ArHi FF:1: The BEASTS and the BLEEDING ROSES - Page 37

Aquiline's FF Update

For Chapter Thirty Eight, visit:

https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/post/63656609�

Chapter Thirty Nine: Back Home

She was falling, her mind numbed and fearful at the same time, and then to her astonishment, her back made contact with something soft and copious. Her head and feet bounced on this something and she sat up to realize it was a huge cartload full of hay. She looked up, her tears dried and her face pale with fear but her cheeks retaining the red.

She saw him standing on his window ledge, smirking down at her, his sun-touched skin glowing proudly in the afternoon sun. The terrified face of Lady Anjali and the shocked visage of the other pompous lady appeared at the window, near his feet.

"Take this as a warning," he said, gloating down at her, "next time, I will make sure they move that cart away and then push you down!"

And then he stepped back and shut the window and she was alone.

Angry and hurt, she leapt down the cart and made for the gate. Hay sticking through her hair and her dress folds, she kicked at the gate, glared at the guard, and telling him, "You have a sick Master!" she marched out and down the hill and headed for her aunt's house.

On the way, she met with Ram's returning cart and when he stopped, she hopped into it and ignored the baffled, curious look that the young boy gave on her appearance.

When she was dropped home, she marched up to the door and kicked it open.

Buaji and Payal were in the kitchen and hearing the door shut coarsely, they peeped out and saw the red-faced lass barge into the kitchen, hay sticking all over her from head to foot.

"Kushi?" Payal approached her, afraid of what words waited on the young one's tongue.

"Bitiya?" Buaji patted her wig, as if readying herself, and walked up to the girl, coming to stand before her as the young one stood there her arms crossed before her chest, facing the kitchen furnace where lunch was being prepared.

Payal began plucking out the hay while Buaji, looking up and down at the incomer, asked, "Why are you dressed like this? And what''where is the basket?"

Kushi shot her aunt a punishing look and said, "Buaji, you wanted your basket back or you niece alive?"

Buaji and Payal gasped, and the elder woman caressed the hay-stuck girl's face and said, "My dear child, what happened?"

"Everything happened," said Kushi, throwing her hands down as she walked to and fro, Payal following her as she continued plucking the hay out of Kushi's hair and clothes. Buaji came to stand before her again, "Everything?"

"Yes everything," she said, her eyes filling with angry tears, "You said, Buaji, that he won't be there'.but he came! He was there and look at what he did to me!"

Payal stopped plucking and both she and Buaji looked at Kushi up and down. Buaji shook her head, "Poor girl. Did he tell you to feed his horses?"

"Buaji!" Kushi was distraught, "Are you making fun of me when you should be sympathizing?"

Payal shook her head and resumed plucking the hay, while Buaji tried to stop her grin from emerging on her face, "Well, you don't look hurt to me. I think it's a matter of bruised pride."

"You think so," said Kushi, angry, "Well, to me it's a matter of my entire being crushed to the ground! He ridiculed me and abused me with words and''.looks."

"Looks?" Bauji asked, "How can a person abuse you with looks?"

Kushi looked at her aunt and then looked at the celling, "Well, can't they look down on you as if you were dirt and couldn't that look be termed abusive?"

Buaji frowned as she thought over the answer, "I suppose so. Did he give you that dirty look?"

"He gave me every dirty look there is to look with," she said furiously, and then his face flashed in her mind, the way his victorious eyes burned through her as he easily deflected her sword.

"Buaji," Kushi said resolutely, holding her aunt by her shoulders, "I need to learn swordfighting."

"What?!" Buaji and Payal gaped at her.

"What do you need to learn that for?" Buaji voiced, "Are you going to grow into a woman who will cook with swords?"

"Yes, I will," said Kushi, walking astride, as if stepping into a vision while the other two stared at her, "I will learn to wield the sword and then I will cook him the most revengeful dish that can ever be made and I will bring him on his knees and make him drink it to the last drops."

"Tch-tch," Buaji shook her head, clicking her tongue, "The Goddess of Mischief has definitely lost it this time. She was right: I should never have let her go there. Look what nonsense is coming out of her mouth now!"

Buaji laughed merrily at her own words and went to resume her cooking and Payal, since she had finished plucking all the hay off Kushi, went to the backyard to dispose them at Master Happy's stable.

Kushi was left standing alone in the center, her hands on her hips and her mind contemplating every sort of "revengeful dish" she could create and she fueled her little heart with dire hatred for the man who was now her enemy for eternity, and vowed to never let him sit back and think that his fight with her was over.

"No, Lord Raizada," she hissed, "The battle is only about to begin."

Miles away, Lord Arnav had dismissed his sister and aunt away with the words, "What I do is not to be interrupted or questioned. That flimsy girl deserved it and, besides, I had seen the cart below and knew she wouldn't die if I threw her down."

"But Chotey, is your heart so cold that you weren't bothered even by the thought of throwing her down? A girl! Down from your highest Castle window?"

"Di, please!" he said, angry again, "I do not want to continue this conversation and I want you to leave me to myself now! I need to bath."

"And you even lied to me that you were bathing when you were actually tormenting her!"

"Di!!!"

"Alright, I'll leave, but mark my words, Chotey," Lady Anjali was furious, "One day you will regret all this."

"That one day will never come."

"We shall see," said Lady Anjali and she walked away.

"Yes, we shall." He challenged her retreating back but she was already gone.

He was angry. Angry that he was fighting with his dear sister over a beggar girl who always pocked her nose in places that didn't need her nosing.

"You!" he barked at the butler, "Clear these and throw them into a bonfire!" he had pointed at the upturned basket, the scattered swords and the handkerchiefs strewn upon his floor.

"Yes, Master," said the butler and he hastily collected them all up and left the room with a respectful bow, and Lord Arnav banged the door shut.

He sauntered like an angered wild cat, into his bathing chamber and began washing himself in the huge tub of warm water. He sat brooding in the water with his eyes closed, his strong arms lying across either side of the tub. The girl's eyes kept appearing in his mind: sometimes scared as they looked at him, sometimes fiery as they glared at him. He smashed his fist on the surface of the water, splashing some onto the floor and then he got out of tub, dripping in water and hot disgust. He couldn't calm his mind off her even when bathing? After a few minutes, he walked out of his bathing chamber, and moved towards his wardrobe. Opening it harshly, he drew out his bathrobe from inside, and shrugged into it leaving it open in the front revealing his Greek-god chest. He closed the wardrobe, ruffed his hair to get it better dried, and was about to move away when something in the corner caught his eye. A drop of water from the tip of his wet hair trailed from the side of forehead and down his tightened jaw. He frowned and bent down in the space between the wall and wardrobe. He picked up the white kerchief: it was the one that had hung at the tip of the first sword she had drawn to attack him with. The butler had missed it. He crushed it in his hand and walked out his room, intending to march downstairs and throw it into the furnace himself. But first he needed to go get a candle and there was one in his library. He walked towards the place he had intended and opened the door, and was met with the cold rush of wind from the open window. It had darkened already. Had he been bathing so long?

He walked towards the window, wanting to shut it, but on reaching it, his eyes fell upon the rose bush and suddenly a wave of pain and longing tore at his heart The cold wind wafted through the window, sounding like sad music to his ears and blowing at the wet drops on his revealed chest, while the curtains caressed his stiff shoulders. . He clenched his fists and remembered the handkerchief.

He looked down at the handkerchief and stared at it like he was seeing it for the first time. There, embroidered in the center of it, was a red heart''.a red heart that, because it was done by someone who was not good at embroidery, looked like a red rose''.The night shadows were playing upon the cloth and made it seem like the red heart was bleeding.

Becoming furious again, he stepped away from the window and his gaze fell on a book lying at the closer end of the table. Knowing that he never misplaced his books to be lying around and not on the shelves, he walked towards the table, picked it up and read the title. William Blake's Collections? He was certain he hadn't read this book in a while. Then how had it come to lie here? No one in this family would come here''and then he remembered the non-family member who would have the guts to mess with his things.

"Kushi Kumari Gupta," he growled, and then he opened the book and knew that she had held the book open at the poem The Sick Rose for the smell of her village-flower hand was still on the page'.

He was so angry, that he wasn't thinking clearly. He shoved the kerchief into the book, placed it back in the shelf and stormed out of the room. Reaching back in his room, he shut the door and sat in the darkness'..

"You wait, girl," he said, angrily eyeing the window upon which she had last stood, "I will make your life burn like hell."

For Chapter Forty, visit:

https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/post/63815731�

khushi n her family's interaction ws hilarious.. n Arnav's already loosing da game,its a matter of time till he realizes dat .. ,luvd it dat a so-called ordinary girl hs brought turmoil in his thoughts cnt wait for da day she creates a total havoc in his lyf..n lyk his sister said in one of da previous chps, da only emotion he cn emote is anger,so am guessing v'll see more n more of it.. *fingers crossed*😆..
love u lin for such a fantastic FF,am head over heals in luv wth it..👏.. thank u Aura.. n Lin b back soon dear, miss u alot😔