Chapter 139

Freaking Goodness!! My third favorite track is about to commence, the first one in the order of appearance actually.

My three favorite tracks have not yet emerged in the FF though we have crossed over 215 chapters. My first favorite has obviously to do with the General which will happen only when we NEAR the climax, my second favorite track is my special' which will BE the climax of the FF (I personally call it the linker track' because it links every mystery and reveals the answers and connects the past with the future and all that sort of thing) and my third favorite is the Gupta visit of our couple. Yay! And one of my fav tracks is about to hit the racks at last!

So without much blabber, here it is. A chapter I wrote with a lot of LOVE!! Dedicated to the "families" of ALL my readers and Comrades!!

(Pssst! This will also have to be unPMed. I am in an awful hurry but just wanted to give you a chapter in gratitude for your understanding of my situation.)

Chapter 217: The First Lord at the Gupta House

The carriage was cramped with too many boxes and baskets.

Lord Arnav was squeezed to one end of the carriage seat beside one of the windows, grumbling about the horrendous odor that the various foods packed as gifts in the carriage was making and of how wretched his state was without a servant to help survive his week in the Village.'

Seated at the other end of the carriage and too excited to attend to his complaints, Kushi only rolled her eyes, choosing to busy herself in sightseeing as they journeyed over the open grasslands, through the forest and along the path that ran beside the river.

Her joy transcended with the crossing of each thrilling distance that brought her nearer to the South Village.

Before long, the path wound itself to enter the walkway of the Village Street and Kushi's heart leapt at the sight of the familiar cottages and the little gardens before them.

"We are here!" she exclaimed elatedly and looked over her shoulder at her husband who only sat sullenly staring at the pile of boxes stacked on the seat before him.

But Kushi's grin remained plastered to her face, the spectacle of his sourness unable to diminish her elation.

When she turned to look out the window again, she caught sight of the familiar white-fenced lawn of her aunt's cottage looming at the end of the curving path. Home! I am home!!!!

The sound of the carriage wheels approaching alerted the waiting ears of Mistress Madhumati and she leapt from the rocking chair by the fireplace, announcing, "They're here, Garima!"

Mistress Madhumati patted on her wig to ensure that it was properly propped and had not slipped off in the speed of her leaping.

Mistress Garima rushed out of the kitchen, brushing off her apron to appear as neat as possible.

"Our son-in-law is the First Lord and we don't want him to find us in an unworthy spectacle," stated Mistress Garima, though that matter needed no reminding, but she said it merely to have something to say in the flurry of the moment. She slid her palms over her head to confirm that her hair-bun was neat and any stray strand was tucked in.

Mistress Madhumati opened the door and the two women stepped onto the little sunlit lawn.

The carriage had slowly come to a halt before the little white gate of the cottage.

In the earnestness of having seen her mother and aunt step out of the cottage to cross the garden, Kushi forgot to act the lady. Her mind had reverted back from Kushi Singh Raizada to Kushi Kumari Gupta and she opened her carriage door without waiting for the men.

The footman had opened Lord Arnav's side of the door first so that, as was rightly expected, Lord Arnav could personally assist his wife out of the carriage.

Walking around the carriage, he had barely stepped before the other carriage door when, in her excitement to leap out of the carriage, Kushi stumbled over the boxes and baskets.

With quick strides in his boots, Lord Arnav rushed forward and the tripping Kushi landed right into the arms of her husband.

"Can't you have the slightest bit of patience, Kushi?" Lord Arnav fumed at her from under his hat as he held her in his arms, "What if I hadn't reached fast enough? It would have been a sight: you falling flat on your face!"

Kushi frowned up at him, the rim of her flowery hat pressing against the rim of his classy one, "I would not have fallen. My legs would have found their balance the moment I touched ground."

"Mighty well they would have!" mocked the irate First Lord, "I am beginning to believe that you had some kind of training in your childhood days to always keeping tripping and falling."

"I did not!" Kushi retorted, "And I don't always keeping tripping and falling!"

"Do you not?" Lord Arnav raised one eyebrow in scorn, "Do you not remember how we first met? It was you falling into my arms when I caught you sneaking in my rose bush!"

Kushi turned red in her cheeks at the memory and, the moment the words were out of his mouth, Lord Arnav himself felt something warm light up inside his chest.

They stared at each other, lost in the staggering recollection of their first meeting.

Mistress Garima and Madhumati were not at earshot distance but they had seen Kushi fall out of the carriage and into Lord Arnav's arms.

"Goodness, Jiji!" Garima exclaimed to her sister-in-law as they crossed the garden in slow watchful steps, "She has not changed the least bit it seems! Still the unsteady one!"

"Well, will you look at that!" Mistress Madhumati remarked merrily, "We had to remind Akashbabua of the ritual to carry Payalia into the cottage in his arms, but here is the other, whom we thought to have been an atheist, accomplishing rituals without having to be told!"

Garima stopped to frown at Madhumati, "You know as much as I do that Kushi fell into his arms by accident."

Madhumati winked at Garima, "Well, would it harm to suppose the accident to be of divine intervention?"

Garima rolled her eyes and then looked at the couple, "And to think that the entire village decided to crowd before our cottage to witness this accidental ritual!"

It was then that Mistress Madhumati noticed the mass of children, men and women before the cottage, all come to catch their first glimpse of the discreet First Lord and his Lady.

"Hai Re Nandakishore!" Madhumati pressed her palm to her head, "Arnavbabua might not take well to an audience..."

Suddenly, Garima gasped, "What is this that my eyes see? I think I'm going to faint..."

Realizing what had caught Garima's worry, Madhumati tried to assure her, "Now, now, Garima. You mustn't get your emotions worked over this. Payalia had already hinted this was coming."

"But I refused to believe her," Garima groaned distressingly, "Who has ever heard of a bride of two months! After her wedding, a bride is to see her first morning as a wife. This wretched girl of ours must have seen forty mornings without being a wife!"

"Oh, Garima," Madhumati mumbled, "Pray, privy the brighter side. She's at least a bride. Which leaves us some hope that someday, hopefully not too far away, he will make her his wife."

Both women had stepped out of the tiny garden gate.

Lord Arnav was about to let his wife down when Madhumati hailed out, "Arnavbabua! Don't!"

Lord Arnav looked over his shoulder at the one who had spoken, inwardly surprised by how familiar the address of the aunt sounded after the impact of the letter. Kushi, still in his arms, grinned widely, "Buaji!!! Amma!!!"

She struggled to get down from his arms but Buaji commanded, "Stay put, Kushi!" And then she looked at the young Lord warmly and explained, "Arnavbabua, this is part of the ritual: you must carry her into the house and put her down only after you've crossed the threshold."

Lord Arnav stood reluctant for a moment and then, frowning at Kushi's face, he turned to the tiny gate with his wife in his arms.

Kushi looked over Lord Arnav's shoulder and smiled at her aunt and her mother as her husband strode across the dainty lawn until he reached the front steps of the cottage porch.

Ascending the steps, he crossed the threshold and stepped into the living room, where he set Kushi down, her sandaled feet treading upon the homely floor as her tearful eyes looked around with overwhelmed feeling.

Lord Arnav inhaled in. The cottage had a pleasing smell of baked goods, warm and happy, and he felt strangely drawn to the mere aroma.

A shuffle behind him made him turn about to find Madhumati, Garima and the carriage footman enter the house carrying boxes and baskets.

"What are you doing?!" Lord Arnav stepped towards the women, "Put your loads down, please, the footman will carry them in."

Madhumati dropped the boxes on the floor and looked at the First Lord, "Nonsense, babua!! Let that poor man carry the entire load of the carriage all by himself!"

"But-" Lord Arnav watched helplessly as Mistress Madhumati and Garima obdurately helped the footman carry the things in.

Kushi joined them as well, earning a groan from Lord Arnav, "This is unbelievable."

When all the goods were brought in to clutter the living room and the footman and the carriage had been dismissed back to the Castle, Garima shut the door and turned to the young couple only to yelp when Kushi sprang forwards and embraced her mother, "Oh, Amma, I so missed you!!"

"You are squeezing me too hard I can't breathe, you meddlesome girl!" protested Garima and Kushi withdrew from the hug apologetically.

Garima frowned at her daughter and then looked at her sister-in-law, "I told you, Jiji, no sooner has she stepped in than she's draining my old bones of the very little energy they have left."

Mistress Madhumati chuckled, "At least, she's a grown lady now and won't do anything to make you chase her around the house!"

Garima sighed in relief, "What tiresome days they were, I say. The miscreant often kept me awake in the nights."

Kushi gaped at her mother, "I was no harm when I was asleep, Amma."

"So you think," commented her mother, "I had a harder time dealing with a sleeping Kushi than a fully awake flying one!"

"Now, Garima," Mistress Madhumati interjected, her eyes falling on the man in the room who was staring around with a sullen expression, "Are we to shower all our attention on the girl alone? Her handsome husband here must be getting jealous seeing his wife in the spotlight."

Lord Arnav blinked at Madhumati who winked at him.

Feeling embarrassed, Lord Arnav tried to rivet the topic to more sensible matters, "Where is Master Gupta?"

"He's gone to the village to fetch some things for dinner," said Garima with a polite smile, "He will be here any moment now."

"In the meantime, Kushibitiya will show you to your room upstairs," said Mistress Madhumati, "You needn't hurry with the unpacking yet. We have plenty of time to do that after lunch. Besides, you are here for an entire week!"

Lord Arnav groaned inwardly, wishing there was some way he could transport himself back to the Castle immediately. He was certain that he was going to hate the coming week to its core.

"Preposterous!" Lord Arnav cursed under his breath the moment he walked into the little bedroom upstairs. He was so disgruntled that he didn't even bother to register the familiarity of the room in which he'd stood once before.

"This can't really be happening to me!" he huffed disappointedly, removing his coat and draping it on the arm of the only chair that was to be found in the room which constituted of a stingy handful of furniture including a wooden chest to one side of the room, a tiny floor basin that he feared was the only bath this cottage would ever provide and a tiny table beside the little window that overlooked into the petite garden of the cottage.

But it was the bed that hugely upset him.

"What a small bed this is!" complained Lord Arnav, frowning down at the tiny bed, his hands crossed before his chest.

His gaze slid to where his wife was knelt on the floor before the wooden chest, unpacking the things from the little suitcase and arranging them into the chest which, Lord Arnav realized, sufficed limitedly as the wardrobe of the room.

Kushi was humming a song as she unloaded the clothes and articles into the chest and she appeared unruffled by his remarks. This triggered his ire, making him throw a line that she was sure to hook onto.

"This bed is too tiny for two," he asserted, "One of us will have to sleep on the floor for the nights and it certainly won't be me."

Kushi paused in her song and looked over her shoulder, her husband seeming taller than always because of him standing and her kneeling. But that figuration didn't instill any inhibition in her for she looked at him emphatically as she stated, "I won't take the floor either, your Royal Highness."

Lord Arnav opened his mouth to retort but Kushi was on her feet in an instant, "My sister and I have slept in that bed many a day and we never had an issue with its size."

"There is not enough space for a person to shift his posture in," reasoned Lord Arnav.

Kushi frowned suspiciously, "We Gupta girls are very restless in sleep, always tossing and turning in bed and we never endured any kind of discomfort or restriction in the spatial."

"I don't care how you and your sister slept," yelled a furious Lord Arnav, "All that is to be made clear is that I won't sleep in THIS bed with another for company."

Kushi stomped her feet, "And I will sleep in THIS bed and no other!"

"We'll see," he threatened, "Come night and I will make you choose the floor."

"Try me," challenged Kushi.

Just then her mother called to them from downstairs. She stepped around him and headed for the door, muttering, "Come night and I will kiss the bed goodnight while you, Lordy, do it to the floor."

"What is Arnavbabua thinking anyway!" Garima pondered indignantly as she set the dining table for lunch, "Of course, he has no concern over beliefs and rituals, so I've heard, but what does he earn by putting off his wife from being really his." A new worry crossed her mind and she asked hysterically, "Do you suppose there's something wrong with their marriage?"

Mistress Madhumati huffed as she placed the warm dish in the center of the table, "What gibberish! The hermit himself afforded us the affirmation that the two were wedded right. There's nothing wrong with the marriage!" She frowned as she continued, "There can only be one thing possibly wrong and that is the senseless head of that Goddess of Mischief."

"We need to talk to that girl about this."

"What, today?" Mistress Madhumati took a double take, "But they've only just come. Give them some space to catch their breath after the journey here, Garima."

Garima was not pleased, "Nearly two months of delay. How much more wise do you think procrastination would be?"

The sound of footsteps coming down the stairs brought the two women in the kitchen to a silence and they smiled as Kushi and Lord Arnav walked in.

Just then, the sound of the living room door closing was heard followed by the fatherly voice announcing, "Is my little Princess home?"

"Babuji!" Kushi turned around and raced across the kitchen hallway to the living room.

Lord Arnav sauntered after her with slow steps but paused when he beheld the sight before him.

The father was holding his daughter in a crushing embrace as though by that very expression he sought to claim his daughter and never let go of her again. Kushi wept happy tears against his shoulder, overcome by the secure assurance of his love.

"Babuji..." Kushi whispered sadly, "How could you let go off me?"

"My dear child," her father's voice was rough with emotion, "The number of times I wished I'd said no to his offer of taking your hand..."

Kushi looked up at her father whose sad eyes shone with a merry delight, "But now that I see how well he has cared for you and kept you happy, I am relieved I made the right choice."

Kushi kissed her father on his cheek, "I never distrust the choices you make for me, Babuji. You always know what is best for me."

The elderly man smiled, the ends of his eyes wrinkling when he did, "Now, where is that fine gentleman you belong to now?"

Kushi pouted, "Babuji, you are the fine gentleman I belong to."

Babuji laughed, "How I wish I could make a re-trade! But I am certain that our Arnavbabua would not permit to let you go, now that he knows what a unique specimen you are!"

He pinched her nose playfully.

Kushi grinned, "You know me well, Babuji. But you do not know my husband. I annoy him so much that I know he'll willingly wager to trade with you so you can have me back."

"Really?" Babuji raised his eyebrows like the rapt way he used to in the past, when the seven-year-old Kushi would, in all seriousness, narrate a most ludicrous fib she'd heard from the other kids.

Lord Arnav had been watching the scene from a distance, knowing not why he felt a longing and sadness inside of him. Wanting to trod over his vulnerable silence, he stepped forward and caught Master Shashi's eye.

"Ah, Arnavbabua!" Master Shashi beamed at him, offering him a hand.

"Master Shashi," Lord Arnav shook the elderly man's hand.

"Oh," Master Shashi's smile fell, "Do you have any issues with me addressing you as my son?"

"No, not at all," offered Lord Arnav, "It's only that I will not partake in familiarity when I address you. But you have the freedom to call me what you will."

Master Shashi smiled, "We would be honoured to be treated as your parents for we are as much your Amma and Babuji as we are Kushibitiya's."

"I understand," Lord Arnav nodded respectfully, "But I would prefer keeping my expressions curtailed."

"As you wish, babua," Master Shashi patted him on his shoulder.

Suddenly Mistress Madhumati's voice exclaimed from behind them, "What is this I see? Garima, this husband of yours is out to monopolize the children and leave us, poor women, out of the scene."

"Now, now, Madhumati," Master Shashi smiled at his sister, his eyes twinkling, "Would I forget my lovely wife and my most ecstatic sister just because my Princess and her Prince have arrived?"

"Well, you better not," Garima's voice answered to him from the kitchen, "Or you wouldn't be getting any second helpings from the pie I've made for dessert!"

"Oh dear!" Master Shashi looked at Kushi, his face lit in radiant playfulness to make her smile, "Not the pie! Bless the pie! I will not part with it!"

Kushi giggled and then catching Lord Arnav's clueless look, she explained to him, "Amma's pies are the best in the Village, in fact, best in all of Arhasia. The villagers say Babuji decided to marry Amma because he fell in love with her pies."

"And I'll tell you a secret, babua," Master Shashi said cheerfully to Lord Arnav, "It was her pies that undid me. And after all these years, her pies are still my first and only love."

Kushi giggled, "Don't let Amma hear you say that, Babuji."

"She already knows," sighed Master Shashi, "She knows I can't help it when it comes to her pies and I will strike any bargain if I am to have extra helpings of them. In fact," Master Shashi looked at Lord Arnav, "I am contemplating on make a bargain with you to get your share of the pie, babua. You will help me in this endeavor, won't you?"

Kushi laughed but Lord Arnav only shrugged.

As he watched father and daughter stroll into the kitchen hand-in-hand, Lord Arnav again wished he was back at the Castle and not in the Village.