collar.
"But they will try to separate us. What will you do then?" He asked, his arms wrapped arround her.
"I will stick to you throughout the ceremony." She hugged him tightly to show "like this, ok?"
"Promise?"
"Yes."
"Even if they succeed in separating us, you will ignore them and don't listen to their nonsense, ok?" He instructed.
"Ok. I will do whatever you say." After a short pause, she asked. "Are Father and grandfather coming to coronation too?"
"I don't think your grandfather will be able to attend the coronation, he should not travel much. But your father will attend the coronation for sure. You can meet him if you want. Do you want to meet him?" He teased.
"I don't know!" She replied with an annoyed pout.
"You should meet him. After all he is your father."
"We will see."
After discussing with Ira, Raksheet went to his grandfather's chamber to tell him that he will attend the coronation with Ira.
When he was on his way to Abhiveera's chamber, he saw his grandfather coming towards him.
"Raksheet, I want to talk to you." Abhiveera said.
"I know what you want to talk about." Raksheet replied "I will attend the coronation with Ira."
Abhiveera was a bit happy that finally Raksheet agreed to bring Ira with him but he don't want him to say this because of any pressure "Are you sure?"
Raksheet nod "Yes, I am. She is my wife, i should bring her with me everywhere I go. I am her husband, I can protect her. Doesn't matter how tough the situation is, I will always protect her."
Abhiveera smiled in relief and patted Raksheet's shoulder. "You made the right decision."