A String Of Pearls

Settling in

"I will give the name." Duryodhan announced. "I don't trust either of you."

"You don't trust us to name our child." The King of Anga deadpanned.

"No. You clearly should not be trusted. I hereby declare that if it's a boy, he shall be called 'Shatrunjaya- the one who achieves victory over enemies'."

The King of Anga hummed thoughtfully. "That's actually pretty good."

"See." Her husband said proudly. Bhanumati really had to stop finding the bickering between these two friends adorable. But it was hard.

She caught the Queen of Anga staring at her, smiling.

"They're always like that." She said, rubbing a hand over her swelling belly. "You get used to it."

"They're terrible. But also sort of... cute?"

The older woman gave a startled laugh. "I suppose." she admitted. "Don't let them hear you say that though. They will be very offended."

"Aren't all men?" She asked dryly. "So how did you two meet?"

"Oh, we are childhood friends. He hated it when I made him play with dolls."

Bhanumati snorted. "I cannot imagine him playing with dolls."

"Oh he was a little boy once too. One who would much rather go practice archery on the poor trees rather than play with his friends."

"Now that I can imagine."

"He didn't get along very well with the other children you see," she said, smiling sadly. "He would much rather study and try to train himself in weaponry rather than learn the trades of charioteering boys his age were supposed to."

Right. Bhanumati had absolutely forgotten that the King of Anga was a charioteer's son.

The other woman had a wistful look on her face. "Then he left for twelve years to go train."

Bhanumati grinned and nudged her companion. "Stop looking like that. You're literally married to him now."

The Queen of Anga laughed and grasped her hand. "You and I will be good friends." She told Bhanumati.

"I do hope so, Angarani." She agreed, smiling.

The Queen scoffed. "Oh stop with that 'Angarani' nonsense."

"What should I call you then?"

"Hmmm, I'm a little older, so 'Di' or 'Jiji' would do I suppose." She smiled warmly and Bhanumati felt her heart swell.

"Alright." she said.

The King of Anga seemed to suddenly hear them. "If you are calling her 'Di', there is no way you are going to keep addressing me by my title." He told her.

"So what should I call you?"

He looked at her like she was an idiot. "Don't be ridiculous. If Vrushali is your sister, then I must be your brother."

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As the months passed, slowly but surely Bhanumati settled in.

She would spend afternoons with her Mother in law, helping her sort through all the details of household and palace staff and once Mata Gandhari trusted her to be competent enough, she was given the responsibility of the Kitchen Staff and the North Wing of the castle.

She wrote to her mother immediately to inform her of this so that she would stop worrying about her 'position in the family and household' already.

Eventually Dussashan got married to a sweet girl called Chandramukhi and then it seemed, there were weddings after weddings as one by one the Kaurava brothers started to get married.

Vrushali Jiji gave birth to a healthy baby boy who was according to her husband's wishes, named Shatrunjaya.

Life in Hastinapur was never boring, just like Mata Gandhari had said.

In fact, she found herself quite happy and soon enough she did not even care that she had been kidnapped. She had been married to someone she didn't know as she had known she would be all her life. So what if it had been unorthodox? She had found a family after all.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"I forgive you." She told Duryodhan one night, after almost a year of their wedding.

His face lit up like a candle. And Bhanumati.... found that seeing him smile made her happy too.

I don't know how to write romance. Hence the lack of romance. Also if any of you received an update yesterday, it was because I accidentally published the incomplete chapter.

Do vote and comment if you liked it.

I'm really excited about the next chapter. It's where this fic gets its name from after all.