A Lifetime Ago

Chapter 19

Timandra walked into the ballroom and caught her breath. It was marvellous and crowded with beautifully dressed people. The room must have been five hundred feet long and three hundred feet wide, with the ceiling stretching up another two hundred meters above her head. It made her look smaller than grains of sand on a shore. The floor was so polished that it resembled an iced-over lake.

The walls were a glittering gold, so bright and shiny. Three dozen glistering chandeliers spiralled down the ceiling, sending a lovely diffused golden light over the ballroom. The room smelled of rose petals. 

Timandra could hear the low chattering of the women, wearing bejewelled ball gowns of the most beautiful shades of emerald, ruby and amethyst. They talked among themselves and laughed seeming completely at ease, whereas Timandra, in her blood red gown, looked out of place in this alien world.

She tightened her hold around Nodin’s arm as they walked to the middle of the ballroom to congratulate the couple. Her pulse rate began to shoot up as she watched princess Drina lightly brushing away Ragnar’s stubborn bangs that fell over his forehead.

The princess was a sight to behold. She shone like the full moon in the darkness of the night. She was elegantly dressed in a golden silk gown and her thin lips were tinted deep red. Her tiara was a delicate piece of diamonds and pearls. The back of her head was covered with a matching veil that flowed all the way to the ground.

Ragnar stood clothed in a golden cloak which was heavily embroidered. Timandra noticed that his facial features were hardened while his hands were loosely suspended to his sides. His eyes were fixed on nothing specific. He kept nodding as the princess spoke to him, yet he looked lost.

Ragnar had no desire to be touched by this woman standing in front of him. She wasn’t successful in making his heart hers, what so ever she tried. Their wedding would always remain a political union to strengthen their bonds and nothing more, since he was certain that he would never be able to fall in love with her.

He was interrupted from the stream of thoughts when he felt a gentle tap on his shoulder.

“Cousin..” Nodin flashed a grin at him. Ragnar’s eyes shifted to Timandra and then to her hand which was wound around Nodin’s arm. The hard glare from Ragnar made her to slightly pull away her hand but it was firmly held by Nodin.

“My Lady..” Nodin turned to princess Drina and bowed in front of her. She would soon become the queen of Vonentis and he had to learn to respect her right from now.

“I am Nodin. Prince Ragnar’s cousin.” He said to Drina since they hadn’t met personally before. “We came here to congratulate you both.” He spoke looking at Timandra, who bowed down to each one of them.

“Thank you Prince Nodin..” Princess Drina thanked them in her fake soft tone.

Timandra kept her gaze fixed on the floor since she could handle the sight in front of her. Drina was annoyingly too close to the prince and it only broke her heart into a million pieces, if it wasn’t broken already.

Drina observed how Ragnar’s eyes were boring holes on Timandra. She stared at the woman who, she was sure wasn’t even close to her beauty but her insecurities began to eat her from inside. She let out of breath of relief, she wasn’t aware she was holding as she saw the woman walk away with Nodin.

The look of longing in Ragnar’s face didn’t go unnoticed by her hawk like eyes, which confirmed that there was surely something going on between Ragnar and the woman.  She balled her fist to control the anger boiling in her veins.

She smiled at Ragnar, “Would you like to dance, my lord?” She asked him sweetly, trying to ignore the fact that his eyes were still fixed on back of the woman.

He finally broke his stare from Timandra and turned to face Drina. He nodded uninterestedly to her request and she smiled in return.

All the couples danced around the prince and princess. Drina kept batting her huge lashes at Ragnar and tried to involve in small conversation with him but Ragnar had no interest in replying her. His eyes went back to Timandra, who was dancing with Nodin. She had a pretty smile on her delicate rose like lips,  that he once had devoured mindlessly. He wanted to taste them once again, may be one last time before he got married to this woman, and with whom he could never feel the same kind of passion that he felt with Timandra.

He tried to avert his eyes from her but it was becoming a herculean task for him to keep his eyes off her alluring face. How could someone be so pretty? He kept thinking, not even aware that Drina had been calling him for a whole minute.

It now irked her beyond explanation and she wanted to nip it in the bud. “You seem to be attracted to her..” She said, which at last got his attention back on her.

He stared at her shocked, ‘Was it that obvious?’ He began to think.

“..but she isn’t even as pretty as the maid that cleans by feet.” She remarked full of arrogance.

Ragnar fumed uncontrollably, his eyes turning blood red instantly and nostrils flaring rage. She had no rights to talk about Timandra like that. “You better mind your tongue, if you want to talk again.” He spat at her and pulled away.

Timandra observed him walk out of the ballroom angrily, leaving his future bride alone and teary eyed. She wondered what could have made him look like a raging bull. Her eyes followed him until he disappeared. She wanted to run behind him and ask him what was wrong but she also knew that she wasn’t privileged enough to do that.

Nodin ran his eyes over Timandra’s pretty face. His lips were curved up to the side in a crooked smile. She grew more beautiful than the day before, he thought.

“Did I mention before that you look absolutely stunning tonight?” He spoke in a sultry voice.

Timandra looked up at his face for the first time in the whole evening. She smiled shyly, “Thanks, my lord.”

“Are you okay now?” She stared at him, lost when he asked her.

“I mean, have you been getting those bad dreams after that?”

“Oh.. no my lord. I am fine. Thank you for your concern.” She told him.

They danced for a while before they had dinner with Avira and the others. Timandra didn’t see Ragnar after he left the ballroom angrily. Everyone was quite shocked when his guard came back with the information that the prince didn’t want to join for dinner since he had a terrible headache.

King Elkan brushed it off lightly without making a big fuss but that didn’t mean he hadn’t noticed his precious daughter’s sad stricken face and the dagger like stares she was throwing at a young woman.

After dinner, Drina walked to Timandra who was standing with Meeda in one corner of the huge room, away from the royals. She too had seen the angry looks on Drina face and they were clearly directed towards her. ‘Did I do something wrong to irk the princess so badly?’ She wondered. She swallowed hard against her dry throat when she watched the princess making her way towards her with a murderous glare on her face.

“My lady..” She bowed to Drina when she watched her stand in front of her, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Who are you?” Drina asked her haughtily.

“I..I am Timandra, my lady.” She stuttered nervously.

“I don’t need to know your name. Who are you to Ragnar?” She seethed through her gritted teeth.

The princess’s question caused her jaws to drop, she thought it would touch the floor. “N-no one, my lady.” She replied.

“You better stay away from him if you want to see another day of your life.” She warned and turned her back towards her before walking away.

Timandra stood there like a rock frozen and immovable on the floor.

What irritated Ragnar more that Drina’s words was the sight of Timandra in Nodin’s arms. He muttered profanities and banged his fist over a teak wood table in his room. He couldn’t stand them together for the rest of the evening. Hence he refused to have dinner at the dinner hall.

He kept pacing, thinking what he needed to do to put off the fire in his heart.

“I want her. Just once.” He thought he was craving for her only because he was fighting hard to stay away from touching her. He had taken many woman and no one could last more than one night for him. May be he would get over her if he had her just once.

He made up his mind before storming out of his room into the corridor. He knew where she was staying and marched towards her room.

Timandra’s head was pounding hard with an awful headache after her encounter with the princess. Why did she sound that rude to her? She had no clue what she had done that made the princess so mad at her.

She was half way undoing her braid and removing the hair pins one by one when the door burst open.  She turned away from the mirror, gasping loudly.

She froze when she saw Ragnar with a stern look on his face.