Tamura went to take Leona to the nearby woods to collect some wild mushrooms. He wanted to use this opportunity to pop the question as he was thinking about it a lot lately. Leona was getting more and more anxious about settling down and wondered if they would ever get around to it. She smirked at her old idea of not wanting to get married and all her plans before she met Tamura, which changed everything, well partly.
Of late she had seen how excited Beko was about her and Mabige’s marriage plans and that Tamura was not making any concrete move about settling down with her after three years of courtship. Leona felt left out and wondered if she was wasting time of unfulfilled promises.
When they got in the woods, Tamura took her hand and said, “Why do you look so sad, my love?”
Leona responded coldly to say, “Nothing.”
Tamura retorted, “I know you so well, princess, whatever is the matter, you are not yourself?”
Leona with annoyance sharply replied, “I said there is nothing the matter, why do you keep asking, unless you yourself know there is something the matter!”
Tamura added, “Princess, I don’t want a row, please, I brought you here for an important reason. So come here, come sit next to me. We are not going to have our first argument in three years, are we?”
Leona responded, “Three whole long years that is!”
Tamura smiled cheekily and said, “Yeah, I know it’s been three long years since I met you on that fateful day that is why I wanted to bring you here to ask you a very important question.”
As he said these words, he fell down to his knees in front of her, took her left hand in his and asked her, “Princess Leona Baruka, will you please do me the honour of becoming my wife?”
Leona noticing what was happening, she shouted, “Ooh my goodness, YES, and yes, yes, of course, yes, I will marry you!” Tamura slipped a handcrafted ring on her finger and asked her if he could stand up now.
She just laughed and pulled him to his feet. She could not wait to tell her mother about it. The two sat down cuddling and kissing and reciting everything they needed to do in preparation for the big day and what to wear and the list was endless. After a long talk, Leona said, “I almost gave up on you thinking you were not ready to settle down and that you were just saying things to keep me sweet.”
“What! I actually thought you had more faith in me than that. Now I know why you have been a bit off with me lately. I was trying to save up for this for a long time and wanted to wait until I had enough for dowry and for the wedding. I can’t expect your father to pay for everything. I am a proud man, you know?” Tamura said with authority.
“I know I know,” said Leona.
After picking a few mushrooms, they decided to go back home to share their news with the king and queen before the rest of the compound would get to know. Leona was on cloud nine and could not remember how they got home from the woods. There was just one thing on her mind, telling her mother to get her to work on her wedding dress as soon as possible. She was going to ask Mara and her closest friend Shula to be bridesmaids among the older girls of Leona’s choice and Tyza and Baka to be groomsmen among the older boys of Tamura’s choice.
When the king and queen heard the couple’s news, they were delighted and the queen had a tear of joy in her eye. The king said, “About time too, you two!” He chuckled and went over to sit in the study and called Tamura to go in with him. Once the two were seated, he said to him, “Tamura, I have always been fond of you and have treated you like a son. You work hard and you have not let yourself down where my daughter is concerned, you have kept yourselves pure until you marry and I have great respect for you in that. So it gives me the greatest pleasure to have you as my son-in-law. When are you planning the big day for then?”
Tamura said, “Well, we have not gone that far yet, but as soon as you approve, we are to agree on a convenient day for everyone. We really don’t have anything to wait for now. I just need time to speak to my people to come and do the formalities before we proceed.”
“Good idea, my son, as you know I will wait to hear from your people and then we can get the ball rolling. I am here to support you emotionally and financially because I want my only daughter to have the best day of her life ever!”
“Very well, dear King, I will keep you informed,” said Tamura as he rose up to leave. As he passed by the lounge, there was excitement and chattering of Leona and her mother discussing what they were going to do for the wedding. Tamura knew better not to interrupt the two women and slipped out to his house. He knew Leona would come over later to bid him goodnight as was their custom not to sleep without seeing each other first. The pair was like peas in a pod, but Tamura had to put his job first and steal moments with Leona when he could.
Chapter 27
Elsewhere in Huru, Mabige and the Hagas were busy planning and preparing for Beko’s bride prize since she accepted Mabige’s proposal of marriage. Mabige had had to work extra hard on the farm and
