When Por Rueng and Por Rit reached 8 years old, Khun P’ decided that they had enough of only playing everyday, and arranged for them to start their education under the tutoring of one of the best teachers in Ayutthaya. The teacher was the teacher of Luang Sorasak’s sons, of which in the future the eldest would be king.

Khun P’ felt very triumphant in securing this master’s time. He was willing to part with a significant amount of money every year for his sons’ education. As he did in his childhood and younger years, he made a schedule of three days a week of studying for his sons. The master would teach the princes in the other three days.

In their first year, Por Rueng and Por Rit would learn reading and writing, simple counting, and basic moral concepts incorporated in stories told by the master.

Karakade celebrated the good luck of having this terrific master as the teacher of their children, but was horrified when he would only teach the twins, and not their 6 years old daughter, Mae Kaew.

“Why can’t Mae Kaew learn with the twins? Can you not afford the fee of tutoring 3 children?”

Khun P’ was a bit annoyed at the question. “Of course I can. But what for? No one in Ayutthaya calls a teacher for their daughter”

Karakade was shocked, “Why not?”

“...........because daughters are intended to be wives and mothers, not the foundation of a country.”

“I think a wife supports her husband, and a mother is the first teacher of her children. If that’s not the foundation of a country, I don’t know what is!”

“Mae Karakade, let’s not fight over this. Please.”

“How can I not? I will fight for equal rights for my daughter! There’s got to be emancipation in this house!”

“Or jao, what’s “emancipation”?”

Karakade huffed at that.

“Khun P’ jao ka,” she tried in a sweet tone, “Our sons would be so enlightened by the master. They might even be able to say that they had the same master as the king in the future. And are you going to ignore your Mae Kaew and let her know nothing?”

“I thought you would be the one teaching her to read and write when she’s of age. You don’t want to?”

“It’s not that I don’t want to, but that master has got to be more brilliant than me.”

“But every mother in Ayutthaya does that! Teaching their daughter reading, writing and simple counting. Like Mae Janward does for her daughter.”

“I am not Mae Janward” Karakade replied in an icy tone. “If I were her, I would ask my daughter to join the tutoring too.”

“Let’s end this discussion. I will not hear more of this. You’ve done enough strange things as it is. I will not have this family be the talk of the town again for letting my daughter join the tutoring of her brothers.”

Karakade was speechless for a moment, before she took a deep breath and fired words with all her might, “Are you going to let your sons be smart and your daughter be stupid, Khun P’? Is that it?”

“Mae Kaew will never be stupid, or jao, we both know she’s smart. Maybe even smarter than our sons.”

“Then? Why won’t you let her study?”

“Because she’s a girl, or jao. She would never be a merchant or a court official. There’s no need to give her a high education. She should just enjoy her childhood and youth.”

“In the world where I came from today would be 2026. If Mae Kaew were born at my time, she would even get a post graduate degree! This era is so hard!”

“..........Mae Karakade, I don’t understand what you’re talking about” Khun P interjected warily.

Karakade waved her hand, “You wouldn’t understand anyway. And worse than that, you wouldn’t even WANT to understand!”

That night, Karakade slept with her back facing Khun P’. When he tried to hug her, she snapped his hand away.

************************************************

Por Rueng and Por Rit was scheduled to study for half a day, with a snack break in between. Mae Kaew, who was used to go everywhere and play all day with her brothers, was surprised that she couldn’t follow inside her mother’s old bedroom – where the study room was set.

Her maids tried to humor her with playing hide and seek and hopscotch with her, or going out to the garden to see butterflies – her favourite thing to do. But she asked “why can’t I go with Por Rueng and Por Rit? What are they doing?” every ten minutes.

After two hours, Mae Kaew felt very lonely and sad, so she began crying.

Her maids brought her to Karakade, who then tried to explain that her brothers were studying and could not be disturbed.

“I want to study too! I want to be with them!”

“I will teach you to read and write, hm? We can do it now, if you want”

“No!” she wailed, “I want to be with with them! Why can’t I? Mother don’t love me?”

“Mother loves you most, Mae Kaew.....”

“Then Father don’t love me!”

“Your father loves you very much too....”

“Then why can’t I play with them?”

“Mae Kaew.....they’re not playing, they’re—“

Before Karakade finished talking, Mae Kaew dashed outside, and arrived at her brother’s study room.

“Por Rueng, Por Rit! Let me in! Let me innnnnn!” she banged the doors while crying, until Karakade scooped her up and said, “Forgive us for disturbing, Master. Please continue.”

She then carried a writhing and nearly hysterical Mae Kaew away.

Mae Kaew was a lovely child who was always obedient to her parents and brothers. She rarely ever had a tantrum. Usually she only cried when she was sick.

But that day she really went into a full blown tantrum, crying so hard until the whole house heard and was asking what was happening to Mae Kaew.

Karakade tried to give her favourite snacks. Gave her mango water that she usually loved. Carried her around like she was still a baby. But it didn’t work. Mae Kaew felt it was all very unfair. She was angry and sad for being separated with her brothers for the first time in her life.

The only thing Karakade could do was carrying her little girl at the pier, to make her cries less disturbing for everyone in the house.

Mae Kaew hugged her neck with her little arms and her back with her little legs. And wailed away.

Karakade felt she could be deaf with all the screaming, so close to her ears, but she let her daughter cried.

After crying her lungs out, Mae Kaew finally got sleepy and fell asleep.

Khun P’ found mother and daughter at the pier when he arrived back from Lavo. Mae Kaew was sleeping and Karakade was glaring at him.

“This is the first time I hate you since I married you, Khun P’. You broke my daughter’s heart.”

With that, she walked away, carrying the sleeping child in her arms.

Khun P’ sighed.

“Or jao, she’s my daughter too.......”

*************************************************

Mae Kaew got fever by the evening, refusing to eat anything. When she saw her father, she cried even harder, and refusing when he tried to feed her some rice with soup. Mae Kaew might be very young, but she knew that the only one who could forbid her to study with her brothers must be her father.

Finally, the one that could make Mae Kaew ate some dinner and later drank her medicine was Por Rueng, feeding her slowly while saying that the studying session with the master was not that fun. Playing was more fun. A lot more fun.

“You’re saying that just so I won’t be sad” Mae Kaew reprimanded with teary eyes.

“If you study with us, you’ll easily beat us” Por Rit said, patting his sister’s leg, which was hot from fever.

The twins were allowed to sleep late because Mae Kaew cried again when it was their bed time. So they stayed until she fell asleep.

*************************************************

There was a bigger problem Khun P’ needed to handle. The mother of his children. With complex situation, Karakade had decided on a drastic measure. She refused to eat or drink anything until Khun P’ decided to let Mae Kaew study with her brothers.

When Karakade decided on something, she would stubbornly get on with it till the very end. P’Pin and P’ Yam tried to sneak in some water and sticky rice, but she really refused to have them at all.

Mae Kaew was still having a fever and because her favourite grandchild was ill, Grandma Jumpa couldn’t stop crying and had no appetite to eat anything either.

The whole house was in a chaos, and Khun P’ decided to skip on the meeting he was supposed to have with Luang Sorasak, Kosa Ban and Luang Rueng. It was an important meeting, so the three men decided to visit him at his house instead.

When Khun P’ told them what was going on in his house, they laughed and pitied him.

Luang Sorasak also had daughters. Luang Rueng had one. And Kosa Ban had dozens of them, thanks to his 22 wives. But none of them got tutored by a master. They were all only taught how to read, write and do simple counting. Some even refused to learn anything at all and were allowed.

“It’s really rare for a daughter to ask permission to study at all” Kosa Ban commented.

“It’s because the daughter’s mother is unusual since the beginning. She influences her daughter” Luang Sorasak added.

“Is she really refusing to eat and drink anything?” Luang Rueng asked.

Khun P’ nodded miserably.

“This is unthinkable. What if Mae Kaew asked to go to war in the future? Then what would I do?”

They all laughed at that.

“Don’t think too much. I guess she doesn’t really want the studying, she just doesn’t want to get separated with her brothers” Kosa Ban said.

“But if Por Date allows Mae Kaew to study what his sons do, other daughters would start to demand the same” Luang Sarasak replied thoughtfully.

“........is it that bad to have smart daughters?” Luang Rueng asked.

“They would be harder to manage........they would become disobedient” Kosa Ban answered.

Their meeting that afternoon ended up speaking about daughters’ rights more than politics, and Khun P’ sent his friends away with a heavier heart than before.

**************************************************

Karakade had refused to sleep in Khun P’s room and chose to sleep in her old bedroom. Khun P’ came several times to coax her to eat something or drink water, but Karakade would only say, “Are you allowing my daughter to study?”

Everytime Khun P’ couldn’t give an answer, she would just close her eyes and refused to see her husband again.

On the second day of Karakade’s fasting, the twins had a studying session with the master again (this time in Khun P’s room, to be undisturbed), and Mae Kaew cried until she coughed a lot and threw up.

Grandma Jumpa sobbed seeing all of this, hugging Mae Kaew on her lap.

Khun P’ was finding it hard to focus at Lavo that day, and felt even more depressed with everything when he was home.

He carried Mae Kaew and brought his sons to see their mother in the evening.

She hadn’t had anything for almost two full days, and was having no energy, looking very pale.

“Or jao, I allow Mae Kaew to study with the twins” Khun P’ finally said.

Mae Kaew cheered and hugged him tightly, kissing both his cheeks.

Khun P’ then put her down, “Go play with your brothers outside. I need to talk with your mother.”

“You’re really letting my daughter to study with the master?” Karakade asked, her voice was a mere dry croak.

“Our daughter, or jao. She’s not only yours. She’s mine too.”

“It’s hard to remember that these past three days” she said, facing the ceiling.

Khun P’ sat on the bed and reached for her chin, making her faced him.

“Your words hurt me so much, or jao.”

That made Karakade shed tears.

“It’s your own fault.”

“Am I wrong, for only doing what every other father does in Ayutthaya?”

“Yes. Yes if it means robbing my daughter the rights for education.”

“Well, I’m finally allowing her. Can you stop being angry?”

Karakade wiped her tears silently.

“You really will let Mae Kaew learn everything the twins study?”

“Everything except fighting skills.”

“..........it would be a good idea to learn how to defend herself. Girls in my time do it. I can even—“

“Before saying more, can you eat something already? You have no energy at all.”

Karakade sighed and let herself be helped to a sitting position as Khun P’ fed her porridge and helped her to drink glasses of water.

Once she was done, she leant tiredly to the wooden frame.

“This is exhausting.”

“You’re the one who decided on a hunger strike.”

“You’re the one who made me angry.”

But though her tone was sharp, her hand weakly reached for his, and he held back tightly.

*******************************************************

The Master was surprised to find that he would have to teach another child in the house, a daughter, even. It was the first time in his life teaching a little girl, but Khun P’ ordered so, so he couldn’t refuse.

He already said to Khun P’ that there would be consequences, but Khun P’ said he would bear it. He only wanted his family to be happy, and as long as it’s not a sin, he would let them have what they wanted.

To the master’s delight, he found Mae Kaew a brilliant student. She’s someone who could remember something only by listening to it once. When he gave a test at the end of the month, Mae Kaew got everything correctly, a little better than Por Rit.

With such brilliance, the study sessions went smoothly.

In the future, Por Rit would become a court official like his father.

Por Rueng didn’t like to study much, and only made it averagely in his education, but he was fond of martial arts and excelled in it. In the future, he would join the army, and stepped up until he became a general.

Mae Kaew easily grew up to be a very well-educated lady. The consequence of her high education was that she shared it with any girl she knew, who were willing to study.

At first, she started to teach Mae Janward’s daughter, then the servants’ children in the house.

It created another conflict in the house, and later at the neighbourhood.

But this time, when Mae Kaew was forbidden to teach the servants’ children, she went on a hunger strike for three whole days.

Khun P’ relented again.

At ten years old, Mae Kaew had a mini school at her house, teaching her friends and servant’s children of the house.

When she was fifteen years old, she wrote a poem of her country that got her a prize from the king. She became really famous as The Smart Lady of Ayutthaya.

Young men gave her flower chains when she went to the market or the temple with her family. Khun P’ would throw everything away to the river afterwards, pretending not to see Karakade’s glares at him.

When she was twelve years old, she began learning French and English with her brothers. She was gifted with the ability to learn both very well, making her Por Rit’s official translator in the future.

With such children, Khun P’ and Karakade were spoken as one of the luckiest couples in Ayutthaya.

But they got even luckier.

Karakade’s stubbornness despite being a mother of three strangely made Khun P’ loved her even more, making her pregnant for the third time.

After having Mae Kaew, they thought they had everything they wanted already, and never thought of having another child.

However, Karakade fainted one day at the market on one very hot day, making everyone panicked. She was then brought to a physician, who declared she was pregnant.

The news was welcomed by everyone with shock and happiness, especially Khun P’.

When the twins were nine years old and Mae Kaew was seven years old, they welcomed the youngest member to their family, a very cute baby girl they named Mae Prang.

She quickly became the darling of the house, and especially for her father.

But that’s another story to tell J

***************************************************

Author’s Note:

I’m Pope and Bella deprived.

I need to see them in one frame again.

Since that’s not happening these days, I made another fic to appease my deprived heart and eyes.

I hope you like it!