Free Princess: Nuance Of Love Book 1 by Evida Suntoyo Page B

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