Chapter 84

Chapter One Hundred Forty Nine: Tumult of Turmoils

The butler Rahim Chacha waked to the center of the ballroom and clapped his hands to catch the attention of all the assembled. All talking stopped and every eye was trained on him.

He bowed to them, "Before the ceremonial cake is cut, Second Lord Sire Akash Raizada would like to address you all."

From the flank beside the butler, Lord Akash stepped forward while, at the other side of the ballroom, Payal looked around worriedly and then silently slid through the crowd to stand with her mother and aunt who were conversing with Nani.

Just then, Kushi and Lady Lavanya walked into the ballroom and while the former came to stand beside her sister, the latter walked to where Lady Anjali sat and stood beside the armchair.

Lady Lavanya noticed Master Aman standing beside the window close to where Lord Akash stood and she saw that he was engrossed in what Lord Akash was to say.

"Thank you, Rahim Chacha," Lord Akash smiled at the butler who had bowed and left to stand by the door again, resuming his duties but watching Lord Akash as he spoke.

"On behalf of my sister Lady Anjali, my brother Lord Arnav, my Dadi Lady Mother Deviyani and my beloved family, I express my gratitude to all gathered here for your promising presence tonight. We are extremely honored by your blessings, gifts and well-wishes with regard to the happiness that is to come to our family."

He smiled around and his gaze finally came to rest on Lady Anjali who was seated in the armchair with Ram on her lap.

She smiled back at her cousin and slid a hand to her womb, as though to tell him her child was happy, too, by his words.

Lord Akash turned his attention to the crowd and Payal's heartbeat rose, her eyes looking towards where Lady Manorama and Lord Manohar stood among the crowd, watching their son at his speech. Payal blinked: was it just her worry messing with her head or did Lady Manorama look a tad bit suspicious as she watched her son through her mask?

Lord Akash's voice diverted her attention back to him and she saw him smile at his parents, "This is especially for the concern of my parents and I believe it is my duty to make a public statement of this, since every decision of the Lords of the Castle is a decision that will affect the land of Arhasia."

"So it is," Lord Manohar nodded encouragingly but Lady Manorama said nothing.

"Thank you, father," smiled Lord Akash and he addressed the gathered, "I would like to bring to your notice that I, Lord Akash, in the view that it is time I join my sister's chosen path of matrimony, would like to put forward a proposal after my heart."

He looked at his parents, around whom the crowd had moved away so that everyone could see the parents' happy expressions along with the son's.

"Father, mother," he began, smiling with a shy twinkle in his eyes, "I would like to ask the hand of a woman I love in marriage: the hand of Miss Payal Gupta."

Kushi clutched weakly at Payal's hand and Payal breathed in hard, trying to calm her racing heartbeat.

Buaji and Garima gasped in surprise, while Nani and Lady Anjali beamed with pride at Lord Aksh who stood looking at his parents expectantly.

"NO!" exclaimed his mother flatly, and the smile on his father's face froze and he looked at his wife, "Manu? Why not? It's our son's wish and we can't decide an answer until we have heard it from the girl's side."

"We don't need to hear if the girl accepts or declines," stated Lady Manorama in rising fury, frowning at her husband, "It's your example this boy follows. Letting his heart fly away while his head sleeps!" she frowned at her son, "You will make no such proposal, boy."

"Mother-" Lord Akash began but just then a voice echoed through the hall, "What is the meaning of all this, Akash?"

Lord Aksah turned like the every other person in the room to see Lord Arnav emerge through the door.

Kushi's gaze was drawn to him and she saw how tired and weary in face he looked as he moved from the shadow of the huge doors into the room lit by the chandeliers.

He walked as majestically as he always did but she could see in his eyes, he looked disturbed. Was it what happened between them that had weakened him so? Or was it something else?

He stormed into the ballroom and came to stand before Lord Akash, "What is the meaning of all this, Akash? Is it dormant insanity or mental blindness that led you to make such a statement?"

"It is neither, brother," said Lord Akash, "I proposed because I love her."

"Blasphemy!" exclaimed his mother, coming towards them. She pulled at Lord Arnav's hand, "Tell him, bitwa, tell him he speaks not from his senses! Tell him to take back his words!"

But Lord Arnav didn't move. He simply stared at his brother, and his brother locked back at him, each reading the firmness in the other's eyes and letting the truth take form.

Lord Arnav was taken aback. He let the realization sink in before replying to his aunt.

"Mami," Lord Arnav began, turning to look at his aunt, but just then Buaji stepped in, "Pardon me for intruding, my Lords and Ladies," she began after bowing to them all, and all eyes looked towards her as she looked at them respectfully, "If I may be permitted to speak, any decision of a man to marry a girl must be put forward to her father before anyone can have a say in it."

"Well, where is he, then?" asked someone from the crowd.

Garima spoke up humbly, "My husband had left the ballroom for some personal purpose and will be back soon." She looked towards the door but Rahim Chacha shook his head that there was no sign of her husband coming so far. She smiled in return, hopeful that he will come.

"Well, in that case, let the daughter speak," said a second person from the crowd.

Buaji looked over her shoulder to where Payal stood.

Holding her sister's hand, Payal looked at her aunt, at her mother and then at the man who had proposed to her, "It is not right for me to speak when my elders are here to speak for me, but in answer to what your father has told you, my lord, I wish to give an response with regard to your proposal. You already know the answer but just as you made your proposal public I would like to make my answer firm and public too."

She looked at his frowning mother, his kind father, and then looked at Lord Akash pointedly, "I admire you, my lord. More than you want me to. But until your parents and mine choose to bless our desire to unite, I shall not accept your proposal."

A great murmur ran among the assembled crowd, and as the assembled talked the matter amongst themselves, Lord Arnav's gaze was drawn to the girl standing beside Payal.

Unlike everyone, he had not watched Payal when she spoke. His gaze had fallen on Kushi's probing gaze and he realized that she had cried. The traces were not evident but he knew. His gaze slid to her neck. However, her hair let loose would not permit his gaze to satisfy its search.

When he looked into her eyes again, she was frowning and looking away, angered by the memory of his arrogance in the aftermath of what had happened in his room.

Then suddenly, the huge doors of the ballroom were pushed open and the butler was taken aback as were all the others when a dripping wet JayPrakash walked in, the slippery mess of the rain he dragged in was ignored as his pale face searched the crowd.

"There..….there is a body lying…..…" he began feebly and since the crowd was silent as they watched him, they had heard his every word. His gaze fell on the Gupta family a little distance away and he looked pointedly at Miss Kushi because she was the one he knew best in the family, "Master Gupta…..…." He tried to speak again but failed. However, his eyes and his little words had said it all.

Rain poured in torrents and lightning flashed across the merciless sky as Garima and Buaji rushed out through the garden followed by their daughters. But before Garima had reached her husband's place, Lord Arnav and Lord Akash had raced towards the lake, overlooking that they were getting drenched, and stripping off their wet masks that was hampering with their vision as they ran.

"Brother?" Lord Akash asked worriedly, when they stood beside the body of Master Gupta that was moved by JayPrakash to the side of the Castle where the rain would not wet him.

Thunder raged as Lord Arnav knelt beside the body and gently pressed his fingers to the side of his neck.

He looked up at Lord Akash through the wet hair falling over his forehead, "I can feel his vein but his pulse seems weak."

Garima and Buaji were suddenly at the scene and the wife of the fallen fell to the ground beside him, and pulled his lifeless form to her chest, "My love, what has happened to you? Why do you lie so with your eyes shut?"

Kushi and Payal crouched at the other side of their father, shocked tears on their face as they stared in disbelief at their immobile father, their hands touching his cold arms as he lay cradled against their mother's chest.

Buaji looked pale and she took her brother's hand to see if there was warmth. But the rain had wetted her brother and he was nothing but cold and she felt heartbroken.

Soon the entire Raizada family was there, but Kushi, holding Payal's hand for strength, spoke to Master Happy, "We need to leave immediately. The herbalist will not have slept in this hour hopefully."

Master Happy nodded and began to move towards the stable when Lord Arnav said, "No one needs to go."

All eyes turned to him, seeking explanation, and he nodded to the body in Garima's lap, "He is too weak to be moved about. I will make preparations for him to be laid in one of our rooms and-"

"Pardon me, Lord Raizada," interrupted a firm voice, and Lord Arnav aside to see Kushi looking fixedly at her father's face as she spoke, "We cannot let our father be nursed in your Castle. We are taking him home and since the herbalist stays closer to us, it will be easier for him to reach us too."

She looked up at him and he saw that the light in her eyes was distant.

Before he could react, she nodded to Master Happy who rushed to the stable through the rain.

Her mother was too chocked to give any response and simply remained there caressing her husband's cold cheek.

Buaji sighed and watched the family, trying to ease the grief that was gnawing at her own heart. She had lost a husband once. And her parents had succumbed to old age long ago. She looked at her brother's pale face. Would she lose her last remaining 'bond of blood' too?

A lot of people began giving suggestions but nothing changed Kushi's decision.

She did not want to stay another minute in the house where her sister had been insulted in public, where she herself had been hurt by a certain man's heartlessness and most importantly where her father had met with this unexpected turn of events.

The farther they were from this wretched place, the better.

The cart arrived just then but suddenly the motionless Lord Arnav barked over the loud thunder, "Aman, get the herbalist to come to the Gupta house!"

"He's already gone to do it," Lady Lavanya replied for Aman vacuously, and Lord Arnav nodded abstractedly, not noticing her tone, and then he looked at his brother, "Akash!"

Lord Akash was beside his brother immediately and to Kushi's amazement, Lord Arnav and Lord Aksah conjointly lifted Master Gupta from Garima's lap as the mother trembled with tears and they helped him up.

Shashi's arms were draped on either shoulder of the men, one over Lord Akash's and the other over Lord Arnav's. The two young men held one hand securely behind the elderly's man's limp back and, with their other hands, they held his arms that were draped on their shoulders.

They looked at each other and nodded when prepared and then, slowly, with the others watching, the two men lifted the father's body and carried it into the carriage, and finally, slid Master Gupta's immobile form onto one of the seats.

"There is not enough space for everyone," said Lord Akash stepping down from the carriage, followed by his brother.

"We two will get in with this carriage," said Lord Arnav, nodding his head in the direction of Master Happy's carriage and then looking at the Gupta family, "Two of you can climb in with us. Who will it be?"

His eyes were on Kushi but she was looking at her mother worriedly.

"I will not part from him," said Garima, walking towards the carriage, dripping wet. Lord Akash and Lord Arnav helped her into the carriage.

"One more," said Lord Arnav, looking again at Kushi and Lord Akash turned to look at Payal, but Buaji said, "You two girls come with the Ram. I will go with them and see to the herbalist."

Kushi nodded, knowing very well that Buaji's house required Buaji herself for anything to be done there.

Kushi looked wistfully at the carriage, tears filling her eyes and then she felt Payal quiver beside her. Kushi took her sister's hand again but said nothing.

Kushi's gaze fell on Lord Arnav who stood by the carriage, watching her and her sister and then he looked away, and climbed into the carriage after Lord Akash.

The carriage door was shut and Master Happy sadly lifted a grateful hand at the crowd and then sped his carriage away.

Kushi pulled Payal along and, after collecting their hats which the considerate Rahim Chacha brought to them outside, she popped Ram's hat on his head to not get him catch a cold and then rushed towards the gate where OmPrakash waited on a carriage, ordered by Lady Anjali.

Nani kissed Kushi on her forehead and told her that all would be fine. Lady Lavanya hugged both the girls, unable to share any words, and Lady Anjali watched longingly as she watched the girls climb into the carriage and then the door was shut and they were also riding away through the dark storm.

Rahim Chacha sighed and his gaze swept towards the sky that was ridden by lightning and thunder. He didn't notice, however, the winged creature that hovered in the dark heights, visible when a lightning flashed and vanishing again when darkness engulfed the vast nothingness.