“You should tell him yourself. Otherwise, he's not going to feel reassured.”
“Fine, if he wants to waste his time driving over here, to hear my one-liner, then tell him to come at seven.”
“Perfect! I’ll let him know.”
“Bye.” She said before he hung up.
“Puteri, is the Raden Ali you’re talking about, the same Raden Ali that is your future husband?” Asked Mak Noor.
“Yes, he is.”
“And he is in love with someone else?”
“Yes, and you know what’s the worst part, Mak? My Father knows it, but he still wants me to marry Raden Ali. Obviously my happiness has never been a priority to him.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life with someone who’s going to see me as a hindrance. It’s not fair, I’m still young, and haven’t had a chance to live my life, and now, I have to go through all this.”
“Why don’t you try talking to him?”
"Who? Raden Ali?”
“Yes.”
“What should I say?”
“Everything, what happened, how you feel, what you think is going on. I’m sure he will sympathize with you, you said it yourself on the phone earlier that he’s a considerate person. Besides, he has a girlfriend, so maybe he can be your ally to resolve this marriage issue.”
“You know Mak. You are right!” She said confidently, “My best chance right now is to be friends with him, and convince him to work together to solve this problem. I have to make him understand that it wasn’t me who wanted to destroy his relationship with his girlfriend, by forcing him into marriage.”
“Good, why don’t you get up and take a shower, you shouldn’t meet him smelling all sweaty like that.”
”Oh, do I have to? It’s not like I want to attract him or anything.”
“You should know that men are visual creature, and they usually judge people by their appearance. You’re more likely to win his sympathy if you look beautiful and smell nice, than looking and smelling like a construction worker."
“Fine! But I want to take a bubble bath, with lots of bubbles and with my rubber duckies.”
“Of course, I’ll scrub your back.”
Mak Noor helped her up, then they both entered the building.
* * *
Getting to the Sultan's Palace wasn’t difficult, it was located distantly from most commercial areas, so the traffic there is never heavy. This was purposely arranged for better control over the security of the Sultan's Palace itself. After identifying himself to several layers of guard posts, he arrived at the parking lot of the east wing. Security here was tight, but not as tight as the Sultan’s inner residence.
He stepped out of the car and walked to the main entrance, the guards had already announced his arrival, so there was an attendant waiting for him there.
“Raden Burhanuddin Ali, I am here to escort you to the lounge room.”
“Thank you.” He replied.
They walked past the huge garden, and through several lengthy corridors before they reached the lounge room. It was a very large room, with 5 different sitting areas. The room itself was decorated with traditional ornaments, and all the furniture was also in the traditional style, hand crafted by Jothar’s best carpenters.
“Raden, please take a seat. Her Highness Puteri Paramita Sawitri, will be here in a few minutes.” He backed away and stood at the entrance of the lounge room.
Ali chose the middle seating area. Not too close to the guard and not too far either. He realized that the guard will remain there during his visit in order to act as a chaperon for them. Although Jothar doesn’t fully adopt all religious laws, but there were strict guidelines to men and women’s proximity, especially with inner members of the Royal Family, and more so towards the female members.
Ali heard sounds of high heel shoes clacking against the floor. He saw Paramita entering, followed by an older lady. Paramita signed for the older lady to sit in a different area from where he is sitting at. Then she walked over to him.
“Good evening Raden Ali. Did you want to meet me? If you are here to talk about your girlfriend, you don’t have to worry, I was told by Rahmat that an insult like that can be punishable by imprisonment or even death. Although I haven’t forgotten what your girlfriend said, and much less forgiven it, but sending her to jail over a small matter like that, is too much.” She bombarded him without giving him a chance to respond.
“Puteri, thank you for your leniency towards Dewi, I apologize on her behalf. If there is something I can do to…”
“No! Don’t bother, I don’t accept your apology on her behalf, it’s her that has to apologize, not you.” She said curtly.
“There is another thing that I wanted to talk to you about.” He hesitated for a moment, “When I arrived home today, I was advised by my Father, that instead of my brother Hafiz, it’s me that has been appointed by His Majesty Sultan to marry you.”
“Appointed? You?” She laughed, she peered over to the guard, she said in a lower voice. “You’re wrong! Don’t you understand? It was me that was appointed to marry you! That’s why they dragged me here to this country!”
“What are you talking about?” Ali was confused.
“I first heard of Ayanda's plan to acknowledge me as his daughter about two years ago, when I visited home from college. My mother told me that she and Ayahnda had been talking about this for many months. This seemed strange to me, because if my Father wanted to acknowledge me, why not before? Why wait for so long, adding to that, my Mother told me that he also decided to find me a husband and have me marry someone of my “stature”.” her voice sounded cynical. “Obviously I couldn’t refuse my mother’s insistence, but I also couldn’t accept it without understanding the circumstances. So I started to find out more about Jothar, the Royal Family and my father. After back reading so many newspapers, I found it strange that my Father would delay marrying off my three half-sisters until after they reached 25 years of age, in-fact in interviews he said that he wanted to give them a chance to study and work before marrying, and he encouraged the people of Jothar to do the same” She paused.
“I don’t see anything strange about that,” Ali said
“Why does he intend to marry me off at twenty-three, with a much older man?” She refuted.
Ali coughed, this was the first time somebody ever called him a much older man over a seven year age gap. He felt a dent in his pride.
“I did very well at school, and I had a promising future, so why cut my wings? Why me? The daughter he had forgotten for so long, why acknowledge me and then marry me off in no time?”
“Maybe he wanted to ensure that you have a comfortable life.”
“Seriously? Who’s to decide that I need a comfortable life? Or maybe I can create one for myself.”
“Okay, what else?”
“So I reviewed the situation from another angle. What if, acknowledging me wasn’t an act of Fatherly instinct, but a necessity, to achieve the goal which is a marriage alliance?”
“Well, this might sound cold, but that’s not such a big revelation, political marriages are a common thing in prominent families, in fact, your brothers and sisters are in arranged political marriages.”
“Will you stop interrupting me, I haven’t finished my story!” she almost yelled.
“Sorry."
“Thank you! Now, where was I? Oh, so he needed to have a certain person as his son-in-law, but he doesn’t have any daughters left, that’s why he turned to his last resort. His estranged daughter living in England. Soon after I got back to Cambridge, I received an invitation to go to the embassy. I met with His Excellency Dato Fahmi Wiadi, he congratulated me and handed me a new national ID and passport with my new title beautifully printed in it. So from that day on, I officially had a father. But when I graduated from college, was he there? No! Okay maybe because of security reasons or state reasons, or whatever, but t
he lack of a phone call or a congratulatory card or even flowers, was evidence of how much he cared about me. Instead, when I got home, my mother handed me a one way flight ticket. Two months ago when I arrived here, after I got introduced to my father, and settled into my residence, I was given a file containing information of the family of Raden Hamza, his wife and his two sons, one of which would be my husband. But the curious thing is that you were in all the photos. In all the individual reports for your family members, the photos put there were from events and you were in the background. But in the report about you, it was a single official document photo. I find it impossible that my father couldn’t get a document style photo for Raden Hamza. When I was in college I participated in an independent research on subliminal messages, so I know how to search for these things, and this one popped out like a sore thumb to me.”
Ali digested her story for a while before asking, “Do you know that you talk like a machine gun? It's kind of hard to digest your words. But why do you say that you were appointed to be my wife, and not me that’s appointed to be your husband?”
“You really can’t figure it out? Don’t tell me you’re that naive! I was able to understand it within the first month. My father wasn’t looking for a husband to be for me. He was looking for a way to bring you into the family. Of course he couldn’t be so obvious about it, because he needed to protect his cousin whom he loves like a brother, your father, from having to take nagging from his wife. The best way to do that was by making her believe that her son can have the chance to be the second in line to the throne. Why do you think he waited for the last-minute to tell your father that he wanted you instead of your brother, and set the wedding so soon, almost like a shotgun marriage? So it wouldn’t cause awkwardness in your household.”
“Can I ask you something, please? Don’t be offended!” Ali said carefully.
“Go ahead!” She replied.
“Are you one of those crazy conspiracy theory aficionados? Because you certainly sound like one.”
Chapter Eight
“You idiot!” She replied slapping his shoulder. Mak Noor looked at her disapprovingly.
“But seriously, that’s a far fetch and wild theory. How did you come up with that? I mean what did you base that theory on?” He asked her.
“Because of your popularity with the younger and higher educated generation of the country. And since Ayahnda Sultan only has one son who is the Crown Prince, also He has a bad relationship with Pangeran Bashir, and Pangeran Karim has no children, this is the kill two birds with one stone solution.”
“Hmm, okay, that part makes sense!” He said almost to himself
“Of course it does. With the current popular call out to form a Parliament, having a reformist in the throne line, he will gain the support of the younger age group, which is the majority of the population.” She said reassuringly, she added, “So now if you came here to cry victim, you’re barking up the wrong tree. I’m not too excited to be marrying you either, and for your information, one of the two times that I visited the Jothar Embassy in London, was to vote for Pro Parliament in the referendum!”
Ali sat quiet thinking about the situation, a palace maid came and served some tea. Paramita feeling her throat dry from all that nonstop talking picked up a cup. “Please go ahead and drink.” She offered him out of politeness.
Ali also took a sip of the tea, “To tell you the truth, I think what you said kind of makes a little sense, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s true. Although you may find it hard to believe, convenient coincidences do happen in real life, and not everything is a vile and intricate conspiracy. Have you spoken about this to anyone else?”
“No, just you. Because I see you as the other party affected by this.”
“Okay, please let’s keep this between us. Especially if your theory about the strategy against the Pro Parliament movement is right, you should be more careful to whom you tell it to.” He looked at his watch, “I better go now. It’s getting late. Can we meet again? There are some other things we need to talk about.”
“We can meet for lunch sometime tomorrow if you like, I have some errands to do at the bank, and I can meet you someplace.”
“Okay, that’s a good plan. Here is my business card, please call me when you finished your business, and we can arrange it from there.”
“Sounds like a plan, I’ll see you soon.”
“Goodbye, Puteri.”
“We’re friends now, you can call me Mita.”
“Mita, see you tomorrow.” He said gently.
The guard followed him out and escorted him to his car. He started the engine and drove away.
* * *
The meeting didn’t go as he expected. He didn’t even get a chance to speak, Paramita kept talking and talking. She was quite different from he expected, he usually didn’t like to be around younger women, because they didn’t have anything to say that would interest him, even with Dewi sometimes, who was only three years younger than him, he would sometimes, go into autopilot and say “yes, my love.” during their conversations.
He thought maybe it’s because they are stuck in the same situation at this moment, so listening to her view and thoughts on the situation was interesting.
From the first time he saw her, he found himself drawn to her. Not only by her physical appearance, but more so by her personality. She is every bit as insolent as Hafiz had said she was, but she not at all petty. They had a considerate age gap between them, but that didn’t intimidate her. He also loved her sense of humor.
Ali took a right turn arriving at the front of his Father’s mansion. One of the staff opened the gate to let him in. He whistled as he entered the mansion.
He crossed Hafiz as he was walking up the stairs to his bedroom.
“You’re in a good mood, did you go to see Dewi?”
“No, I haven’t decided how I’m going to tell her this news.”
“Oh? But you look so happy and you’re even whistling, I thought Dewi accepted your arranged marriage, forgave you and was willing to be your second wife.”
Ali suddenly thought of Paramita and smiled, “I don’t think there’s a slightest chance in the world that something like that is going to happen.”
“Yeah,” He agreed, and added. “So where did you go?”
“I went to talk to Mita,” Ali answered lightly
“Mita?” Hafiz almost fell down the stairs in shock
“Yes, Rahmat helped me to arrange a meeting with her at the palace.”
“So you’re happy because, she agreed to cancel the marriage?”
“I don’t think she can cancel it on her own account, even though she doesn’t agree to it.”
“And so why are you happy?” Hafiz was baffled.
“I don’t really know actually, we talked a bit today, she was actually very funny. But since we haven’t finished talking, so we’ve agreed to meet again tomorrow.” Ali explained.
“I don’t understand you! A few hour ago, you acted like your world had just caved in, because father told you to marry Puteri Paramita, and now here you are, calling her by her pet name, you visited her in the palace, and arranging a date.”
“It’s not a date, Mita and I are going to resume our conversation from today.”
“Mita and I? Oh, so the two of you are an item now? Isn’t that a little too fast? Have you really accepted her? Or are you seeing her as a stepping stone to a better future?”
“Hafiz! How dare you talk to me like that? I’m your older brother!”
An older brother who is taking advantage of a woman because of her position.”
“What’s your problem, it’s not like you wanted to marry her, I can still remember all your whining and your childish victory dance today when father told us about the Sultan’s decision.” Ali was starting to get upset at his brother’s behavior.
“The problem is not that I want to marry her or not, the problem is that you had your eye on her, even though you thou
ght she was going to marry me. And it’s not because you feel something for her, it’s because you want to take advantage of her!”
“Who said I had my eye on her?”
“Oh? Tell me all that whistling and the grin on your face, wasn’t because of you thinking of your promising future.”
“Hafiz!”
“See you can’t deny it! I bet there is no way that you started to be interested in her. You didn’t even waste time to go and see her. You’re an opportunist!”
“Shut up!” Ali yelled while grabbing Hafiz’s collar and pushing him against the wall.
He lifted his fist to punch his brother when there was a sudden shout. “Stop it, please! The both of you, what’s going on here!”
It was Raden Nabilla who ran out of her room upon hearing the commotion, Raden Hamza was beside her, and then with wide strides, he walked over to his sons, and pried them apart.
“What nonsense is this?” Raden Hamza shouted at them. “I never raised you to yell and fight with each other.”
“What happened? Why are the two of you like this?” Raden Nabilla asked.
“Ask Hafiz, all of a sudden he accused me of backstabbing him,” Ali replied
“Hafiz, what is this about backstabbing?” Raden Hamza looked at his younger son.
“Did you know where he came from?” Hafiz pointed at his brother, “He went to visit Puteri Paramita at the palace. And now he’s acting all familiar with her, calling her by her pet name and all, and he told me that they’re going out for lunch. Father how could it be possible that he suddenly grew interested in her in the last few hours. He’s obviously got something up his sleeves.”
“Hafiz, that’s enough, it’s late and I’m too tired to listen to your nonsense,” Raden Hamza told his son. “You complained when you thought that you had to marry her, and now you’re picking fights with your brother over ridiculous things. Look, at the end of the day Puteri Paramita will be marrying Ali. I sincerely hope that God listens to your words, and he becomes interested in her for whatever reason. That way he would be saved from a lot of pain. I’m going back to sleep. Both of you go to your rooms. Adik, let’s go back to sleep.”
Princess: Nuance Of Love Book 1 Page 7
