Chapter 172
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[MEMBERSONLY]
Unsteady network connection. Will PM this chapter on a later date. For now, stalkers and passersby: enjoy the tiny 250th. And thanks to all those who commented and liked the last chapter...
Chapter 250: Encountering the Epistles of the Erstwhile
Lord Arnav arrived late to the Castle again and was equally relieved and saddened to find his wife not at the dining table, waiting for him. After his dinner, he hastily rushed to his bed chamber, whereupon reaching, he stopped in confusion for she was not there in bed nor in the bath chamber, nor in the open balcony.
Wondering where she could be past midnight, he decided to inspect the library and sure enough found her curled up in his huge armchair, fast asleep, her hair come lose from the bun and fanning her beautiful face.
He moved towards the armchair, marvelling at the way the moonlight from the window and the dim candlelight from the table shone over her sleeping form.
Gently, making sure he did not awaken her, he lifted his wife in his arms, blew out the candle and walked out of the library with her asleep in his arms, her head nestled against his firm shoulder.
On reaching his bed chamber, he shut the door with a shove of his shoulder and then walked up to his bed. Sliding through the space between the curtains that hung around the bed poster, he climbed onto it and lay her on the soft centre.
He rushed, then, to the bath chamber, hastily washed and put on his night pants before stepping back into the bed chamber and making for his bed.
He lay beside his wife and watched her in her sleep, her innocent face precious in the moonlight from the balcony.
A slight breeze blew into the chamber and Kushi shivered in her sleep.
Lord Arnav instantly wrapped his strong, warm arms around her and pulled her to the warmth of his bare chest.
Pressing his face to her hair, he breathed in and smiled.
And then he frowned.
Something in her hand was obstructing at his hip.
With one hand still holding her in his embrace, he dipped his other hand into hers and extracted the crumpled piece of parchment that she had been clutching.
Curious of its presence in his wife's hand, he lay her back in bed and himself sat up. He lit the candle that was mounted on the table beside the bed.
Leaning towards the candle, he straightened out the crumpled piece of parchment and realized there were two parchments. One seemed fairly older than the other but both were written in the same hand, a writing that was not familiar to him.
They were addressed to Kushi and his eyes glanced down the length of the parchments to find Lady Lavanya's name underneath.
Lord Arnav sat up. Lavanya wrote letters to Kushi?
He was immediately reminded of the night Lady Lavanya had parted when she'd handed him a roll of parchment, asking him to give it to Kushi.
Lord Arnav was not sure if it was right of him to spy into letters addressed to his wife but his eyes fell on the older parchment on which the initials "ASR" instantly caught his attention.
He couldn't stop himself from reading those lines:
ASR...I do not know what he will feel once I leave him, if my absence will mean anything to him since my presence did not. But I know one thing for sure. There is someone's absence he is greatly tormented by. I have seen it but never understood it was for the reasons I realize now.
Lord Arnav frowned suspiciously. Who was Lavanya talking about? Whose absence-?
And then his gaze fell on another place where he was mentioned:
The two people I valued the most: you and ASR. You two have been a lot dear to me, more than my own father could have been. More than a friend, you have become a sister to me, Kushi. And even with all the aches he gave me, ASR is still and always will be my first love. Or, like how Aman put it more logically to ease my mind, my first infatuation.
Lord Arnav took a deep breath, his head spinning in confusion and distress. All of the feelings that Lavanya had harboured, which he'd coldly taken for granted...
But, Lord Arnav frowned thoughtfully: Why is Aman mentioned in the letter?
Finally, he could keep himself undisclosed of the contents no longer.
Sliding closer to the lighted radius of the candle, he immersed himself in the two letters, each line a dagger into his heart, that both stung and amazed him.
How did she know! How did Lavanya know!! Lord Arnav found himself asking at the end of the strenuous reading. He blinked and realized there were hot tears in his eyes.
"Damn it, Lavanya!" He threw the letters onto the table, the force of which blew out the candle, plunging the room into darkness again.
The words from the letter crept into his memory and thawed at his guilt. The glaring pain, the sincere love and the unspoken truth in her words... they threatened to choke him and make him want to curl up and cry.
He looked over his shoulder and saw his wife fast asleep.
"Why, Kushi," he mumbled to her sleeping face, "Why didn't you tell me. All the hurts I have caused, how will I ever-"
Kushi shifted in her sleep and Lord Arnav paused.
When Kushi resumed her immobile sleep again, he climbed in and lay beside her, pulling her to him.
He kissed her on her forehead, remembering the night he had locked her in the dungeon.
"I am sorry, Kushi, I am truly sorry," he whispered into her hair.
Weary from a tiring day at the Industry, he felt sleep engulfing his mind which was also rocked by guilt, in the aftermath of reading Lavanya's letter.
But alongwith it was the pleasing news about Aman's whereabouts. And to think that those two had a thing going all these months!
Lord Arnav reminded himself that he would have to ask Kushi about the "escape in the Market" mentioned in the letter that she and Lavanya had encountered.
Before sleep overtook his mind completely, he smiled against Kushi's hair and murmured, "The irony is almost hilarious, isn't it, Kushi? The whole world knew but us."
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