The outside of the temple was beautifully carved, depicting numerous supreme beings with both animals and strange mythical beasts Alfred had never seen before. Some were even beautifully painted in great detail in shades of blue, red, black, green, and numerous other hues. The princess watched him as he stared with wonder at the outside of the temple, and without warning, she took his hand into hers and began to lead him through the entrance.
"Come," she said. "Stay by my side in prayer, even if it is not your god."
It was within a few minutes that Alfred finally felt the smooth texture of her white hands. He looked down, and noticed that her nails were a perfect length on the tops of her smooth, delicate fingers. They were a little past the nailbed, filed and polished perfectly for a brilliant shine. Then, his eyes wandered the vicinity, absorbing the images of candlelit altars with blue, multiple-arms deities with offerings of flowers or small trinkets. A few worshippers looked to see the beautiful woman walking hand-in-hand with the blond stranger, realizing that it was the rajkumari herself.
"It is the princess," everyone whispered in their native language. Suddenly, a few small children, three girls and a little boy, approached her primly. They were dressed simply, as if they were from the village led by Bandhu, and they had dark skin, hair and eyes.
"I am happy to finally meet you, Your Majesty," a little girl said in Hindi. The princess smiled down at the children and bent down to give each a friendly hug.
"And to you, little one," she replied in the same language. Alfred watched her as she greeted the children as respectfully as they did her, and he really liked that she had a soft side for little kids. His lips formed a closed smile as a Hindu priest walked up to her and smiled, bearing his grimy, spacey grin.
"Your Highness, it is so good to see you again," the priest said in his mother tongue, still smiling. "Bless you." Returning his bowing, praying hands gesture, she smiled as her jewelry made noise against her fine clothing.
"Bless you as well, Pujari," she said in like kind. The priest walked up to Alfred, who smiled at him with childlike wonder.
"Who is this?" he asked the princess in their language.
"He is called Alfred," Princess Amisha said. "He is a guest at the palace for a while. Also, he is a good, jovial soul." The priest looked at him and smiled again.
"Bless you, sir," he said in Hindi, touching his forehead gently before walking away from the two. Alfred looked confused, and the princess took note of this, looking into his eyes vigilantly.
"He blessed you," she told him. "I told him how good of a soul you are."
"You did?" he asked.
"Yes," Princess Amisha said, walking through a doorway through a hall. Following her a few feet behind, he watched as she entered a highly decorated room.
The walls were crimson red, but the color was so dark and dimly lit by the candles on the altar. A statue depicting a four-armed, blue-skinned deity with a highly ornate headdress and clothing, holding a variety of objects in his four hands. Alfred grew curious, standing near the doorway as he watched Princess Amisha bow before the altar and start muttering in Sanskrit.
"Vishnu, Protector of All,
I come to you today for assistance and protection,
As I am betrothed to a raja for whom I have no love in my heart.
Protect my heart,
Protect it from all evils,
From all forms of hate,
And from all having to do with the raja.
Though I have no control over what you have in store for me,
Please protect my heart from the raja or any form of hate.
Thank you, and bless."
Intrigued by the different language she was speaking, Alfred walked closer to the princess, who was kneeling on a cushion before the altar with her eyes closed, visualizing her heart in protective, divine hands. He sat down next to her, but the princess was so deeply involved in silent prayer that she completely forgot that he was in the room with her. The smell of frankincense, which came out of a brazier in the form of sweet-smelling smoke, was pleasing to Alfred as he watched the princess stand up and take something out of a pouch that was hung discreetly around her waist. She took out a small flask of perfume and poured a few drops into Vishnu's offering bowl.
"Thank you," she said in her language.
"What god is this?" Alfred asked.
"It is Vishnu, the protector of all," Princess Amisha said, looking up into his eyes before leaving the room. Alfred followed her until she stopped at an altar where a tall statue of a green-skinned man seated on a bird with a bow and arrow stood illuminated by the light of twenty candles. Before she prayed, Princess Amisha made another perfume offering to Kamadeva, god of love and desire. She knelt as Alfred stood there, watching her mutter another prayer in Sanskrit:
"Kamadeva, ruler of love and carnal desire,
I come to you asking for my true love.
I will pay no mind to his caste,
His race, his appearance, or his origin.
I ask that you send me a man who loves me
As much as I will love him.
I know I am betrothed to a raja,
But I do not love him.
If he be my true love,
Open my heart to make room for amorous feelings.
If he is not my true love,
Reveal it to me in real life or a dream.
I will wait as patiently as you desire me to.
Thank you and bless."
Within a half hour, Princess Amisha greeted all of the 'gods' at their respective altars, and with each muttered sound of her foreign tongue, Alfred became more intrigued. He watched her as she made her way for the entrance of the temple, and as soon as they were outside, he stopped her, curious to know what she was praying for.
"Princess, who was that? At the altar?" Alfred questioned.
"Kamadeva," she said calmly, looking into his eyes lovingly. "God of…human love."
"Human love?" he asked, the anticipation of finding out what she prayed for killing him as moments passed. "What did you pray to those two gods in specific for?"
"I refuse to share," she said as her servant helped her onto the elephant's back.
"Why?" he asked with a mordant attitude.
"Because I choose not to," Princess Amisha said. Those were her last words during the trip back to the palace.
Being exposed to a different religion and their worship practices was an entirely new experience for Alfred, whose family seemed to be dominated by the teachings of Jesus and his Catholic religion. His parents were religious to some degree, but they were not devoutly Catholic. Still, they had sent him and his younger sister, Amelia, to a Catholic school in Chicago, where he attended both elementary and high school before going to WashingtonDC for college. Proud of the experience of that day, he and the princess entered the palace quietly.
The main hall was empty—not a single person in the room. This shocked Princess Amisha to the point where she grew anxious. What if Raja Kumar Chatur was hiding behind a pillar, waiting to interrogate her about her whereabouts? What would he do if he found out that she had lied to him just to be with Alfred at the temple? The fact that she was barefoot helped her tip-toe across the floor to the staircase, but the sound of her golden ankle bells was a major drawback. She heard footsteps, and she was full of relief once she saw that it was her maids.
"Your Highness, we have been looking for you for over an hour," one of them said in Hindi. "We were going to paint henna on you."
"Yes, of course," the princess replied, going up the stairs with them. Before she was out of sight, her blue eyes looked down at Alfred, who stared up at her with a blank expression on his face.
The young man sighed, assessing his inner feelings toward the princess. He knew that it was probably only lust he felt toward her, but he also knew that there was a lot to love about Rajkumari Amisha Mani—her weak point for children, her assertiveness, her regal, graceful bearing, and most of all, her extreme beauty that was famed throughout the east. Suddenly, he heard footsteps; this made him anxious. Was it Arthur? Francis? Ivan? Matthew? Or worse—was it Raja Kumar Chatur? His lower lip trembled and his heart raced, but it stopped once he saw Arthur walking toward him.
"Alfred! Where have you been?" the Englishman asked. "Ivan, Francis, Matthew and I are planning on helping Mr. Smith and Mr. Wilson find the missing jewel."
"Sounds cool," Alfred said. "I'm part of it, I hope."
"Yes, of course. You're in our group," Arthur told him. "You still didn't answer my question."
"Yeah, what question?" Alfred questioned nonchalantly.
"Where have you been the past hour or so?" the Englishman questioned.
"Oh, I was just with Princess Amisha," Alfred said, his voice turning to an inaudible whisper in case the raja was around. Unsurprisingly, Raja Kumar was standing discreetly at the top of the stairs, clenching the railing with frustration as he watched the two blond men speak to each other.
"Really? Where were you both?" Arthur asked quietly. Alfred moved closer and whispered in his ear.
"The temple," he whispered. "It's a couple miles from here."
"Why are we whispering, Alfred?" Arthur questioned, looking at him strangely.
"Because she told the raja that she wouldn't go to the temple this morning and God only knows what he'd do if he found out she lied to him," Alfred whispered again. "That Raja Kumar is a creepy guy."
"Yes, I agree. He is more intimidating, though," Arthur said.
The raja looked down at the American and Englishman with hate in his fiery, glowing eyes. His teeth gritted and his heart raced with unparalleled fury. He didn't know what they were really saying, nor did he see the princess enter the palace with Alfred. He had only seen her moments before with her maids getting ready to do henna body paint on her, but the raja had even worse insinuations about what the two men were talking about. Those men do not know who they are dealing with, he thought in his head, how dare they whisper in my presence! I demand to know what they are saying! If they are talking about my bride to-be in a lewdly, unpleasant manner, I will have more throats to slit than I have to. I know what I must do—take the rajkumari away from here as soon as possible.