Chapter 201

"Who is Mamma's little Princess? Who is my little darling?" cooed Lady Anjali at the toothlessly grinning babe in her arms.

The little child beamed at her mother who was contorting her expressions to amuse the babe and, at intervals, redeemed her with affectionate kisses. Little Ram sat beside Lady Anjali on the garden bench, watching the mother and baby at their sunny play.

It was this sight that Kushi first glimpsed when she promenaded into the garden. She paused to smile at this late afternoon vision, marvelling at the beauty of being amidst children. Her husband's words came to her mind and, instantly, a blush crossed her cheek.

The blush on her fair cheeks caught the General's eye as he traversed the garden path that led to the Castle doors. Halting his steps, he frowned thoughtfully, and then turned his steps down the grassy lawn and towards where Kushi stood at a distance from the bench.

The sound of grass crunching under his determined boots forewarned Kushi to his approach. Looking over her shoulder, behind which shone the blazing sun, she squinted to see who it was.

Her eyes widened on recognition of his silhouette.

The speed of his urgent approach set her to step back hastily, making her stumble backwards and fall to the grassy ground.

"Miss Kushi!" The General was beside her at once, his hands reaching to help her, but with one deft move, she thwarted his aid and arose to her feet by herself.

Dusting the dirt off her gown, she straightened herself and looked decisively at him, which was when she beheld, over his shoulder, Lady Anjali, rising from the bench, Anarkali in her arms. The young mother's face was knotted with concern and, though Kushi was not sure of it, there was something about the dip of her beautiful eyebrows that made her seem a tad bit suspicious.

It was perhaps her fancy, Kushi tried to reason, though in her heart she was hoping that Lady Anjali had not seen her deny the aid of the General which would certainly have sowed the seed in the ignorant mind.

"Are you alright?" the General was asking her with genuine worry.

Kushi forced a smile, "I am quite well, General sir. Now, if you will excuse me..."

Kushi had stepped around the General, intending to make for the Castle, but paused when she saw that Lady Anjali was approaching them.

The General caught sight of his wife and the bouncing babe in her arm. Without a thought, he reluctantly stepped aside and engrossed himself in a detached study of the flowering bushes that stood nearby.

As Lady Anjali neared Kushi, her vexed gaze fell on her husband and then upon Kushi who smiled amiably at the child in her arms.

"Are you alright, Kushiji?" asked Lady Anjali, "I hope you didn't hurt yourself from that tripping."

"I only stumbled," explained Kushi, fingering little Anarkali's arm, "And it was onto the soft grass, not a path of stone."

"Indeed," nodded Lady Anjali hesitantly, her eyes looking in the direction of her husband, who had his arms crossed behind him as he leaned down to inspect a bee's exploit on the heart of a flower.

"Could I hold Princess for a moment?" asked Kushi, her eager hands reaching for the child.

With an agreeable smile, Lady Anjali offered her the babe and then watched Kushi tease the child, rubbing their noses together.

The young mother's gaze fell on the glow of the young girl's face which made her smile in reminiscence, "How happy I am for you, Kushiji." She caressed Kushi's cheek when she said this, making her blush.

A few feet away, General Jha scowled at the bee, his mind seething in the knowledge of the cause for the caress that his wife was bestowing upon Kushi's cheek.

"If you are not presently occupied in anything, I would love it if you would take a turn with me around the garden," Lady Anjali invited and Kushi followed, cradling Anarkali in her arm. Little Ram walked beside Lady Anjali and, midway, she took his little hand in hers as they walked together across the wide Castle gardens.

It was only after they'd turned the bend that Kushi realized where they were heading towards. Before them, like a sinister guardian of the Castle, loomed the tall rosebush, into which Kushi was still not certain how one could enter. It was a miracle the memory of being inside its dark inclusion with her husband last night while, in daylight, its thorny green stems and forbidding leafs shunned all away, revealing no door and inviting no roses to gaze upon.

Standing before it, Lady Anjali seemed removed from reality, her gaze distanced and lost as though in some distressing memory.

Kushi herself felt her gaze drawn to the eerie aura and was compelled to remember the disturbing reminiscence of last night's vision.

Knowing it was safer to divine answers from Di than from her resilient Chotey, Kushi cleared her throat to ask, "Di, is there a reason why Arnavji cherishes this particular rosebush?"

"Quite," affirmed Lady Anjali in a sad voice, "It belonged to his mother."

Kushi was flabbergasted, "The rosebush?!"

"No, the roses," said Lady Anjali, "He had brought along a flowering stem to Arhasia when we left our home. I was certain it was useless but he was determined to grow them in this garden...you see, he couldn't quite part with it. They were his mother's favourite pastime."

Lady Anjali sighed and then turned to Kushi, "There is so much you can never describe about Chotey, but only feel into understanding. He loved his mother like he loved no one else on earth, protecting her and treasuring her with every ounce of his being. Her murder was death to himself. Oh yes, he died that day, my Chotey..."

Lady Anjali's eyes brimmed with tears as she took Kushi's hand that was free of the child, "In the absence of his mother, he rooted for me but I knew I was not what he needed. And then you came."

Kushi looked at her as Lady Anjali continued with deep emotion, "You are everything that is right in his life, Kushiji. You brought him back to life, back to happiness...back to love."

Smiling, Kushi whispered, "I do love him, Di, so much so I am willing to die for him."

"I know you do," said Lady Anjali, squeezing gently the hand of the healer to her brother's hurting heart, "And he will only love you more, now that he has made you his forever."

Kushi blushed again, finding it embarrassing this open conversation about things that made her giddy even now from memory.

She looked pointedly at Lady Anjali, "I know you have a hand in all that has happened between Arnavji and I."

"What do you mean?" Lady Anjali tilted her head, her smile amused but her eyes lit with curiosity.

Kushi intelligently professed, "If you hadn't welcomed me and Jiji to enter through the Raizada gates, I would never have met Arnavji and none of the things that followed would have happened. I wouldn't have fallen in love with him or he with me."

"How true..." Lady Anjali spoke in dazed admiration of the connected truth.

"Besides," Kushi continued importantly, "You cannot deny that you had annually sent your brother to participate in the Wish Ceremony that carried your persistent desire to see him wedded."

"You sly thing!" Lady Anjali gaped in surprise, "How ever did you know of that!"

"Akashji told me," nodded Kushi with a clever smile on her face, "The Divine Powers must have gotten so frustrated with your ceaseless pleas that they decided to do something about it! Because how else would Arnavji lose the key with your wish exactly on the path that I would immediately come to cross and eventually make a find of the mislaid key!"

"This is so fascinating!" exclaimed Lady Anjali, "I didn't know any of this was so marvellously-" She paused, a new memory finding her senses, "Is that what that hermit, who wedded you two, meant when he said you had accomplished all the rituals? That you had not been conscious of doing them, which I now understand for I always knew Chotey would never in his life voluntarily surrender to the protocols of a religious ritual. Unless he was doing them without his being aware of them... the Divine Powers could perchance have had a hand in this..."

As Lady Anjali contemplated over the possibility, Kushi's mind wandered into the near past, remembering all the rituals they had accidently completed... Their falling into the lake, his forcing her to drink from a glass he'd sipped from, the minor accident in the forest that was followed by his demand to put a ring on her finger...

Lady Anjali's hesitant voice broke into her thoughts, "But I cannot, for the life of me, understand why he would force a hasty decision to marry you... We would have happily married you two if he had expressed his desire, and in due time too. But why did he have to go and do it in secret and not give us an occasion to celebrate with him in the ceremony?"

Kushi paled, not knowing how to answer Lady Anjali. She had known that one day or the other she would have to confront this question, but she had been courageous that Lord Arnav would be there to answer the grim query instead of her. But here it was, finding her at a testing, awkward moment. Was she to answer it and break all happiness forever? Wouldn't the cruel answer reveal the General's correspondence with her in the past?

Sometimes, chance has a way of overcoming the immediate tribulations of time.

Ram had used the engrossed conversation of the women as an opportune moment to steal the baby from their midst, and little Anarkali bounced with delight as he took her from Kushi.

Distracted from their thoughts, Kushi and Lady Anjali watched as Ram kissed the soft tuft of her hair atop her baby head.

"You are blessed to have a child like Anarkali," said Kushi hastily, wanting the other to forget the earlier issue of their conversation, but her words were sincere, "Ram adores being her protective brother."

Lady Anjali gazed proudly at Kushi, "My dear Kushiji, may I remind you: you have the radiance of a wife on you and it will not be too long when you will be granted the glow of motherhood." Stunned by the suddenness of the subject, Kushi looked at Lady Anjali as the latter continued philosophically, "Every woman must know what those cherished nine months feel like. And though it is hard to imagine in one's limited mind Chotey as a father, I can't keep my excitement that one day it will be so." Lady Anjali looked eagerly at Kushi, "Think of it, Kushiji! A little playmate for our Princess and Ram!"

"And Jiji's child," added Kushi, trying to not lay all the spotlight on herself.

"Ofcourse! Payal's child too!" Lady Anjali's eyes lit with childish excitement, "The Castle will be in boisterous merriment every day what with four children running skitter-scatter, don't you think? And how I pray that they be as mischievous as we were in our childhood! That way, we can have some fun and adventure to our ever-so-serious days!"

Kushi laughed at the appalling image that was filled with noise, spills and upturned chairs. What a sight it would be for the sombre, stringent Castle to be turned into a mighty amusing nursery!

It was, however, a sour sight to the General who frowned from the distance, watching them laugh and converse so animatedly. And that disquieting glow on her maiden face...

The General looked away, aggrieved by the sight, and stormed back to the Castle. He wasn't sure he could bear to be in the same place anymore where his preciously awaited cure had been ravaged and undone by another...

Unless.

Unless there was a clause that made her still worthy and capable to cure him... For, if that was so, he needn't lose heart but only find out how...