Chapter 113

Chapter 187: The Letter from the Village

When Kushi woke up in the morning, she found herself alone in bed, her husband presumably having left for the Industry with Lord Akash, seeing that the sunlight that flitted through the drawn curtains of the window was just too bright.

She wasn't sure why but she felt extremely elated that day.

As she washed herself in the bath chamber, she recollected what had occurred last night. She had decided to let him be and had left the room to head downstairs to Lady Anjali's room, when she felt an utterly inexplicable sparseness. Her hand had remained on the handle of his door, not wanting to let go. A fierce battle ensued in her will and she finally succumbed to the weaker side of her: the side that wanted to be with him.

But as soon as she lain beside him, she had fallen fast asleep.

She wondered what must have happened in the night and how he must have reacted to her presence in his bed. There were no discernible marks on her so he had not touched her but she felt so overjoyed for no recognizable reason- as though she been loved and admired for a long time...probably at a distance.

After dressing into a new gown and doing her hair up in a pretty little bun, Kushi rushed out of the room and headed for the kitchen, greeting everyone she met jovially. Lady Anjali, who had come to the kitchen for a drink of her fruit juice, was elated to see her in her exuberance and once again discounted the prospect of asking her where she had disappeared to in the middle of the night.

Payal was not in the whereabouts for she had been asked by Lady Manorama, most grudgingly of course, to accompany the latter to the market for the purchase of a few ladies accessories. Payal had willingly volunteered this escort and Lady Anjali offered to see to that day's lunch preparations.

After having a late breakfast, Kushi was helping Lady Anjali in deciding what dessert to choose for the day, when Rahim Chacha came to the kitchen with a letter for Kushi.

"This just arrived from the South Village, my lady," bowed Rahim Chacha to Kushi and as the elderly man walked back to his post near the Castle central doors, Kushi read the writing on the envelope and recognized it instantly.

"It's Buaji's writing!" Kushi's eyes filled with tears as she looked at Lady Anjali excitedly.

Her fingers moved to tear one end of the envelope when she stopped herself, "No, Jiji will want to open it with me. I must wait."

Lady Anjali grinned, watching Kushi tuck the letter reluctantly into the pocket of her gown, "How sad! For waiting is not young Kushiji's forte!"

"It certainly isn't," Kushi admitted sadly and she knew time would drag and turn torturous if Payal didn't return soon enough while the tempting letter remained in her gown pocket.

Kushi tried to keep her mind away from the letter the whole of the day till lunchtime and busied herself in extraneous work in the garden just so she could not think of the letter that waited inches away from her reach, making her eagerness unsettled.

And then, half an hour before lunch, Kushi's waiting ears perked at the sound of the carriage arriving and she rushed towards the front of the Castle to meet Payal as the latter stepped down the carriage.

Lady Manorama had been the first to step out of the carriage, muttering, "Hello Hi! Bruised Beauty and her worthless sense of fashion! How really AM I to go with her for a ladies' party!"

Payal stepped out after Lady Manorama but the young girl seemed cheerful for, despite Lady Manorama's remark, the latter had not refrained from buying the things that Payal had chosen.

Payal had barely turned to the Castle doors, her gloved hands removing the hat off her hair, when Kushi's hand gripped at her elbow and pulled here away towards the open garden.

"Kushi! What"where are you taking me?"

"There is something I have to show you! Wait till you see it!"

"Can it not wait?" Payal grunted, her legs trying to catch up with the speeding legs of her sister, "Atleast let me have a glass of water! I've just returned after a hot day in the market!"

Kushi turned on her sister, merrily, "You won't want water when you hear what I have in my pocket here!"

Sensing something exhilarating was in the air, Payal stopped fidgeting and surrendered to her sister's surprise, "What is it? Oh do tell me, Kushi!"

Kushi took out the letter from her pocket and waved it before Pyaal's face, disabling her from reading the writing on it though she recognized it was a letter. But from whom...?

"Who is it from? Amma? Babuji?" Payal reached out a gloved hand to take the letter but Kushi moved the letter away from reach.

"Buaji!" Kushi announced laughingly.

Payal's face lit up, "All the same!" She reached for the letter again and this time, before Kushi could withdraw, Payal snatched at the letter and rushed toward the nearest bench, under the shade of a huge tree.

Kushi slid onto the bench, beside her sister and, with their heads put together so they could both have a glimpse of the coveted letter, Payal took the parchment out of the neat envelope and read the letter aloud:

Dear Payaliya and Kushibitya,

I've thought over and over again before writing this letter because I didn't want you to remember home and miss us when you should be focusing on adapting into the family you now belong to. As your aunt, that is the least I can do. But your Amma was insistent and despite your Babuji's assertions, Garima managed to persuade me to write this letter. Hence, I want to tell you, this is not me but Garima who is behind the birth of this letter.

How is everything there, Payalia? We found Lord Akash to be a very sweet fellow, if we can humble ourselves to call the Second Lord a fellow', but considering how he is now a son to us by wedding one of our daughters, we certainly can measure him by the standards of his fellow'ship.

Kushi giggled, "Trust Buaji to flare up her verbal instincts! Fellow-shipping' a Lordship!"

Payal smiled, "Well, it's my husband she's talking about and I say she can fellow' him and lad' him anytime she wants."

"As long as she doesn't cuddle him!" warned Kushi, and Payal gasped in remembrance of how their aunt was prone to embrace youngsters she loved until they felt suffocated in her squashing affection.

"Well..." Payal tried to defend her forte, "Cuddling my husband is one matter, but imagine Buaji cuddling yours..."

Kushi blinked at Payal, "That's outrageously unthinkable! He doesn't even let his sister or his grandmother, and least of all his wife, cuddle him! How do you suppose he'll let Buaji near him?"

Payal laughed, "You see then who's got the better chance at winning Buaji's heart: my husband!"

Kushi rolled her eyes, "I can't believe we're going to make a war over whose husband does what, like the way we battled over the appearances of our rag dolls."

Payal grinned and then spoke in a voice supposed to be the smaller version of Kushi, "My doll has longer hair and yours has a shorter nose. So mine gets to sit in the play-pram."

Kushi lifted her face proudly, "And my doll DID have longer hair and longer nose than yours and I could prove it to you now as well if we hadn't let the dolls take a sail in the paper boat six winters ago."

"And what a hilarious sight it was!" Payal laughed, "It was your idea to send them a-sailing and you were the first one to start crying when you realized the river only when downstream and not upstream."

Kushi was thoughtful, "I suppose they must still be floating about in the sea now..."

"Kushi, it's been six long years; they must be logged in the inside of some big fish."

"NO!" Kushi held Payal's hand, "Don't give me any such horrific images, Jiji! You know I have a little too strong imagination!"

"Well, then, let's forget about the dolls and return back to Buaji's letter," and Payal picked up the letter to continue reading again:

Master Happy has been kind to our family and asked Shashi to join him in the carriage-cart business. But Shashi, after returning from a tiring day at Master Happy's place, helps me out with the swords as well. I tell him to stay put and spend time with his wife but he says he needs to keep working while awake to not let his mind wander to the silence that weighs within the house and the hearts that are empty of the childish laughter that filled our eighteen years...

Payal's voice strained and she stopped reading and both the sisters remained silent for a moment.

"I miss home," Kushi whispered after a while.

"Me too," said Payal, tears rising in her eyes, "Amma...I'm worried for her."

"Hasn't Buaji written anything about Amma?" Kushi's gaze slid back to the letter in her sister's hold.

Payal picked up the letter again and read the remaining lines:

Garima is preparing the house for next month. Frankly, she has lost some of her senses I believe. She knows that it will be nearly three more weeks before any of you girls can come visit us but here she is, always readying and perfecting the place as though you are about to come the very next hour. I really wish she'd settle down a bit and look into the matters of the house.

Baking is minimal now with no children about, but of course Ram's presence changes things a lot. Garima is now after Ram, prepping him up and feeding the poor thing as though Master Happy is starving him! And any little baking I do, I do it for him, for none of the elders are keen about sweet things any more. All serious sorts, I say, like as though they expect me to turn serious after them! No siree, nothing of that sort will I be. There is nothing one gains from sitting with a sour face on. Life turns its tables, and you need to turn yourself round as well or it would be impossible to reach the dish. You get what I mean, girls?

I know Payalia will understand but that Goddess of Mischief! Hai Re Nandakishore! How in the world does she get into scrapes always? Her marriage itself is a curious communion!

Kushibitiya, tell me downright truthfully: why did you marry him? I thought you hated even the very thought of the First Lord! What has happened that you would make such shocking turns in your life, girl? Is he treating you well? We have heard fearsome things about the First Lord when we were not much acquainted with the family, but after seeing how supportive he was in our Payalia's marriage preparations, I find him to be quite an earnest man. But really, dear, how is he treating you? And why DID you marry him with no prior notice? Don't think you can escape my questions, Kushi. I'll box your ears if you trick me into evading this topic. Payalia, you are more prepared than her, so DO put some sense into her and tell her what a wife is expected to do. I know without being there that Kushi will be like the child in the house, doing things her way and making the others in the family become cracked and senseless. I wonder if the First Lord may have earned increased bouts of headache after wedding her into his life. Goodness! What will become of that Castle now? Kushi will turn it upside down! If only we had time to prepare her in some common sense which is quite lacking in her in plenty...but what use crying over spilt porridge! We can only consider the prospect of licking it off the table and we cannot consider even that if the table is not clean enough.

"Yew!" Kushi made a face, "Buaji has a horrible choice of similes when she tries to spare us some of her awkward wisdom!"

"But there is truth to what she says," Payal pointed out haughtily, feeling mighty important after being told by the letter to teach Kushi some common sense.

We are all waiting for the weeks to pass by quickly. Come next month and this house will be filled with laughter again. Garima has already made preparations to ready the two spare rooms in the house, one being the one in which you girls had slept. I presume it will be a houseful with our young girls and their husbands here and then the house would feel younger again.

Waiting impatiently for that day,

Your dearest Buaji.

P. S. I had thought of baking a pie and sending it along with the letter but knowing how good my pie is I am certain the messenger would probably stomach it before he reaches the Castle doorstep. So I will restrain myself from sending a pie now and instead, double the number of pies I've planned to make when you come.

P. P. S. Garima insists that you come in the very first week of the next month and not wait till the month reaches its middle.

P. P. P. S. Shashi's come for his lunch and when he saw that I was writing a letter to you, he seconded the P. P. S. above. So you best come in the first week itself, girls.

P. P. P. P. S. Ram's signed me through the window to give you two his regards.

P. P. P. P. P. S. I am stopping this letter now in all certainty before Master Happy also comes into the house and adds another P. P. S. to the train of P. P. S.s the letter is already tailed with.

P. P. P. P. P. P. S. There! Master Happy came just this minute and asserted his regards be put in as well. I tell you girls, this is the last time I will be writing a letter! What a tiresome labour this is! What with people barging in at the last moment with their P. P. S.s!!

Kushi and Payal had a fit of laughter as Payal struggled to read the last lines in the midst of her uncontrollable mirth. At the end they felt so relieved and laugh-worn that they were wiping the tears from their eyes and clutching their middles which pained from laughing too much, but feeling quite light in their hearts.

In the afternoon, after lunch, Kushi played chess with Nani, overseen by Lady Anjali.

Nani won and Lady Anjali sloganeered, "No one can beat our Nani!"

Excusing herself, Kushi rushed out of the room and dragged Payal from the kitchen.

Payal, being forced to pause the narration of her teacake ideas to Surabhi, joined the jovial company in Nani's room and, in the next round, easily defeated Nani.

Nani pouted but happily offered the title of the Raizada Chess Wizard' to Payal who couldn't help laughing at the absurdity of how the game had been conducted.

"Nani breaks all the rules, Kushi!" she announced and Nani frowned childishly, "They are the rules of my time. This generation knows nothing of how classy and perfect chess rules had once been!"

"Quite true!" Lady Anjali winked at the girls, "We youngsters have rebellious and irrational rules!"

"Tut! Tut!" Nani shook her head accusingly at the girls "You two are making Anjalibitiya feel rebellious at a time like this! Anjali, take care that you only nurture motherly feelings and soft loving emotions in your heart when you have a child in you."

"Lest the child come out and become a more vibrant rebel than Kushi!" Payal remarked and all of them burst into laughter.

Kushi frowned, "I am not much a nuisance, really!"

Payal snorted, "Not much of a nuisance! You remember the time you set the barn on fire because you thought the pony had little legs because it was feeling cold."

Kushi lividly crossed her arms before her chest, "I didn't know ponies were different from horses and that they were naturally small in everything."

"Trust Kushi to make her own findings!" Nani commented, "She is a curious one and a smart one too."

"Always out to make new theories and new discoveries," Lady Anjali nodded.

"What is your latest interest of investigation, Kushi?" Payal asked playfully.

Kushi's eyes shone cleverly, "It would most certainly have to be my very mysterious husband."

Everyone was silent for a moment. Payal appeared confused.

Kushi added hastily, "I meant I am trying to find ways to get him to soften a bit."

Nani and Lady Anjali relaxed.

Payal smiled, "Aye, you will need at least a year's course of experimentations to get that wish of yours. Softening the First Lord? In comparison, it would be easier to soften Lady Manorama!"

Nani looked at them suspiciously, "Are you two out to soften everyone in the Raizada family?"

Kushi winked at Nani, "Yes, but you certainly don't need any softening, Nani. You and Lady Anjali are so un-Raizada like!"

"My husband and father-in-law are soft too," Payal defended.

"Of course. That would mean that everyone, except my husband and your mother-in-law, needs no mending," Kushi nodded.

"Manorama doesn't need any mending," Nani pointed out, as she leaned back comfortably in her armchair, "She just needs time. But Chotey..."

Nani and Lady Anjali looked at Kushi.

Kushi's gaze fell on the chessboard where a black checkmated king lay defeated. The memory of a dream crossed her mind and the echo of his whispering voice, "I win, my pawn-queen."

Kushi frowned and, reaching out her hand, moved a white pawn towards the fallen king.

"Worry not, Nani, the game is only about to begin. And for this game, I will make the rules."

Gear up for the next chapter, coz you're in for a...well, you will know when you see it. For those of you who do not remember Kushi's Dream mentioned in this chapter, it's in Chapter 128: https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/fan-fictions/3365278/arhi-ff-4-the-beasts-and-the-bleeding-roses?pn=63

For the next update, always look to the INDEX.