Princess: Nuance Of Love Book 1 (2 page)

"Yes father, I will make sure that my
brother will understand this." He said.

Without a warning Raden Nabilla beamed
up, "Have you spoken to Dewi about your wedding plans
yet?"

Ali smiled from ear to ear, "Not yet
mother, but I have hinted to her that our family would like to
visit her family in Jakarta."

"Oh really?" Raden Nabilla's tone
showed delight, "That's excellent, and how did she take it? Was she
happy?"

Yes she was, she was both touched and
excited." He replied cautiously.

"I'm m happy that you found the person
you would like to settle down with." His father cut in. "Dewi is a
great person, and she comes from a distinguished family, the one
thing I want you to do is make it clear to her that I don't want
her to continue her career as a singer once she marries to you. I
don’t want to hear any bad rumors that come with her line of work
as a celebrity."

"Yes father, I have told her that some
time ago, and she agreed to it."

"I'm so happy for you," sighed Raden
Nabilla, "I can't wait to have our grandchildren running around
this house. This house has been quiet and dull ever since you and
Hafiz grown up as adult men. Especially when the two of you were
studying abroad, I felt like I would go crazy with
boredom."

"Is that so?" Said Raden Hamza," I
couldn't say the same, it was the opposite for me. As I had to
listen to you nagging me all day, every day."

"Abang, stop teasing me......"Replied
Raden Nabila with a coquettish voice.

"I should take my leave." Smiled Ali,
"It looks like my presence here is no longer needed, in fact, I’m a
third wheel."

"Oh hush." She blushed.

* * *

Ali walked out of the study, his mind
was busy planning strategies on how to talk to Hafiz. Although his
brother looked up to him and would readily open up to him, but Ali
felt that this problem was a bit bigger than the usual quarrels
that his brother would usually ask his advice about. He felt that
he can't win this battle with one attack, but then again
confronting Hafiz directly might be beneficial. That way he can
understand his brother's reasoning and worries.

As Ali had though, Hafiz was in the
television room, watching the sports channel. Ali came in and sat
next to him in the couch.

"Did mother tell you to talk to me?"
Hafiz asked without taking his eyes off the TV set. "I'm planning
to travel to France June next year to watch the World Cup," Said
Ali diverting the situation, "What do you think if we go
together."

Hafiz looked up and smiled a little,
"You don't have to ask me, of course, I'm going."

With a very wide smile, Ali stretched
out his arms and tossed Hafiz's hair lovingly. "Okay, that's great,
I know some good restaurants that we should go to while we're
there."

"It's funny how, for all the years I
lived in London I didn't get the chance to visit France," Hafiz
said while reflecting, "It never crossed my mind. Some of my
friends took the opportunity to travel across Europe by train,
thinking back, I should have done the same."

Ali saw the opportunity to bring up the
subject, "Friends? Did that include Her Highness Puteri
Paramita?"

Hafiz glanced at him through the side
of his eyes, "As a matter of fact, it did. She was one of the
organizers of the European tour for the International Students
Association, of course when she was still a commoner as the Sultan
hadn't recognized her as his daughter yet."

"So you didn't go on the trip because
she was part of it?" Ali asked with genuine curiosity.

"No, I was busy with other interesting
things. But at that time she wasn't mean to me, she was cool and
friendly. And at that time she used to help me a lot.” Hafiz
sighed.

"Then what happened? Why did things
change? Why do you hate her?"

Hafiz shrugged his shoulder, "I don't
hate her. I didn't understand why things changed," he paused for a
minute, "one day she started to ignore me, and she would nitpick my
faults, but the icing of the cake was when she ...."He suddenly
stopped and looked at Ali, "never mind....the point is that what
she did was mean and I can't forget or forgive, also anybody that
was there that day, wouldn't allow me to forget about it. I was the
biggest joke around campus. Even till now, at alumni reunions, they
still laugh about it."

"Hmm, that bad huh?" Ali sighed. He
still wasn't all that convinced, what a girl like Her Highness
Puteri Paramita could trick him to do that was so bad. She was
known among the elite society for being a simple and proper woman,
even though she wasn't raised in the Royal Household. She never
attended any social gatherings that were not state affairs, and she
never hanged out socially with any of the other royal family
members. It's kind of difficult to imagine a person like that being
a weirdo like his brother described.

"Is she that ugly? Like what they say
in the newspapers? You know I remember her from when she was a
little girl, father took me to stay at their house once. She was a
snotty, round, spoiled brat." Ali said.

Hafiz looked up at him," Of course not.
Well, when I saw her she was always dressed in strange clothes, she
used to be nicknamed the flower girl, because all her clothes had
flower stamped patterns, and she would always tie her hair in a
ponytail too, but she is pretty. Naturally, she's the daughter of
an ex Miss Jothar, there's no way she would be as ugly as how she
was described by the media. Actually, it was she that started the
gossip!"

"Who? Her Highness Puteri
Paramita?"

"I read somewhere recently, that she
paid off some gossip columnist to write the report of how ugly she
was. She probably wanted to piss off her vain mother."

"Ha..ha ...ha" Ali burst into laughter,
"Really? She's as rotten as when she was a kid."

"That's another thing that bothers me,"
Hafiz frowned, "Her insolence and pettiness. But most importantly,
we are too familiar with each other. Imagine if you had to marry
Ahmad."

"That's absurd, Ahmad is my best
friend, and he's a man."

"Exactly! She used to be one of my best
friends, and I don't see her as a woman."

"Hafiz, do you know why the Sultan
wants this marriage to happen?"

"Yeah...yeah......I heard the second in
line to the throne, bla...bla...bla....... All formality to me. The
crown prince got married last year, I'm sure he will have many sons
in the future, so this marriage thing is a solution for a "what if"
situation that might not happen in the first place."

* * *

Ali sat down quietly, lost in thought.
The conversation with his brother had left him intrigued with Her
Highness Puteri Paramita. It's well known all over the region that
she was not born to Jothar's Royal household. She was born out of a
famously rumored affair between her father the Sultan of Jothar, at
that time still the Crown Prince and her mother one of the
country's famous model and ex-beauty queen. When he was still the
Crown Prince, her father was famous for his womanizing habits, and
although already married with his two wives, he would have
mistresses here and there. It was said, however, that his
relationship with Madam Soraya, Puteri Paramita's mother, was a
special one, and that after his relationship with her, he never
took another mistress, even after they broke up as soon as he was
crowned Sultan and she moved to Europe with her child to escape
judgmental eyes and tongues.

Ali decided that the best thing, to do,
is to have the persons involved meet each other face to face. That
way they can sort out the differences without anybody in between.
He wasn't sure if it was a good idea or not, given that their
status is lower than the princess, he would have to ask an official
audience, but come to think of it, how can he convey the purpose of
the meeting without making it sound silly or childish on his
brother's part. Finally he made up his mind that it was a better
idea to consult his stepmother, Raden Nabilla is a much known
high-class social butterfly, if anyone can arrange a meeting with
the Princess, and it would be her. He decided to sleep on it a bit
more, and he will talk to his stepmother tomorrow
morning.

Chapter Two

It was the day of the
well-planned private dinner. Raden Nabilla succeeded in working her
magic to invite Her Highness Puteri Paramita. Although to be
honest, this task was not a difficult one, since both families have
agreed to the engagement, so there was no reason that the Queen,
Permaisuri[
3
] Farida will deny
permission for her stepdaughter to attend. Raden Nabilla didn’t
mention her son on the idea of the engagement, fearing that it will
offend the Royal Family, instead she used building rapport as a
pretext.

Raden Nabilla was busy all day making
sure that they make a good impression and wow their guest. She is
fully conscious that she wishes her son to marry up in the social
ladder, so even though tonight’s guest will be her future daughter
in law, she wants to leave no reason to doubt that she is
knowledgeable about Western Culture and European cuisine, as she
knows that Puteri Paramita spent most of her life in London, and
from what she had heard from gossips in the noble wives’ circle of
friends, Madam Soraya after giving birth to the Sultan’s daughter,
received a generous gift of shares in the country’s oil exploration
company and national banks, and because of that she had become a
Socialite and is famous for hanging out with the international Jet
Setters. So naturally Puteri Paramita is used to an upscale
lifestyle. There is no way she would let her future in-laws look
down at her.

She had the staff lay out her best
silverware, her Italian ceramic dishes, and her crystal glasses.
But she was extremely careful, not to go overboard. She didn’t want
to make herself look over the top either as tonight’s dinner is by
no means a formal event.

Although Hafiz had promised to behave
himself, Raden Nabilla was nervous that Ali hadn’t arrived home
yet. He was the only one she can count on to keep her son
checked.

The sound of familiar footsteps behind
her made her exhaled in relief. She turned around to see Ali
walking into the dining room. He was still in his work attire. “Did
you just arrive?” She asked lovingly.

“
Yes. Mother.” He replied
while kissing her cheeks. ”There was an accident near the office,
so we had to take a different way home.”

“Go take a shower and change, our guest
will be here in an hour.”

Ali went upstairs to his room, he
walked into his private bathroom took his clothes off. He really
wanted to take a nice soak before the dinner starts, to incite his
best diplomatic abilities, but time would not allow for that
luxury. Instead, he went into the shower letting the nice warm
water massage his shoulders and back. Right now his mind drew a
blank, he didn’t know what to expect, with his brother’s
personality and what he heard about the princess. He thought it
would be better to improvise as they go tonight, he will see and
react according to the situation. After finishing his shower, he
went to choose his outfit. “I should wear something smart casual,”
He thought to himself.

He opted for a light brown
hand drawn silk batik shirt that he brought back from Indonesia
when he visited Dewi’s family for the first time, paired with black
dress pants. When he finished dressing and arrived downstairs he
found that everybody was sitting in the living room. Apparently
Raden Hamza had the same idea as him and was wearing a silk Batik
Prada[
4
] shirt, his wife was in
a pink Baju Kurung[
5
]
looking elegant and dignified. He felt relieved when he saw Hafiz
was actually dressed for the occasion with his Gucci jacket,
matching pants, and beige T-Shirt. On the other hand, he never
thought his brother to be foolish enough to not be on his best
behavior while greeting members of the Royal Family.

* * *

A maid came in to announce that the
guests’ car had already arrived at the main gate. They all walked
to the front door to greet them.

A black Mercedes-Benz pulled up in the
driveway in front of the main door, a guard stepped down from the
passenger side, and opened the door for the first passenger, while
the driver opened the door for another. Two women came down from
the car. One was a young woman and the other an older. They were
both dressed in the traditional Baju Kurung. While the older woman
wore a jilbab, the younger one had a loose scarf covering her
head.

Raden Nabilla came forward with
respectful familiarity to greet the older woman,” Your Highness
Puteri Siti Hamidah, welcome to our humble home.”

They smiled at each other and gave
kissed each other on both cheeks.

“Please, there is no need to discuss me
formally, let me present you to Sultan’s daughter, Her Highness
Puteri Paramita Sawitri.” She said while gesturing to the young
woman beside her, he proceeded to greet Raden Hamza and his two
sons.