Chapter 62

Chapter One Hundred Twenty Two: The Letter

Kushi sat in the swing her father had made for them in the garden, hung from the single sturdy tree that stood in Buaji's courtyard front.

It was Payal's turn to push her.

"Higher!" cried Kushi amidst her non-stop giggles, "Higher, Jiji! Push me higher!"

"You'll kiss the sky if I push you any higher," said Payal, puffing with the strain in pushing her sister 'higher'.

Passing by, Ram looked over the tiny white fence and smiled, seeing them at play. Kushi and Payal brought the swing to a stop and told him to give the game a try.

At first, he was scared and shook his head, preparing to run back home, but the girls caught him and persuaded him to ride it.

However, he was not willing to ride alone so Payal offered to sit him on her lap as they swung. Kushi volunteered to push them and she was swinging them so when a messenger came that way and called to her.

Leaving Payal to man the swing herself, Kushi walked up to the man who handed her a letter saying it was from the Castle and then he bowed and left.

Worried, she opened it up hastily, and astonishingly, found a letter inside, quilled in Lady Lavanya's writing. While Payal and Ram played happily in the milieu, Kushi stood there, by the fence, and read the letter.

To the youngest Gupta, currently residing in the South Village, who is my dear friend:

Kushi,

As far as you are aware of my standards, you will already have guessed this to be my first informal letter. All my life, I have only written letters of business under my father's instructions and, now, to write one that needs to be scripted not from the head but from the heart is indeed a new feat for me.

But I must say, this excites me: the thought that I can write what I choose to speak and sometimes choose not to speak too.

I know that when you see that the letter is from me, you may fear if it is news of my departure. I will, hence, appease your mind with the intention that this letter has nothing to do with mentioning my departure but with what happened when I had confronted ASR a second time with the prospect of marriage.

This time, instead of privately in the garden, it was employed in the living room with his family as witness to our verbal exchange, so as to weigh the rights and wrongs better. However, just as how I have been fascinated by the demanding lordliness of ASR, I have currently come to hate it too because I realise now that he speaks from only stubborn pride.

Coldly, through his silence and his words, he showed that he had no intentions of turning warm for me and, hence, I am left with no choice but to leave with my dignity intact. You taught this to me in a surprising way. I, who am equal to him in wealth and fame, yearned for him to notice me even in his aloofness, while you, wealthy not in coins but in heart, chose to spite him for his ego.

I will tell you this, Kushi. And I will tell this to you alone. I loved him. And I still love him. It aches when I look at him and tell him that I want nothing more to do with him. I do not know when I let my fascination to shape into love but I know it is love because I am willing to try anything to get him to want me. I am willing even to abandon the wealth and inheritance of my father, I realise shockingly. Yes, Kushi. I love him. I have fallen in love with a man who does not need me. This heart of mine, loving those who will not love me in return. My father, ASR……

But you, Kushi. You always loved me. You seeped through the grey fog of my unloved heart. I sorely miss you dear friend and not just me, but many others here as well.

I wrote this letter most importantly not just for me but for Lady Anjali as well.

Didn't I tell you that last night we had a talk at the Castle over the marriage matter in the presence of the Raizada family?

Apparently something in ASR's words hurt his sister more than they hurt me, for while I stood there wounded and angered, Lady Anjali (in her attempts to make him apologize to me) fainted!

Ah, yes. She fainted, dear friend. And we were all shocked. But more shocked than us was the man who we supposed was the reason for the fainting.

Before we had even reached her, he had lifted her up in his arms and carried her to her room. Watching him lift her tenderly and then convey her to her room, I realised that if he could love another woman the way he loves his sister……..Well, I suppose no woman will ever know what he loves like……

We shall not stray from what I speak for I know you must be on the toes of your impatience, wanting to know if Lady Anjali is well. She is.

While we all crowded around Lady Anjali's bed and ASR kept barking orders to the servants as he sat beside where she lay, one hand of hers held in his hand, it was Nani who commanded all of them to not worry or run about for anything.

I am certain ASR would have picked up a fight with his Nani but she was already tending to her granddaughter.

Well, I had planned to leave that night itself, as soon as Lady Anjali was better, but when she awoke, she insisted that I stay till the ceremony was over and so I am to stay at the Castle for a week more after which I must forever part from the man I vainly fell in love with.

Oh. I didn't tell you what the ceremony was about, did I? Well, the wise Nani looked up from her unconscious granddaughter's face, looked at all our terrified faces, and with tears in her eyes, she whispered with emotion, "I am going to be a great-grandmother at last!"

Hoping to see you one last time before I part, your friend, Lavanya Keshab.

Kushi stared at the last lines, wide-eyed and then her face beamed with utter delight. She turned about and raced to her sister, "Jiji! Listen! Lady Anjali is with child! Lady Anjali is with child!"

Payal stopped swinging and stood up, smiling, "Is she? Oh, the blessed woman!"

Kushi could not bottle her excitement and rushed into the house, yelling through the kitchen and backyard that Lady Anjali was with child.

It didn't stop there. She then raced out of the house and down the street, greeting neighbours with a joyous, Lady Anjali is with child!

News spread like wild fire throughout Arhasia and all the people rejoiced at the thought of the news.

"She's a sweet woman, I have heard," said an elderly man in the North Village to his visitors.

"And it is such a good sign: she is to have a child to give her love to," said his wife, as she served them tea.

Some women where washing clothes by the river near the South Village and they, too, spoke on this refrain.

"I tell you, this child will be special, coming from a good-hearted mother," said a woman.

"We have never seen the lady herself but I've heard she's beautiful and is the apple of the eye of her brothers and her husband."

"Isn't her husband in the army?" asked a curious third woman.

"So I've heard," said the second, "He will certainly be overjoyed when he hears the news!"

"A child in the Castle," said a man, elsewhere, driving a horse cart, to his travelling companions, "It's a sign that good days are to come."

"The Master is a haughty one," said Mia, the Industry worker, as she sat before the huge fireplace in the Rear Room alongwith the other labourers while they drank their soup, "But do you suppose the coming of a child will make him kinder? At least considering it's his sister's child!"

All of Arhasia was exultant over the news but the joy of young Kushi cannot be described. She did her house work with careless attention, and kept telling day in and day out how she wished she could go to the Castle and see the lady for herself.

I am sorry I was late in keeping the promise of my update on time. I will try not to disappoint you all again but it's just that I am a little caught up in life presently. Will PM when I update. And I will update soon though I cannot tell a date as of now. Miss you all my dears. Take care of the Inn and Cottage when I am not there……

INDEX