Chapter Three
The next evening after the snake bite, Gayatri was doing uthak-baithak catching hold of her ears while Ranaji was trying his utmost to keep a serious and stern face and not give away the smile that was threatening to burst its way through his lips.
Finally, he just could not resist laughing whole- heartedly before remarking, "You're forgiven. Never repeat this mistake again. How can you manage to be so innocent and child-like? However much I want to be angry with you, I never can. Be smiling like this always wherever you are, whatever the situation." Rajmata who was observing all this from outside the room, wiped a silent tear of joy which dropped from her eye before resuming her royal composure.
Let's see the chain of events which lead to this. Earlier that morning, "I'm going on a very important work regarding the welfare of our people. The medicines that you are supposed to take are on the side table beside your bed. I've instructed our palace staff on what you are supposed to eat and your medicine schedule. Take care. I'll join you in the evening" read the note Gayatri found beside her bed.
She was just about to get up from her bed when she was overcome by a fit of dizziness. The Rajmata who came to visit her said, "Gayatri, what's this I'm seeing? You're supposed to take rest for the whole of today otherwise you will not be fit for the pag-phere rasam tomorrow. What will your parents think about us? And you know what will happen if Ranaji comes to know that you have not taken care of yourself. He will be very angry. You too know about his anger."
Gayatri complained, "Rajmata, I'm never used to sleeping and taking rest like this. I'm feeling terribly bored."
Rajmata continued in an appeasing manner of a mother trying to convince an unwilling child, "But you have also never been bitten by a poisonous snake. You have to do as the doctor tells."
Gayatri tried to persist when Rajmata said, "Bas! You will do it because I the Rajmata am ordering you to do so."
It was evening and Gayatri was in great pain. Even the doctor who was examining her was highly perplexed. He was saying, "Rani sa should have been feeling better if she had followed the medicine schedule and my instructions. It is a big puzzle even for me why she is not feeling better by this time."
Ranaji who had just returned said, "She would have been better if she had taken her medicines. But it appears that she did not take the medine but rather the potted plant beside her was swallowing all of them." With that remark he indicated with a gesture where the truant medicines were.
Everybody present were silently smiling beneath their breath while Ranaji looked daggers at Gayatri for her errantry. She sheepishly said, "The medicines were very bitter so..."
The doctor finally said, "If Rani sa had taken the medicines before itself everything would have been alright but now I have to give her two injections."
Gayatri began severely protesting saying, "When I did not take the medicines because they were bitter, taking an injection is next to impossible! It will pain terribly"
Ranaji sternly said, "Chup! When a snake bite did not pain for you, what will two tiny injections do? Just look into my eyes. Don't bother about anything. Neither this doctor nor all these people around you. It's just you and me."
He took Gayatri's hands in his while he signaled to the doctor to give the injections while he continued to stare into her eyes. "It's over" said the doctor breaking the spell between Ranaji and Gayatri. Ranaji recollected himself.
He was almost on the verge of losing himself in those soft, beautiful and brown eyes if he continued staring even a second more. He had drowned once in such beautiful and lovely eyes in the past. He did not want to do it again. He was afraid. He did not want to give destiny the chance of snatching it away again once he had fallen in love with them again. He did not want to give the chance to another fairy tale to turn into a nightmare as his previous marriage had turned.
That night in a room, some people were discussing in a hushed tone something important. One of them turned towards the light revealing the face of the Rajpurohit. He was saying to the person beside him, " For now the Rajmata trusts me. But if she were to consult anyone else, I will be caught. She will know instantly that Ranaji is not Manglik."
"Hey, Pandit stop your blabbering. If she did not do that till now why will she do that in future. Last time also despite Ranaji not being Manglik we made sure that Sulakshana and the future heir was out of the way" said Kunwarji.
Kokila chachi also puts in her little bit telling, "If it was not for me, you people would never have known Sulakshana was pregnant. It was our luck that I was along with her when she came to know about her pregnancy while she was visiting her father, Raja Vijaya Varma. She wanted to come to Amerkot immediately so that she could share this news with Ranaji. I pushed her off the cliff and faked that entire car accident set up in which I narrowly escaped."
"Hush, stop all that bragging. All our planning and plotting has got us nowhere. We are still right where we started. I got my own husband Bade Raja Saab, and my dear grand daughter-in-law, Sulakshana murdered still I'm nowhere near to the throne or power. Panditji is right. How long can we keep thwarting the chances of Ranaji having a natural heir? How long can we prevent husband and wife from becoming one? Rajmata will insist on Ranaji and Gayatri having a child after one year. If she comes to know the truth about the Kundali, she may insist even before that.
We have only this one year to remove all the thorns in our path. Do you get it Kunwarji? What a stupid snake you got? We neither got Ranaji nor Gayatri. All our plans are boomeranging on us. And that daughter-in-law of yours, Swarnaleka never manages to conceive and here we are seeing even Ranaji's second marriage. Soon we will perhaps even be witnessing Gayatri conceiving" said Bade Rani ma revealing her ugly and evil face to all.
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