Chapter 117

Chapter 191: A Night of Assurances

Payal sighed as she sat at the end of her bed, gazing out at the moon through the window.

A shuffle drew her attention to the bath chamber from whence her husband emerged, dressed in his night pants.

He moved towards the bed and paused, seeing her in her forlorn features, "Payal?"

Payal smiled at him. A disconsolate smile.

He sat beside her and took her hand in his, his eyes trying to read the unsaid words in her eyes, "Is it Mother?"

"She despises me," Payal asserted sadly.

"No, she doesn't," Lord Akash assured her, "She just...it's hard...she's had dreams of..."

He seemed at a loss of words.

Payal's heart sank lower, "She wishes you'd never married me-"

"Don't say that!" Lord Akash looked at her, "I loved you alone and I would never have wedded a woman who was not you."

"By marrying me, you have won your heart's desire but you have broken her dreams. Trampled' is the word she uses..."

"Payal, no," he pulled his wife to him, embracing her close to his chest, his cheek pressed to her hair, "Her high-flown dreams made her blind from seeing the goodness in a heart...she will understand this in time."

"How much longer!" Payal cried against his shoulder, "How much longer, my lord! I cannot keep still and smiling every time she insults me...today she-"

"Today?" Lord Akash looked at his wife and then he remembered, "You went with Mother to a party today, didn't you?"

Payal gazed worriedly at her husband's face, the echo of Lady Manorama's morning words recollected in her mind, How despicable, they tell me! A village girl to wed the Second Lord of Arhaisa! They pity me for the fate I am destined to disgustingly embrace! They snide at my hapless state, having to parade about with a villager for a daughter-in-law! How preposterous the thought I will have to endure this mockery at every party I go to for the rest of my life, with your filthy presence as company!

Lord Akash was cautious, his wife not having answered his question, "Payal?"

"My Lord," Payal breathed out, trying to blot out the memory of the words, "I can only be kind and compliant too little. If something happens and I can keep my calm no longer, I am afraid I may anger her..."

"You will not anger her, Payal, you are not made that way."

"I am not made that way, but I fear I may become. Circumstances-"

"Payal, look at me," Lord Akash held his wife's face in his caring hands, "Do you know why you find it hard?"

Payal stared at him, feeling comforted by his touch and his gaze.

Lord Akash answered it for her, "Because you treat her with respect and fear."

"But she is to be respected and feared. She is your Mother-"

"Precisely," said Lord Akash.

Payal blinked, incomprehensively.

"She is my Mother," said Lord Akash, "Which makes her your Mother too."

"What am I to do then if it is not respect and fear she requires?"

"Love her."

Payal's face lit with understanding, but she was still unsure, "Love her despite how much she despises me?"

"Love her because she despises you," said Lord Akash, "She expects despise from you in return for her hatred. But when she realizes you have love and only love for her, she will learn to see the daughter in you as how she sees the son in me."

"But this is a tedious process. It will take so long to get her to love me and to think how much I must endure through the toil and torture until the day comes!"

"If your day is hard and hurtful, you know you have a panacea waiting here for you."

"A panacea?" Payal was puzzled.

"Me!" Lord Akash's eyes glinted playfully as his face reached down and he kissed his wife on her lips, dousing her in his overpowering affection that made her forget all her worry...

In a room on the floor below, being the second week of her detachment from her husband, dressed in her violet night gown with her long hair neatly plaited, Kushi had slipped into Lady Anjali's bed only to find the latter missing from the spot she always was in.

Kushi sat up and studied the darkness and recognized the lonesome figure seated in the armchair before the window, dressed in a night gown, the yellow satin material gently caressing her large curved midriff.

"Di?" Kushi called out anxiously, "Why are you up? You should be sleeping..."

"Kushiji, come look at the moon."

Kushi got out bed and moved to stand behind Lady Anjali's chair, her gaze drawn to the bright moon that cast its glimmering light on the still surface of lake.

It was a stunning sight and Kushi was enraptured, "Di, it's beautiful."

Lady Anjali smiled, her eyes filled with silent tears, "You know what my Chotey always told me? That I was the moon that shone in his darkness."

Kushi looked down at Lady Anjali, "Yes, Di. If there is anyone who has meant the world to him, it is you." He even married me to protect you...

Lady Anjali shook her head, "You are missing my point, Kushiji. Look at the lake."

"I see it," Kushi nodded, her eyes on the moon reflected in the distant lake outside the window.

"The light of the moon, though a delightful sight, is one of sadness. There is a tender melancholy to it. Do you see how the water reflects the same gentle sadness?"

Kushi was not sure she liked the imagery for it was stamping Lady Anjali as a facade of sadness, "But my lady-"

Lady Anjali interjected, "I don't want to see the moonlight on the lake. I want to see the Sun, the bright blue sky and the happy white clouds reflected in the lake. What light and what laughter it would evoke in my heart to see it!"

"It is always there in the morning if you step out, my lady," Kushi assured her.

"The lake I seek is not the one in my garden," Lady Anjali looked up at Kushi, her hand reaching for the young girl's.

Lady Anjali looked at Kushi pleadingly, "You are his Sun, Kushiji. Please do not shut him in darkness for long."

Kushi was taken aback, "My lady, I-"

"I know he must have been cold to you, I know his nights may have scared you. But he would never harm you. I know it. He only protects the ones he loves."

Loves? Kushi's head reeled. He knows to love? Like a normal human being? And if he could love, did she figure into the category of those he loved?

"Take for instance, the cage. Horrid though it was, his sole motive was to protect you."

The air left Kushi's lungs. Protect YOU...he only protects the ones he LOVES...

"Di..." Kushi found her voice, "I can't let him win."

Lady Anjali sighed, "You are just like him Kushiji! Stubborn in the decisions you make and resolute to see the other defeated and weakened. No wonder you two suit each other the best! But nothing good will come out of this."

Kushi didn't know why but hearing this she was filled with a sense of pride. Just like him and best suited!

"Like worthy warriors in warfare," Kushi commented.

"Warfare..." Lady Anjali sat up suddenly, and her voice was touched by a worry, "It's been over a week and there has not been a single letter from him. I only pray that he be alive and well. I will not bear to lose him...no, never..."

Kushi pressed her hands assuredly on Lady Anjali's shoulders, feeling guilty for the truth she was hiding and feeling torn by the realization of how much Lady Anjali loved her husband and how it would kill her if she were to know anything that would taint her perfect perception of the General.

Will Send PMs later.