Chapter 115

MEsw, I have edited the parchment in the Front Page in honour of your oath as a Comrade.

Chapter 189: Turning the Dire into a Dare

When the morning birds chirped and the gentle first rays of the sun seeped into her bed chamber, Lady Anjali awoke and, to her amazement, found Kushi sleeping beside her.

Wondering why Kushi had slept over last night, the young mother slowly got out of bed to get washed. When she had dressed into her day gown, she looked over her shoulder to find Kushi still fast asleep among the pillows. Her face looked a lot exhausted.

Shrugging, lady Anjali left the room, closing the door softly behind her.

Payal was already in the kitchen seeing to the breakfast.

When it was time for breakfasting, Lord Arnav and Lord Akash came downstairs followed by Lord Manohar and Lady Manorama. A servant went to fetch Nani who also came down subsequently. While everyone was seated at the dining table, being served by the servants, Lady Manorama voiced the question first, "Where is Rags, Arnavbitwa? Is she still sleeping?"

Lord Arnav looked at the empty chair beside him expressionlessly and then returned his attention to his plate as the servant silently filled it.

"Where is Kushibitya?" Nani asked, her eyes on her grandson.

Payal stood up to go fetch her sister but Lord Arnav said, "Let her remain. She will come when she must."

"What nonsense!" Nani fumed, as Payal sank back in her chair, "The family is seated to breakfast and a member is missing. This is to be enquired into, certainly!"

"There is no enquiring needed," Lord Arnav said coldly, "Di knows she is well."

All eyes were on Lady Anjali who was staring at Lord Arnav, surprised by his take on the entire matter. Something had certainly happened between the two last night for Kushi to sleep in her room.

Hastily recovering from her astonishment, Lady Anjali smiled around, "Kushiji is fine. She is apparently a little tired and wanted to prolong her sleep. She is in my room presently and may accompany us at the table any minute now."

Everyone accepted Lady Anjali's word, Payal being the most reluctant for she knew Kushi never overslept even if she was unwell.

Lord Arnav hastily finished his meal and stood up, "Akash, from today I'm not using the carriage. Shadow will ride me to the Industry."

"Sure brother, as and how it suits you," Lord Akash said as the family watched Lord Arnav exit.

"Is something wrong?" Lady Manorama asked her husband, "It seems something's wrong. Don't you think?"

Lord Manohar shook his head, "It's a wonderful day, Manorama; the last day of autumn. There can conceivably be nothing wrong."

A minute had barely passed after the First Lord had left, when Kushi, washed, freshly gowned and hair tied in a bun, came to the dining hall.

"Kushi, what happened to you?" Payal looked at her worriedly.

"I was a little tired and slept in," she said, sitting on the chair opposite Lady Anjali, far from Payal.

No one noticed the slight redness in her eyes from crying too much expect for Lady Anjali whose heart nearly felt pierced by the sight.

Payal didn't need to see Kushi's eyes to know something was awry. She waited for the family to leave the dining hall and then, after giving the kitchen servants the instructions for lunch preparations, Payal proceeded to the garden to find Kushi, before Lady Anjali found her.

Sure enough, Kushi was sitting on the bench and staring at the trees while the gardeners worked a little distance away.

Payal slid onto the bench beside her sister, "Kushi?"

A sad breeze blew over the garden.

Kushi smiled at Payal, "Jiji? What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in the kitchens seeing to the lunch?"

Payal frowned, "Kushi? Are you driving me away? Is it forbidden for a girl to be with her sister?"

Kushi was about to reply but Payal held her sister's hand and said seriously, "Tell me if you are alright?"

Kushi raised her eyebrows, "Whatever are you asking me, Jiji? Of course I am alright. I always am!"

"No, you are not," Payal frowned, "Especially not today."

"Jiji, I'm-"

Payal lifted a hand, "I should have asked you on the first day itself. I was just too excited about my own marriage and the day after our first night here, you looked quite happy and pleased so I gathered all was well- But now I gravely doubt it, are you happy, Kushi? Truly? Is he treating you well?"

"Quite," Kushi added, smiling at the tree before her, "He is too busy with the Industry to make my life a hell like the way he once used to."

"Are you telling me you married him against your will?" Payal was on a string of emotions, "I knew it! I knew it! There is something really wrong in this entire union."

"No, Jiji, don't say that!"

"Kushi!" Payal was furious, "How can I not say it when it is so obvious! You always despised the First Lord and to even imagine you marrying him was always out of question. Yet-"

"Jiji," Kushi interjected, "You know what sort of a man he is. It is hard to always conform to his demands. Even now..."

Payal looked apprehensively at her sister, "Now? What about now?"

"We are not to see each other."

"What?" Payal shot up, "What sort of a marriage is this?"

Kushi frowned at the tree before her, immersed in her thoughts, "He said he does not want to see me again. Well, mightily well, I tell you, I was the one who said it first, that I loathed his arrogant visage: a vision that promised to ruin my entire day. So in a way, I am not defeated by the proposition but victorious for that trump issued first from my pluck."

"Defeat? Victory?" Payal stared at Kushi, "You really have lost it, Kushi! This is LIFE, Kushi, not a game or battle."

"Oh battle it is for us, Jiji," Kuushi stood up, a determined light in her eyes, "I spent the entirety of last night thinking of this. And you know what, Jiji, I will not rest until I make him crawl to me, begging for mercy."

"Mercy? From the First Lord?" Payal blinked at Kushi.

"Ah, don't underestimate my potency, Jiji," Kushi's eyes sparkled cunningly, "I can do things no man on earth believes feasible."

"True," Payal sighed, "Amma always said Babuji found you from a fairy land, from the cradle of a most mischievous pixie."

"No wonder! I always used to wonder where I'd gotten my fairy wings from!"

Payal smiled and then pulled her little sister into a tight embrace.

Kushi slid her arms across her sister's back and they held each other for a long minute.

"Kushi, tell me truthfully are you happy?"

"My name is Kushi, Jiji," Kushi smiled against her sister's head, "I am always happy."

"No, Kushi," Jiji withdrew from the embrace but still held her sister by her shoulders, "You are Kushi because you risk your happiness to make others happy. Tell me how he treats you?"

"He is quite respectful about distances," Kushi said with a chuckle.

Payal was serious, "This is not funny, Kushi."

"Oh, Jiji," Kushi rolled her eyes, "Why do you see everything in a gloomy light! If you will not pester me with questions I will tell you a secret..."

"What is it?" Payal was inquisitive, and she leaned forward.

"This is the game I was talking about."

"What game?" Payal was clueless.

"The softening game."

Payal frowned, "How are you going to soften Lord Arnav if you aren't permitted to see him."

"You will see," said Kushi with a wink, "Last night I was hurt and angry of course by his cold proposition but, after my tempered nerves had calmed a bit, I spent an hour or two thinking the entire thing through and I knew this was the opportune gate."

"Gate?" Payal was trying to understand Kushi's absurd plans.

"Gate for the Game," Kushi smiled.

Payal shook her head, "I really don't know what to make of this madness, Kushi. This is not right. Why, if you are not keen to him and him not to you, did you let the marriage happen?"

A certain man's face crossed Kushi's mind and her hands fisted absent-mindedly.

Payal saw this and her fingers touched her sister's clenched fist questioningly, "Kushi?"

A movement in the distance caught Kushi's attention and she looked over Payal's shoulder to where Lady Anjali had emerged from the Castle into the garden, in pursuit of Kushi.

Lady Anjali's searching eyes found the sisters near the bench and she decided against interrupting the conversation. But her eyes caught Kushi's gaze and the young mother read the emotion on Kushi's face for assurance of her cheer.

Kushi smiled at Lady Anjali and a relieved Lady Anjali smiled in return before turning back to the Castle.

Payal had seen Lady Anjali too and she looked at Kushi, "I suppose Lady Anjali had come to ask you about being tardy today at the breakfast table..."

Kushi nodded.

"Kushi, you are yet to give me an answer."

"I will," said Kushi, her eyes following Lady Anjali as the latter disappeared into the Castle, one protective hand on her inflated middle, "I will, Jiji, when time is kinder to those who will be affected by the truth."

Payal stared at Kushi confusedly but Kushi took her sister's hand and beamed, "Come dear, Jiji, let us keep aside our sullen thoughts and rest our minds on more festive joys."

"Festive joys like?"

"Planning our Village trip!"

"Oh goody!" Payal grinned widely, forgetting her blues, "I've been waiting to begin the preparations myself, though we are three weeks ahead! I am just so excited!"

"So am I!" Kushi beamed, "Oh! Very soon we are going to meet Amma and Babuji!"

For the next few days, Kushi and Arnav abstained from seeing each other, never once deliberately or accidently crossing each other's paths. Always cautious to avoid each other, they timed their movements within the Castle and departures suitably. For a safer reckoning, Kushi had even taken some of her gowns to Lady Anjali's room where she placed them in a tiny suitcase.

Despite there being no confrontation, Lady Anjali was amazed how the two wedded enemies formed a pattern in which their schedule and sojourns had fallen in sync that the other was always unconsciously aware of.

Kushi knew well Lord Arnav's comings and goings and how long he would remain in a particular room or for a particular meal. Similarly, Lord Arnav knew when Kushi would be up and about, which room she would be in if he were in a certain room and the manifold ways in which she will make excuses with the rest of the family for the sole purpose of avoiding him.

Of course, only Lady Anjali and Payal knew of the arrangement. Nani was not given any clue with regard to the silence between the young couple for she would instantly fume and reveal to the world her aggravation at the arrangement. Nani's questions in concern of Kushi being late or missing for breakfast was always given ready excuses of pending work, lack of appetite or tiredness. When Nani came across Kushi, the former would check for signs of illness in the latter and would be assured only if she was found without obvious complaints.

Nani was confused by all this, but she was not certain what the entire thing was. And if Fortune had any clue about the confusing game of hide and seek, he breathed not a word to the elderly woman and opened his bird beak only to get his regular supply of fruits, nuts and biscuits.

Kushi was, nevertheless, determined to turn her husband's cold order into a challenge. Few days without me and you just see how he's going to bear through it!

But little did Kushi know she would be suffering in the same ordeal.

Five days of not seeing each other, only worked on their longing and they craved to see each other more with each passing day.

Every sound made Lord Arnav look up, hoping to see her, and every shadow alerted Kushi's wish that it be him, but neither sound nor shadow revealed the one they longed to see.

After he left for the Industry in the morning, Kushi would walk the way through the living room to the central doors, taking in the trial of his masculine scent and when he returned from the Industry and headed for his room, he would pause at the foot the stairs to draw in the whiff of her village-flower scent that lingered in that area minutes after she had walked into Lady Anjali's room.

When in her solitude, she thought over the conflicting situation, Kushi was vastly aggravated, If he is not missing me more than I'm missing him, beware: I will bring down his entire Industry and show him who gets what done!

Of course, I can assure you she never needed to lift a finger to bring the Industry down for soon their longings were to make way for hesitating advances.