MARRYING A PRINCESS

Chapter 1

Meeting A Princess

Bob was the second son of one of the richest industrialists in Koltron City.

He attended an exclusive boarding school, and then one of the top engineering universities in the United States. Unfotunately, his father died before he could graduate, and the first son grabbed control of all the businesses while Bob was still abroad, completing his studies.

He had to take a few days leave from his studies to go home to his dads funeral, and to meet his granddad, the Colonel, who had actually started the business, which his dad had made into a world renowned industry.

The Colonel met him at the airport, and had him driven home by Jeeves, who had been in their employ since before Bob was born. At home, he also met his grandma, and his numerous cousins, who had all assembled at the mansion for the funeral.

The day after the funeral, his mother, Shanta said, you dad wanted you to marry into a good family, and had talks with the Prince of Kersenburg about his daughter, who was a few years younger than Bob, and quite beautiful. The Prince also wanted to meet Bob. So Shanta phoned the prince, and set up an appointment for the next day.

The next evening, at six, Jeeves drove Shanta and Bob in their Buick Electra, and went to visit the Prince's Town house in Koltron City.

The Town house was a mansion with marble floors and a high ceiling, large rooms, and two acres of gardens, where some twenty alsatians, and a few dashounds wandered around. Some of the alsatians looked quite fierce.

Shanta and Bob were announced by the butler and shown into the drawing room, where they met the Prince's niece Bella, who had married the Prince of Redland.Bob was tall and handsome, and Bella liked him at first glance. The Prince and his daughter, Irene, came in soon after. They both liked Bob's looks and his confident aura. The Prince's mother also came, and liked Bob.

They talked about how soon Bob would finish his University degree, and where be would stay after he returned to the country. Bob said he would not stay in his family's mamsion very long, but was going to build his own house at a piece of land not far from the Prince's Town House.

After chatting for an hour, Bella asked Bob, 'Why don't your mother and sisters come with you while Irene and my two daughters will accompany us to watch the latest movie being released at the Metro Cinema?

This seemed like a good opportunity to get to know Irene better, so Shanta and Bob agreed readily, I won't be accompanying them to the cinema, but my two daughters will. We will arrange tickets for Bob and Irene, Bob's two sisters and also for Bella and her two daughters.

Chapter Two.

Getting Aquainted

The next evening, Bob and his two sisters went to the Metro in their Buick, while Bella, the Princess of Redland with her two daughters and Irene went in their Rolls Royce Silver Ghost.

After snacks and some Darjeeling Tea, the group walked into the hall, where they filled the whole row of the front seats of the dress circle.

The movie was quite enjoyable, about a group of people breaking the bank at a Monte Carlo gambling house, so there was very little tking while the movie was running. After the movie, the group went to dinner at the famous Firpo's Restauraunt. Bob asked Irene what she wanted to eat, and as Irene liked Continental food, he ordered Prawn Coctails, Hamburger Steaks and Chocolate Souffle for everone.

After dinner, as they were going to their cars, four heavy-set, drunken men approached the group, seeing so many pretty women togather, one of them asked, 'Are any of you young ladies interested in making some quick money?'

Bella and Irene looked shocke and a bit scared, Bella's daughters were even more scared, as they had not thought to bring bodyguards with them. Bob was not scared, though. He looked at the men coldly, and told them to get lost! This made the men angry, and the largest one grabbed Irene's hand, while the others moved towards Chris, Bob's sister, Bella, and Madeline, Bella's eldest daughter. Bob immediately chopped the aggressors wrist, and kneed him in the groin, and he collapsed to the ground, clutchin his nether parts

After dealing with the first man, he quickly punched the second man in the adams apple, and at the same time kicked the third man in the face, and the lsst man in the solar plexis. All four were now writhing in pain. Bob looked at them coldly and said, 'The next man who misbehaves with these women will also have their hands and legs broken!

Let's not waste our time reporting this little matter to the police, and lets get out of here before these goons recover, he said. He then escorted Irene, Bella and and her daughters to their Rolls Royce, before taking his sisters to their Buick, and driving home, without further incident.

Before leaving, Bob told Irene that he would be returning to the United States tomorrow afternoon, and asked if she would be interrested in keeping in touch with him, during the three months left until he compled his engeneering course.

Chapter Three

Back in the States.

The next morning, Bob boarded the Air France flight to Kennedy Airport, New York, travelling first class. He then took a connecting American Airlines flight to San Francisco, then a helicopter to the East Bay, and a limosine to the appartment, which he shared with his room mate, Marc.

The next evening, he got a phone call from Julie, his elder brother's ex-girl friend, saying that she was in town, and would he like to show her around town? Bob agreed.

The following morning, Bob got into Marc's Caddilac Skylark, with Marc and his girl friend Jean, and went to pick up Julie from the Sheraton Hotel. They then drove to Sau Salito beach, across the bay from San Frncisco.

Sau Salito was a pebble beach, not far from the Golden Gate Bridge, from where you could see both the San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The waves were not lage enough for surfing, but the swell was pretty enough. All four of them changed into their swimsuits and jumped into the waves and splashed around. A half hour in the water and then to their beach towels, to laze in the sun. A half hour in the sand, and all four had their skins tanned a bright orange! Before getting truly sunburned, they got out of the sun and went to a Pizza Parlour for a Pizza, Coke and Ice Cream.

After lunch, they crossed the Golden Gate, and drove around San Francisco, to see its many sites, and over the eight a half mile long Bay Bridge into Oakland and Berkely, to see s Universty which had six Nobel Lauriates on its teaching staff! First they drove past the Lawrence Livmore Laboratory, which was famous, but not very attractive, though the rest of the campus of the University of California was quite beautiful!

In the evening, they went to North Beach, to enjoy its lively entertainment clubs and cabarets, until three in the morning, before dropping Julie off at the Sheraton, for a few hours sleep before talking the morning flight to New York.

Bob did not get much sleep that night. As he had a History assignment to complete in two days time. He did not get much sleep for the next two nights either. He spent much of the day in the University Library to research his assignment, and the first night revising and cross checking his work. The second day was also spent at the Library, untill he felt he was ready. He spent the night typing out his paper, which he managed to comete by 6a.m. but had to be submitted at his History Class at ten in the morning. Now all that remained was the completion of his Chemical Engineering project, which had to be completed within the month and a half.

At next weeks History class, he was pleased to learn that he had earned an A+ for his History paper. These were the days before the advent of the cell phone, so a long distance call home involved booking a call at the telephone exchange, and then waiting about 30 minutes to an hour, before the call came through. It was, therefore, not possible for him to make a call home more than once a week.

When he called Irene, after his History Paper, he asked her how her studies were going? She had completed her Bachelors Degree in Chemistry, and was now doing her Masters in Biochemistry.

Bob had recently attended the Campus Recruiting Camp, and got a few job offers, so he asked Irene if she would like to come over to America to marry him.

Irene replied, ' I have just met you for that one day, and I still have not completed my Masters Degree. Why don't you wait till I complete my studies?'

Apparently, Irene liked him, but not enough to give up everything just to be with him. This was not unjustified, so Bob decided t⁷o complete his Engeneering course and go back home, for a big, fat Koltron style wedding.

* * * * * *

There was a girl called Rita, whoom Bob had dated a few times before his father died. One day, she called him to ask him to take her out to see a ballet show, as a Russian Ballet group was in town. Bob had never seen a ballet show before, so he readily agreed.

During the show, Rita held his arm tightly and snuggled into him. making him uncomfortable. So, after the show, and after dropping her to her home, Bob told her he had recently got engaged, and would not be seeing her again. Rita cried a lot, and tried to kiss him, but he avoided the kiss, and then drove back to his appartment.

The next day, Rita called him five times. She called him fifteen times the follwing day, and even more often the next day. Bob couldn't take it any longer, and called the police to report the harrassment! He then gave up his phone, and got a new phone with a new phone number, so that Rita could not disturb his studies.

* * *

Two months later, the University held its convocation. Mark graduated Summa cum Laude, while Bob graduated Cum Laude. Since his mother could not attend, He asked his friend Toni to accompny Mark's girl friend to the convocation.

Thd ceremony was long and impressive. After the ceremony, Marc, Bob and the two girls went to a Pub to celebrate. Since Bob would be returning to Koltron the follwing day, they hugged each other and said their good byes.

Chapter Four

Returning Home.

Bob booked a Pan Am flight to Koltron, via London. The flight lasted over 24 hours, so he was dead tired when he reached the Genuli mansion. He was much too tired to pay much attention to the strange atmosphere at home, but went to his room and went straight into a deep sleep.

The next morning, he handed over the cosmetics he had purchased in New York and Paris to his mother. The Prince, his prospective farther-in-law also sent his Master Tailor to take his measurements for some suits and a Tuxedo. He also came olver in person, that afternoon to accompany him personally, to accompany him personally, to his favourite Chinese shoe shop.

The next few days were hectic, as his mother and elder sister in law accompanied him th various dress makers and clothing stores to buy an extravagant bridal treusseau for Irene. Having learnt that her favourite colours were orange and blue, many dresses also had to be purchased.

The Black Buick Electra was decorated with white roses for the auspicious occasion, A 16 carat bright, clear green emerald ring, surrounded by half carat diamonds was chosen as the engagement ring, and an emerald tiara and an emerald single line necklace, with matching emerald ear rings were also chosen for the bride.

After a frugal breakfast of Yogurt, the groom had to fast all day long, until the wedding, which was scheduled for 2.00 a.m. the next morning. At 7 in the evening, the grooms procession of about 100 close relatives proceeded on the three hour car journey

to the Palace at Kersenberg, where the wedding was to take place.

On reaching the palace, Bob was asked to sit on a padded wooden throne, at a banquet hall, where Bella, her husband Berne, and their two daughters, took turns to introduce Bob to the nobles of the kingdom and the guests, of whoom there were more than a thousand.

After a few hours of introductions, Bob found himself bored and sleepy, not to mention hungry and thirsty.

By one o'clock, most of the guests had had dinner and left. Only a hundred or so of the closest relatives and friends on the brides side were left. Now was the time for the wedding, conducted by the head priest of the kingdom. The groom standing, with ths bride, her face by a veil, sitting on a platform, rire carried by four strong uncles.The bride lifts her veil and Bob and Irene gaze at each other. The couple then sit down side by side, in front of the wedding fire, wbe tbe priest recites the wedding prayetd and which the couple repeat. The father of the bride hands over his daughter to the groom. The bride and groom encircle the fire seven times and the groom vows to feed, clothe and house the bride for as long as they live.

After they were finally allowed to eat and drink, but with the long fast they have lost their appetite. After a frugal meal, they are taken a parlour, along with the close relatives who do their best to entertain them, to keep them awake till the next sunrise.

Early next morning, Bob's uncle and cousin, who had also spent the night at the palace, took Bob and Irene to the car, for the long drive home, to a tearfull farewell from her parents and cousins.

Chapter Five.

Working as an Employee.

Since the Genuli Group Indudtries were controlled by his older brother Tom, Bob thought he had no choice but to join in a position under him, as Purchase Manager.

Of course, being Purchase Manager of such a huge group, was quite a respectable job, but his monthly salary was only a hundred dollars(though a hundred dollars in those days went a lot further than a hundred dollars today!) Of this, he wanted to give half to his mother Shanta as his share of the family expenses, but Shanta said, 'This is not enough to pay even the cleaning woman's wages! You will need all of your meagre salary to buy things for your wife!'

Bob was given his own cabin as the Purchase Manager, right next to the Chairmans Cbambers, and the Assistant Manager would come to meet him daily to discuss steel and chemical requirements, and the Finance Manager would meet him to discuss the available finance, and how much could be set aside for purchases, and how much could be set aside for wage payments and taxes and other statuatory liabilities.

The purchase of steel was entirely on a government quota, and some of the chemicals also had to be purchased against quotas, so the purchase procedeure was quite complicated. As the steel and chemicals, after purchase, were mortgaged to the corporate bankers, there was a complicated procedure to release the raw materials for consumtion by the factories.

After a week or so, he found that the profuction of the factories was below the level for the ammount of raw materials sent. Apparently, some of the materials were being diverted on the way to the factory, and being sold in the market.

Bob learnt that a Central Bureau of Investigation team had been set up to investigate the misuse of quota materials. Tom called Bob to his office and gave him the address of the Investigation Officer and asked to pick him up from his home and take him for a tour of the factories, which he did.

Now Bob was not a man for small talk, so he remained silent during the drive. To fill in the silence, the oficer told Bob about his son who was a budding artist, just graduated from the Art School, and was looking for contracts for artwork.

The inspection was carried out rather hastily, and in a few hours time, the inspector was dropped back to his home. Ten days later, there was a new artwork hung up on the wall of the main banquet hall of the Genuli Mansion, and, needless to say, the CBI gave a report exonerating the group of any misuse of government quotas! However, the factories continued to recieve less than the allotted quantities of steel and chemicals. Production continued to be below optimum, and Tom's Swiss Bank account got fatter and fatter!

As a responsible Purchase Manager, Bob wanted to help increase the production and increase corporate profits, but how? The obvious solution would be to incresse supplies to cover for the losses of the supplies being removed to be sold in the market. But the ammount of steel and chemicals being removed from the supply chain was just too large!

Next week, Bob increased supplies to the factoty by 5%. Factory production increased for 2 days, but on the 3rd day, Sam Rey, the man who bought the scrap metals generated at the factory viisited Bob's office, and thanked him for increasing scrap supplies by 5%, and asked him if he could increase it by a further 5%? 'No!' said Bob. From then on, be supplied only the requisitioned materials to the plants.

For his hard work, Tom called him to the Chairmans Chamber and gave him a scolding for disrupting yhe groups finances. He did not defend himself, because if Tom was removing steel and chemicals purchased for the company, and selling them in the market, to enlarge his Swiss Bank account, that did not ammount to disrupting the companies finances.

That evening, Bob had a detailed discussion with Irene about the Companies finances, and his future in the Group. Irene had her own problems, and felt that Shanta's mother Shirley, the Colonel's wife did not like her. Now, Shirly was a cantankerous old woman, who hàd lived apart from her husband for almost 30 years. She used to live, alone, at the Chairman's Lodge at the main factory, and had only recently come to live with her only daughter, while the colonel lived at an orphanage started by him, at a small village near the Kersenberg border. She was very traditional, while Irene was a modern, efucated girl. It was entirely possible that the two of them did not get olong.

However, putting aside her problems, after discussions, Irene felt that finances of the Genuli Group was not good, and would only get worse, with so much of its resources being diverted. She felt Bob should leave the Genuli group and get a job elsewhere.

For the next few weeks, Bob scanned the Situations Vaccant Ads in the papers and sent out hundreds of application letters. Because of his excellent qualifications, he was called for many interviews, but the salaries offered were not addquate to cover an appropriate appartment and a decent living standard, because, although his salary as Purchase Manager at the Genuli Group was ridiculously low, he was getting free food and lodging, and he would have leave tbe mansion if he took a job elsewhere.

Finally, he decided to call on his uncle Paul, who was President of a small subsidiary of the Genuli Group, manufacturing raw materals for other industries in the same line of business. This was a subsidiary set up by his father to compete with a Fortune 500 company that had started business in the country a few years ago, but was doing a very slow business.