Chapter 85

This chapter is dedicated to Aura. My dear Aurakins, I am gifting you this chapter not because you loved the way I created my Lady Lavanya and not because of how this scene reflects a memory, but because YOU are my Lady Lavanya, reaching out your hand when I am kneeling in the dark, lost before the unmoving rosebush of my life……….

Chapter One Hundred Fifty One: Changed Cores and Parting Words

Lord Akash joined his brother in the waiting carriage shortly and OmPrakash rode them away to the Castle through the rain.

All the guests had been long dispersed by the time the two men walked into the Castle. After handing their wet coats to Rahim Chacha at the door and while being pampered by Lady Manorama and their Di and badgered by Nani's questions to which Lord Akash gave the answers, Lord Manohar stood there, witnessing all this and when a pause fell, he addressed Lord Arnav, "Bitwa, in case you may want to know, Lady La has left."

"What?" Lord Arnav and Lord Akash looked at Lord Manohar.

"She had promised to stay only till tonight, remember?" Nani said, looking at her grandson, "You had clearly showed you had no more need for her. She was remaining here against her will but stayed back only for the sake of our Anjali bitiya's happiness."

The two of them were still in the living room when this was said, and then suddenly, without another word, Lord Arnav turned on his heels and rushed for the central doors again, not heeding to his sister's call as to where he was going.

"Master?" Rahim Chacha asked concernedly, seeing his Master run into the rain, still dressed in his dripping dark pants and boots and his wet indigo shirt, the top few buttons of which were unfastened in Lady Anjali's attempt to remove the wet shirt in fear he may catch a cold.

But Lord Arnav didn't look back and raced straight for the stable where, without saddling his horse, he simply yelled into the darkness, "Shadow!" and the horse stepped out of the stall and waited as his Master swiftly climbed atop his smooth back.

Lord Arnav gripped his horse's dark mane and leaned forward, his eyes on the open sable door, "We need to catch with that carriage which will still be on the Road!"

With an affirming grunt, the horse was out of the stable, racing over the garden through the rain, as thunder and lightning shot across the sky.

By the time they had crossed the hillside, raced over the valley and taken the short cut through the forest to the Road, both horse and rider were wet and weary.

They were still riding determinedly, when Lord Arnav squinted through the rain and spotted something dark moving in the distance and with a feet's nudge to his horse's side, he had steered Shadow's focus towards their nearing target.

They had almost reached the carriage, Shadow's strong legs trotting through the thick rain and splashing water furiously as he raced on, but the carriage was not stopping so Lord Arnav forced his horse further ahead and slid to the front of the carriage, bringing the carriage to a sudden halt.

Lord Arnav got down from his horse and, ignoring the surprised carriage-driver, he walked to the carriage door and yanked it open.

A well-dressed, hat-donned Lady Lavanya stared at him, looking up from the paper she was writing on.

"ASR?" she was astonished.

He climbed into the carriage and shut the door, sitting opposite her.

He leaned forward, the drops from his hair falling on her paper and earning a hissing "Careful!" from her.

But he didn't care, and got straight to the matter, "What are you doing, Lavanya?"

"What do you mean what I am doing?" Lady Lavanya looked at him from under her hat's rim.

"Are you running away?"

"I am going home," she stated simply.

He was silent as he studied the dark carriage floor for a while and then when he looked up, she was surprised to see the warmth in his gaze, "It was not meant to happen this way. It didn't have to."

"Everything that happened is over and we cannot change anything," sighed Lady Lavanya, and then she smiled, "The future, however, is yet to happen."

Lord Arnav sat there, fidgeting with his fingers, dripping the wetness of his form onto the seat he was on. "You dragged yourself into my life for nothing," he confessed remorsefully, looking at the floor again.

Lady Lavanya was moved, and her voice was gentle, "No, ASR. I learnt a lot when I came to the Castle." He looked up confusedly and she explained, "Though I came for your love, I leave now feeling loved by worthier people."

He nodded absent-mindedly and then sighed, "I could never love you. And you knew that from the first day you met me."

"I suppose I did," said Lady Lavanya, "Only I was too blind to accept the truth that merely pained."

"So we part?" he looked at her, the drops at the end of his hair, that was fallen on his forehead, slipping down his face.

"We part," she smiled, "But in good terms. As friends."

He nodded and sighed again, "May you find happiness, Lavanya. I could have never given it to you."

"I know," said Lady Lavanya, and then she folded the paper in her hand and placing it in a thick cloth, she wrapped it up tight and handed it to him.

He stared at it and then at her.

She smiled, "This is something I want you to give to Kushi when you see her. I could not write it at the Castle because I was in a hurry to leave and my father had sent this carriage-man earlier than was expected. But now that you are here and since I have completed writing it, I would be pleased if you won't decline my last offer to you."

He looked at the wrapped object intended for Kushi and after a long pause nodded, his fingers reaching for it, accidently brushing the tips of Lady Lavanya's fingers as he took it, and then she withdrew her hand and he had tucked the object into his wet pocket.

"I've wrapped it thick so as not to get it dampened in the rain when you ride back," she explained, and then looked away, "I have written something in that letter for Aman as well which Kushi will give-"

"Aman?" Lord Arnav was surprised, "Our Aman?"

Lady Lavanya nodded with a slight smile, "You will understand when it's time. For now, we must part, and I do not want to keep the carriage waiting."

Lord Arnav nodded but didn't move as though unable to.

He looked at her one last time, and then he took her hand and kissed it on the back, "Farwell then, Lavanya. As you said, we part as friends here."

"As friends," nodded Lady Lavanya, tears filling in her eyes but Lord Arnav was already stepping out of the carriage, into the rain.

As the carriage-driver continued to ride the carriage along the Road, Lady Lavanya looked out of the window of her carriage, her hand on her hat so as not to have it fly off in the speeding wind made by the running carriage.

Her eyes squinted through the rain but there was no sign of the dark horse and its rider.

They had disappeared into the darkness just as suddenly as they had come and she shut the window and sat back in her carriage, with closed eyes, clutching to her heart the hand on which was put the ring that Master Aman gave as promise to come for her one day.

This song which I am putting here, those who pause to listen to it will hear Lady Lavanya singing it………I sincerely SUGGEST you listen if you really have the heart and time to…….. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vId_4r925o

For those who have no time or means to listen to the song, here are the lyrics of WHAT IF by Kate Winslet:

Here I stand alone
With this weight upon my heart
And it will not go away
In my head I keep on looking back
Right back to the start
Wondering what it was that made you change

Well I tried
But I had to draw the line
And still this question keeps on spinning in my mind

What if I had never let you go?
Would you be the man I used to know?
If I'd stayed
If you'd tried
If we could only turn back time
But I guess we'll never know

Many roads to take
Some to joy
Some to heart-ache
Anyone can lose their way
And if I said that we could turn it back
Right back to the start
Would you take the chance and make the change

Do you think how it would have been sometimes
Do you pray that I'd never left your side

What if I had never let you go?
Would you be the man I used to know?
If I'd stayed
If you'd tried
If we could only turn back time
But I guess we'll never know
'Cos I tried
But I had to draw the line
And still this question keeps on spinning in my mind

What if I had never let you go?
Would you be the man I used to know?
What if I had never walked away?
'Cos I still love you more than I can say
If I'd stayed
If you'd tried
If we could only turn back time
But I guess we'll never know
We'll never know

Thank you, everyone, for loving my Lavanya. This chapter is the final tribute to her. She may not appear in the future chapters 'in person' but she will always linger as a beautiful memory and a strength through words for Kushi, when hard times come upon her…..

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