Chapter 230

Chapter 311: Fruit of the Future

The same hour, OmPrakash was driving the carriage across the path amid the open grasslands.

Within, Ram sat beside Kushi, the former holding an excited little Anarkali and the latter a packaged bottle of red wine and a warmly wrapped but enticingly aromatic blueberry pie.

Kushi was looking out the carriage window, wallowing in her worries. She had been convinced that the quicker she moved away from the territory of the rosebush, the closer she would be to feeling comforted. But, contrarily, she felt more weak and disoriented than ever.

Breathing heavily, she stuck her head out of the window, unable to make sense of what was happening. Was she going to die? Is this how the bewitched rosebush was to mete out its revenge?

All of a sudden, her heart found reason to cheer up for, before her eyes, passed the visions of familiar cottages and little gardens.

A relieved smile crept on her face.

She was home.

She was safe.

She looked towards Anarkali and Ram and announced jubilantly, "We're here! Home at last!"

As the carriage rode onward up the dusty path, passing by the many houses with children at play while their mothers hung sheets on the clotheslines' and the fathers pulled out the weeds from the garden, a satisfied sense of security wrapped around her.

Just then, she noticed a familiar form beside one of the houses. She couldn't contain her excitement and called out to her, "Mistress P!! Mistress P!!!"

The greeting caught the attention of both OmPrakash and the addressed individual.

While the former halted the carriage so his Mistress could meet the other, the latter let out an exultant chuckle on recognizing the face looking out eagerly from the window.

"And who is this!" the village herbalist's wife acclaimed, "If it isn't the naughty little Koosi!"

Kushi had stepped out of the carriage and was walking up the stone path that led to the herbalist's house before which stood her Mistress P, short for Mistress Prabha, "I still can't believe you call me by the lisp of my younger days!"

"Well, that was how you had introduced yourself to me the first time and it hasn't changed ever since!" Mistress Prabha said, embracing her warmly and then withdrew to have a good look at her, "Well, look at how you've grown. Quite into a Lady!"

Kushi blushed, "My husband does chastise me often for my childish interests, though."

"Well, wouldn't he!" Mistress Prabha laughed, "What with him being the Lord of the land and you acting like the Babe of the clan!"

"Mistress P!" Kushi pursed her lips, "You haven't changed a bit what with your senseless teasing of innocent ol' me!"

Mistress Prabha smiled, pride lighting up in her eyes, "Do you remember the days when you promised you'd be my apprentice!"

Kushi nodded guiltily with a half-smile, "I sure do..."

"You were a dreamer, you always were," smiled Mistress Prabha, and then she indicated to the house, "But, come in, won't you? I'll make you a mint tea like the old days."

"You must forgive me, but I must decline. I am headed to Babuji's and cannot tarry any longer," she noticed the light dim in her old friend's gaze and hastily supplemented an offer, "But I suppose I can pay you a visit in the evening on my return to the Castle."

The herbalist's wife nodded gratifyingly, "That should be just fine."

Mistress Prabha and Kushi turned to the carriage which was when the herbalist's wife noticed the children, "Oh my! Who are these darlings on my doorstep? Isn't that Lady Anjali's child, our Princess?"

"It is her," Kushi grinned, her gaze sliding to Anarkali. She signalled to Ram to get into the carriage with the little child.

"And the boy?"

"Ram is family. But you may remember him from the days he was apprentice to Master Happy at the South Village."

"I have heard of him," nodded the herbalist's wife, watching admiringly the careful manner in which Ram lifted the happy Anarkali into the carriage, "What a blessed sight! The children seem inseparable!"

"Ram dotes on her like his little sister," Kushi acknowledged, "And she loves best being cuddled and amused by him."

Kushi turned to the carriage and Mistress Prabha withdrew a step, "Do remember to stop by when you return, my dear."

"I will," replied Kushi as she was getting into the carriage. But suddenly, she lost her footing and slipped from the step and would have fallen to the hard path if Mistress Prabha hadn't rushed to catch her.

She held Kushi to her concerned chest as OmPrakash and the children alighted from the carriage and rushed to the First Lady's aid.

Kushi had regained her equilibrium instantly and smiled feebly, "I am alright. Just tripped on the hem of my gown."

"Nonsense! You look flushed!" the herbalist's wife was on the alert, seeing how Kushi's hand trembled as it wiped across her forehead, "Why don't you come in and rest a while, child?"

"I suppose I could take that mint tea now," said Kushi good-humouredly.

A few minutes later, Kushi was sitting on the chair at the kitchen table, observing, through the open doorway that led to the cozy little living room, Ram occupying little Anarkali in happy play.

"Here you go," said the herbalist's wife, placing a cup of freshly steaming mint tea on the table, the teacup clinking on its saucer.

Kushi took a sip with her eyes closed as the steam of the fragrant tea wafted over her face.

"Mmm," murmured a content Kushi, "This is simply perfect, just like old times."

"It's a brew that never fails to heal," winked Mistress Prabha.

She sat on the chair opposite Kushi and took her wrist in her hand, "You drink the tea away while I count your heartbeats."

Kushi smiled as she continued sipping, feeling alleviated already.

In her satisfied spirit, she was watching the kids play while drinking her healing tea when she sensed the herbalist's hold on her wrist tense.

She looked at Mistress Prabha and noticed the anxious look in her eyes.

"What is it?" asked Kushi, beginning to panic. She could feel the fatigue returning to plague her again.

Mistress Prabha immediately set out to press her fingers to Kushi's neck and inspect her eyes.

"What is it? What IS IT?" Kushi was petrified.

And then she paused, for she realized Mistress Prabha had a huge grin on her face.

Confused, Kushi blinked at her, "Mistress P?"

"Oh happy news! Happy news, Blessed child!!!" cried out the herbalist's wife, getting to her feet, "Am I the first to know? Yes, I am!! Wait till the whole land hears of this!"

Kushi was still in the dark, "What is it? What-?" She froze as the truth slammed into her senses and the hand in which she was holding the cup began to tremble.

Her eyes had turned misty with tears but she looked at Mistress Prabha, seeking confirmation, "Am I-? Am I-?"

"Yes! Yes! YES!!!" sang the herbalist, taking the cup from Kushi's hand and guiding her to her feet.

Kushi was too stunned by the comprehension that she could not make sense of anything.

But as soon as she was on her feet, through her tears of bliss, Kushi found herself laughing and crying at the same time, her mind disabled to know which emotion to undergo.

"I am with Child!!!" Kushi exclaimed at the top of her voice, "I am going to be a mother!!!!"

Ram rushed into the room, on hearing her proclamation, beaming bright.

Carrying Little Anarkali, he joined in the joyous moment which Kushi punctuated with a happy dance of her own. But she wasn't allowed to dance any further, for the herbalist's wife instructed her to not be too vigorous and overexert herself while another life lived inside of her.

Another life living inside of me. Kushi almost swooned with the ecstasy she was going through.

"Oh, Mistress P!!!! How will I ever thank you for this!"

Mistress Prabha gaped at her, "Why!! You are talking as though it is I who put the child in there!!"

Both of them laughed at the little joke and then the herbalist's wife wiped a happy tear and went to fetch something.

"I know you will see a different herbalist when you are in your varied months in the Castle, but I would like to give you something as a gift for this special time of yours."

Kushi gratefully took the little brown packet in which, she knew from memory of running errands, were some powdered herbs, effective in the beverages of the first few months of a carrying woman.

"You know what, Mistress P?" Kushi opined importantly, "I will make sure that the herbalist who will be seeing me every month will be none other than you!"

Mistress Prabha's eyes were brimming with tears already, "Oh my child!"

"I will sent carriages to bring you to me," decided Kushi emphatically, "And what's more, I will have you be my midwife too!!!"

Mistress Prabha gasped, overcome with emotion at this offer and she embraced Kushi affectionately.

"Oh my darling little Koosi!" mumbled the herbalist's wife, "A child running skitter-scatter, now a mother... How quickly children grow!"

Kushi smiled in response and then Mistress Prabha escorted her to the door, Ram following them with Anarkali.

Mistress Prabha's growing anticipation could not be restrained, "Wait till the people hear of this! You carrying the child of the First Lord!! Boy or girl: that one you're carrying is the heir of everything we see."

Kushi's head swam in a fog of floating exhilaration.

At the doorstep, she turned to the herbalist's wife, "I have one request though, Mistress P: Don't tell Amma and Babuji until I have told them myself."

Mistress Prabha was confused, "Aren't you heading for their place right now?"

"No, I am going to the Industry," Kushi blushed, imagining the scene that would unveil, "I want that my child's father know first."

Mistress Prabha caressed Kushi's cheek proudly, "What a charming wife you are! Run along then, and don't keep him waiting!" She winked at her as Kushi waved goodbye and headed towards the carriage where OmParkash waited with the carriage door open, looking suspiciously at Kushi.

"Are you alright, my lady? Is something the matter?" he asked, doubtful of what to make of the peculiar animation he read in her features.

Kushi lifted her head in a vaunting poise, "It's a secret. But I will tell you as soon as you get me to the Industry."

"The Industry?" OmPrakash hesitated, "Aren't we going to the Mill?"

"Change of plan!" Kushi announced merrily and then allowed OmPrakash to help the children and herself into the carriage.

As the carriage retreated to retrace its voyage back to the open grassland, Kushi looked out of the window to, once more, wave goodbye to the herbalist's wife who waved in return.

If only she had not stayed for the mint tea. If only she had not been conveyed this news in the morning but on the return journey to the Castle in the evening.

How one chance pause, one opportune change of plan, one naive turn in time, can lead a carriage to head down the path through the open grasslands and head for the Industry, and thereby set it on the route to cross with the voyage of another such carriage returning from the Industry.