Chapter 153

The like' button is not working but though in haste, heartily I read all your comments. I was moved to tears by some of your affection and I am really grateful for the readers I have been gifted with. I am especially thankful for those dear ones whose discussions keep the story alive and the storyteller's heart filled with the knowledge that her troubles are worth it. Thank you to those who "like," those who can neither like nor comment but love the story deeply, those who are new readers, those who are volunteering to involve in the discussion panel...Thank you to each and every one of you. I wish I could say more but the weather is storm-ridden and there are persistent issues with the network and electricity. Hence, hoping you will forgive me for my shortened reply and for having played on your patience all these days.

Thankyou also for loving the chapter with the First Lord and Buaji in it...

Chapter 231: Labour for Love

In the morning, come sunup, the entire family was seated to breakfast.

The presence of Master Shashi at the table was enough treat for their day and the conversations, quite impulsively, were steered to cheerful memories of Kushi's infamously miscreant endeavours as a child. The subject herself turned all red and she stole uncertain glances at her husband, sitting across from her, who was listening to the elders and their tales with a rapture that was rarely found bestowed upon his presumably passive face. She had even noticed how his cunning eyes had lit up on hearing her famous reference as "Mistress of Mischief."

When breakfast was over and the womenfolk proceeded to the washing of the dishes, Master Shashi sat in the living room by the fireplace as he enjoyed his late cup of coffee. Kushi accorded him company and the father lavished his time listening and laughing to her stories of the Castle and what the Prakash brothers did when they were not working.

But gradually, he began to feel guilty of lazing in the luxury of listening to his daughter and doing nothing productive on his part.

Despite his wife's adamant premonitions, he was reluctantly granted permission to work at the forge in the backyard on the condition that there would be no excessive exertion of any sort.

When Master Shashi headed towards the backyard through the open backdoor, as a deterrent, Mistress Garima nodded fixedly at Kushi, directing her to follow her father and keep an eye on him while he worked.

Gladdened by the offer, Kushi rushed to put on her boots and then presented her animated self in the sunlit backyard.

Kushi watched her father work, aided him in the hammering at intervals and resumed their conversation which slowly steered to Payal, a subject that brought tears to the father's eyes. "I still remember the day she was born. A tiny little creature, all wet and warm. When the midwife handed her to me, it was one of the most beautiful moments of my life."

Kushi smiled at the thought and remembered witnessing an occasion of a neighbourly new-born and was certain her Babuji's eyes may have lit up more than that young villager's.

Kushi leaned forward and being the nearest (and cleanest) place on her father that she could reach, she kissed him on the shoulder and pressed her cheek against it, "My sweet Babuji, now that the rituals are over, I am certain she will come to visit more often."

Master Shashi turned to his youngest daughter, "Kushibitiya, I will accept Payalia's welcome only if you will be beside her coming to visit too."

Kushi grinned widely, "You didn't think I would send her home alone, did you? I won't let you have all the peace."

"Goodness, child!" Babuji was amazed, "Are you telling me you are up to your mischiefs at this age as well?"

"Is there any way I can assure you otherwise?" Kushi smiled naughtily.

Just then the backdoor opened and Buaji appeared at the top of the stairs, standing there with her green wig flashing in the sunlight.

With one hand on her hip, Mistress Madhumati held a jar of fresh lemonade in the other. The aunt beckoned her niece and Kushi strode towards the stairs that led up to the back porch.

Mistress Madhumati handed her the jug, "I want you to take this over to Master Happy's. He is making a new carriage and began work since daybreak. He and that boy must be worn out by now." The aunt caught Kushi eying the jar thirstily, "As soon as you return, escort your father into the house and you two can enjoy a glass full."

Aptly motivated, Kushi turned about, balancing the jar of lemonade sacredly in her hold with Buaji's warning ringing after her, "Don't you spill any of it!"

Kushi stepped across the backyard, out through the tiny gate in the fence, crossed the tiny dust road, and was soon walking up the little lawn of Master Happy's cottage.

As she headed in the direction of the garage that was situated adjacent to the cottage, she could distinctly pick Master Happy's voice ensuing from within. It seemed Master Happy was telling Ram what to do and how it was to be done.

Nearing the garage, Kushi smiled at the thought of how the little boy's face would appear listening and nodding silently as he worked away on his Master's instructions.

But next moment, her steps came to a sudden halt and a few drops of lemonade leapt off the brim to the grass on the ground.

Wide eyed, she let her ears strain to believe what she was hearing.

For, instead of the silent response of Ram's nods, Master Happy's instructions were answered diligently by a polite manly voice which, there was no doubting it, belonged to her husband.

Scampering up the remaining steps to the open door of the garage, Kushi stood and stared at the spectacle within the garage.

There, standing tall by the side of the wooden frame of an unfinished carriage, was a shirtless Lord Arnav.

Little Ram was beside him and overlooking their work was Master Happy.

After offering his instructions, Master Happy had stepped around the unfinished carriage to return back to his cottage to get something when he spotted Kushi at the doorway.

"Ah, Kushibitiya!"

Kushi didn't hear his greeting for she was still staring in shock at the odd entity with sweat running down his back and chest.

Hearing Master Happy's greeting in regard of their visitor, Lord Arnav looked up and nodded in notice of her presence but seemed to not be whatsoever affected by the expression on his wife's stunned face.

Master Happy's eyes fell on what she was holding, "What is that you have there, child?"

Kushi blinked and looked at Master Happy, "It's lemonade, Master Happy. From Buaji."

"Ah, how considerate of your aunt!" Master Happy's face lit up on the mention of his neighbour but Kushi was too brazen to notice, her head wrapped in disbelief.

"Well, bring it along to kitchen, child, and we'll pour it into glasses for the boys here."

Kushi nodded and hastily followed after Master Happy, stealing furtive glances at her husband from the corner of her eye in her attempts to decipher his intentions for this display of his.

It was when she was helping Master Happy pour the lemonade into the glasses that Kushi regretfully realized that she had completely forgotten to greet or acknowledge Ram's presence in the garage.

Despite his latest feats of betrayal in joining Lord Arnav's company for a worthless cheesecake, the little boy was her friend and she didn't think it had been right on her part to have forgotten to greet him.

When she returned back to the garage, Ram and Lord Arnav were immersed in their work, the little boy shaping out the edge of a plank with a chisel while the First Lord hammered nails into a board.

The sound of Kushi's approach brought the two of them to pause their work and their eyes fell on the tray she was holding with two glasses on it, filled to the brim with lemonade.

On reaching them, she watched as each took his glass of lemonade, Lord Arnav instantly draining the beverage down his thirsty throat.

Kushi saw that Ram was in his work shorts with its straps over his shoulders and no shirt under them. But Lord Arnav, despite being shirtless, was in his best day pants and it was hard for Kushi to digest that he would dare dirty his expensive pants.

When he returned the empty glass to the tray, she almost gasped on the sight of his fingers, dusty and greased like any ordinary man's. Like Master Happy's and Babuji's...

All of a sudden, she was overcome with a desire to rush to her husband and hug him but she gulped down her vagrant rise of emotions and turned her attention fixedly on the little boy who was only halfway through his lemonade.

"How do you like the lemonade, Ram?" she smiled at him.

Ram lifted his thumb up in a gesture of appraisal and Kushi replied cheerfully, "I will most certainly convey it to Buaji, my little friend."

"Tell her the drink was refreshingly sweet from me too," offered Lord Arnav, as he hammered at the nails.

Kushi frowned at the tray, comprehending that his aiding in the garage was another trick to bring her subjected to softer feelings for him. Well, you're not getting me on my knees, Lordy.

Kushi shot a cold look at his back. "You can tell that to her yourself. I am not your messenger."

Lord Arnav only shrugged and continued on his work, not bothering to offer her a glimpse.

This infuriated her more and she was determined to not depart without a fight.

She stepped forward, her head lifted proud, and addressed his work, "I suppose Ram had to train you before you learnt to hit those nails right on their heads."

Lord Arnav positioned another nail on the board, "Neither Ram nor Master Happy trained me. Every man is born knowing how to hammer nails."

Ram placed his emptied glass on the tray Kushi was holding and he looked up at her, hoping to hear a good boy' but she was clearly distracted by a new interest.

"Are they?" Kushi raised her eyebrows in mock amazement, "And yet they need to marry so they can have women to hammer sense into them."

Lord Arnav looked over his shoulder at her, "Perchance I heard it wrong but could you be referring to yourself as the owner of sense'?

Kushi had an impish glint in her eyes, "Undeniably, I have more sense in me than there is workmanship in your pockets."

Lord Arnav narrowed his gaze, "Don't dare tread on those waters, Kushi. Questioning a man's workmanship is almost akin to questioning his manliness."

Ram sensed a tension in the air and fearing something would avail and his Master's glasses would find themselves in the middle of a tragedy, Ram hastily offered to take the tray of glasses off Kushi's hold which she wilfully complied with, for she was too immersed in her verbal battle to take note of what she was holding or, as the moment presented, what she wasn't.

Lord Arnav had already returned to his hammering.

Kushi put her hands on her hips, "Well, being the owner of an Industry that stitches and dyes silk apparels, I'd say you have more womanliness in you than little Ram has manliness."

"You-" Lord Arnav's outburst to react made him move so fast that his hand scrapped at the blade of the chisel lying nearby, making him withdraw his hand with a sudden hiss of pain.

"My lord! You're hurt!" Kushi leapt forward in anxiety and, grabbing his bruised hand, she put his bleeding finger into her mouth and sucked at it, pressing her tongue against the little cut to stop the bleeding.

Which is when her eyes caught his surprised look and she realized what she had done.

Turning red in her face, she stared at him, knowing not what next to do or how to recover from the embarrassing occasion. His finger was still in her mouth and she could taste the metallic tinge of his blood on her trembling tongue.

Lord Arnav gulped down on the desire that roared inside him. He could feel her slick saliva around his finger, warming it, and the feelings that ignited on his fingertip at the touch of her tongue rushed down his arm, up his shoulder and down his chest where it thrummed with his cold heart.

He could hear himself breathing through his open mouth and he stepped towards her until his face was inches away from hers. He was too bedazzled by the sight of her petrified poise, staring up at him, her lips still closed around his finger.

The silent strain in the air built by their mutual arousal was punctured just then by the very tiny sound of a nail falling, bringing both Kushi's and Lord Arnav's face turning to find the little boy behind them staring open-mouthed at the scene, his hands held frozen astride and a little nail lying on the ground by his foot.

In a flash, Kushi withdrew his finger and stepped back, and Lord Arnav blinked at her, recovering from his daze.

"Excuse me," she told the tray as she picked it up, "Buaji is expecting my return."

And then she was scampering off as fast as her boots permitted her to be in the gown.

Lord Arnav was aware of Ram's awkward glances in his direction and despite being not pleased with such glances, he was forgiving of the boy for it was not always the boy had a vision of the kind he'd witnessed earlier.

By noon, they were halfway through the carriage what with Master Happy's quick hands working on it.

Lord Arnav had decided it was enough fun for a day, especially because he was not used to it, and Master Happy was all graciousness for the First Lord.

After putting his shirt back on, Lord Arnav washed his hands and face in the cold water from the garage basin and then Master Happy offered to walk him to the garage door to see him off.

The two men stepped across the wide floor, towards the open doorway where Lord Arnav stopped to look back at the garage.

"I am really obliged for this opportunity you've extended for me to spend time with you and the boy."

"It has been our honour, sire," said Master Happy, "It humbles me and equally enthrals me to have had you here and engaged with you like I would with my family, despite mine having none."

Lord Arnav nodded over Master Happy's shoulder at the boy who was replacing the tools into the tool box on the far table, "You have him. He is a bright lad."

"He was the best among the many apprentices I had," said Master Happy sadly, his gaze also drawn to the boy at the other end of the garage, "I will always remember him with pride."

Lord Arnav noted a tenor of grief in Master Happy's voice and he couldn't help himself from asking, "Is something wrong?"

Master Happy looked at Lord Arnav, "This day next week...the contract ends and I will be bidding goodbye to this boy I have come to cherish..."

Lord Arnav looked at Ram as the little boy, with sweat on the tips of hair, neatly stacked the tools in the box with his dusty little hands. He closed the lid and, standing on the tip of his toes, replaced the box back on the shelf.

Ram had just turned about to head for the cottage when he noticed the two men at the far end watching him.

With a wave of his little hand to Lord Arnav, the little one then gestured to Master Happy that he was about to step back into the cottage for a bath.

Master Happy and Lord Arnav lifted their hands in acknowledgment and Master Happy was watching the boy go when Lord Arnav asked the elderly man, "Say, would you be occupied in anything of importance this evening?"

Master Happy looked at Lord Arnav, "Matters of importance barely occur in my old life, sire, and rarely ever in the evenings."

Lord Arnav didn't know if he could proceed without having first won the permission of the concerned but he nevertheless put forward a polite proposition, "I would be delighted...indeed we all, the Guptas and my wife included, will be delighted to have your company and Ram's for dinner with us this evening."

Master Happy was both astonished and touched, "Well... that would be an honour and a pleasure indeed."

Lord Arnav nodded once, "We will be expecting you promptly at seven, then."

"Seven and not a second later," assured Master Happy before the two formally shook their hands and parted ways.

As he watched the First Lord walk majestically across the lawn and head for the Gupta's Cottage, Master Happy ascertained to himself, "What a fine gentleman he is! Who would not like him, I say! Not a bit of an inkling to the horrific figure Kushibitiya had painted him to be a year ago!"