ArHi FF:1: The BEASTS and the BLEEDING ROSES - Page 43

Ooh... Someone is not going to be happy to see Khushi... Fab update!

Greetings, my Comrades!!! Send out the pigeons. Order drinks. Let's assemble at the inn once again for Aquiline's back after her long break. I had many meetings with the Dark Lady and she was uncomfortably addictive for I could not stop from wanting to know more of what happened to young Kushi in the land of Arhasia. You may be curious yourself, so come and let's sit in a circle by the fire. The inn is unusually crowded today but you, my friends, I know, will pay attention to every word I have to say, for the story awaits and there are things that you will want to hear of………..

Chapter Forty Six: Here We Go Again!

Kushi followed her new mistress, holding her umbrella above her until they were inside. She pulled the umbrella shut and hung its hook upon her arm and followed her mistress who was heading upstairs. Lady Lavanya reached one of the office doors and she asked her handmaid to wait outside, "I will go meet ASR and come," she had said, and Kushi stood outside waiting and wondering, "Is that what the Master of this Industry is called ? ASR? Then why isn't the industry called ASR Industry instead of just AR?"

While she waited there, she saw that the two offices were enclosed like any ordinary room but outside the first office room was a tiny balcony bracketed by steel rails, 4 feet high, and if one stood on this tiny balcony, one could see the entire industry and view both the floors and all that happened around it. She was admiring the balcony when the door opened and Lady Lavanya emerged out of it.

"Come Miss Kushi, I want to see how well these people are rearing silkworms," said the lady and she walked towards the other end of the floor and Kushi rushed to catch up.

In the grainage there were too many plants and trees to find space to walk around and unlike Lady Lavanya's dress which was all stretched and pressed onto her thin figure, Kushi's gown was flowing and fluffed within and kept brushing against anything and everything. Once she even brushed against Lady Lavanya as they stood side by side between two trees, observing a silkworm on a leaf and was gifted with shooting glance from her mistress. Kushi bowed and blushed in pardon and Lady Lavanya soon forgot all about it.

Just then a worker came in with a hose and Lady Lavanya saw her, "Oh, are you going to water the plants?"

The worker bowed and then nodded.

"I wanted to water the plants," said Lady Lavanya, "but since my clothes will get dirty, my handmaid will water them for me."

Kushi almost did a double take when hearing this but she wordlessly, offered to obey and after Lady Lavanya had taken back her umbrella and hung it upside down on her arm by its hook, Kushi was given the hose and the worker stepped away. Water began flowing out of the hose and Kushi began spraying it around at the plants, but after a while, she didn't know what happened but suddenly it seemed that the water was coming out with more force than it had started spurting out with. She couldn't hold the hose firmly any longer and it was hard to manage the force of the water. She tried closing the mouth of the hose with her hand but it was too forceful that the water tickled her palm and spurted through the space between her fingers. Kushi did not know what to do, she had turned to ask her mistress what to do, when the force from the water in the hose shot up and the hose wriggled in her hand and before she could stop it, it was splashing great waves of water all over the palace, and to top it all, immaculately drenching the mistress standing close by who gifted her with a shriek. Kushi swung the hose away from her mistress and she didn't know if she should drop the hose or let it remain flooding from out of her hands. She was red in the face, knowing that she was about to soon face the wrath of the wetted woman.

Lady Lavanya, her dress, hat, boots and umbrella drenched and darkened by the water, had screamed gloriously when the first sprays of water had fallen upon her rich dress. And now, she stood there, glaring at her new handmaid-soon-to-be-fired, the paint on her eyes and lips dripping with the water from her hat. Kushi's hand trembled not from the force of the water in the hose but from fear of what was about to ensue when an even more appalling thing happened.

She heard the voice she detested with all her life. His voice. "What is happening here?" And he sounded immensely angry too.

Kushi looked up just as his tall figure appeared at the door of the grainage and with the turning of her head towards him, so did the head of the hose turn. The new force the water seemed to have acquired was fully utilized in showering upon its Master whose interjected 'what the' was followed by his stiff stance as he got dangerously wetter and angrier by each second.

Kushi had panicked when she heard his voice and now, to make matters worse, she had turned the hose upon him unknowingly. But when the drenched Master looked through the water sprays on his face and shot that burning angry gaze in her direction, Kushi felt her fear replace itself with downright hatred. The light in her eyes flared up and she dropped the hose. The water from the hose began soaking the hem of her gown as she walked, splashing through the water on the floor and towards the man watching and waiting for her.

Before anyone could react, her hands were on his collar and she had pulled him down to the level of her face, saying, "You tried to kill me, you foul fiend!!!"

Gasps. Collective gasps echoed all over the industry. Hearing the water commotion the people from the lower floor and the upper floor had all gathered to see what it was all about (because at AR Industry, thanks to its Master, everything ran smooth and perfectly and this was the first time it hadn't) but when they heard the First Lord's question they had all retraced back hastily to do their work as if to show they were obedient little laborers, but on hearing Kushi's brave retort to a man who had never been publically questioned or addressed so, everyone leapt off their places and stood around to watch the unveiling drama.

Lord Arnav stared her unflinchingly and she realized what she had done. She quickly let go of his collar and looked away but he didn't take his eyes off her.

"So was this effort to drown me your attempt of a revenge?" he asked, his voice cold.

Kushi clenched her fists; how much she hated this man and how much she hated answering him but to remain silent was to admit defeat so she looked him in the eye and said, "I am not as cheap as you to take revenge."

Gasps resounded all over the factory again and Lord Arnav went red with anger, as he took steps towards her.

Before he was upon her, Lady Lavanya piped out, "How dare she speak back to my ASR!!"

Both Lord Arnav and Kushi paused to look at this 'interruption' and the 'interruption' walked forwards, her wet head proudly held in the air and she stopped beside her ASR and said to Kushi,"I fire you from being my handmaid this very instant, and ASR, you should fire her from your industry too!"

He stared at Lavanya and then turned to glare at Kushi, "I never had her laboured here in the first place," he said, frowning, his eyes on Kushi, "How did you get in here?"

"I had come seeking for a job," said Kushi, "But now that I realize the Master they all fear and detest is you, I have changed my decision. I do not want to work here."

"She wasn't a worker here?" Lady Lavanya was shocked and not at all pleased, "That means I can't fire her and you can't fire her either?"

Kushi had a triumphant glow on her face when this thought struck her as true. She flashed the First Lord a smart smirk and was about to walk off when he said, "You can leave only after you pay for the damage done to this grainage."

Kushi turned around and shot him a cold look, "Before I pay, you will need to pay for the damage you did to the cart."

"Which cart?" asked Lady Lavanya, but both of them ignored her.

"The crash upon the cart was your fault," said Lord Arnav without a change in his expressions, "You were not riding right. You were looking towards the rear while driving it."

"If you had seen I wasn't looking where I was going, you could have steered your tiny horse away," said Kushi, poking her nose into the air before him.

"Shadow is not tiny and he has the right to ride the path he chooses," said Lord Arnav simply.

"Like Master, like horse," muttered Kushi and then she was about to walk off again when he called to her coolly, over his shoulder, "You will pay for this loss or your family will pay for it."

Kushi stopped in her tracks and paled. What was she to do? To challenge her was something but to be a matter of trepidation for her family was another.

Kushi sighed before saying, "How much does this loss come up to?" She had her back to him.

"Quite much," said Lord Arnav, coming towards her, and then standing before her he said, "Do you want to hear the amount?"

Kushi said nothing so Lord Arnav continued, "Fine then. Let me permit options. I will let you work here for…….fourteen days and you will have compensated the loss done by your service within those days."

Kushi still said nothing and looked fixedly at the floor. He continued, "Either that or you pay up. Now."

Kushi looked up, her eyes hurt and angered.

Lord Arnav smirked again, noting the hurt in her eyes and then turned to leave.

"I will work," she said and he stopped, his back to her.

"Very well," said Lord Arnav, tugging at his coat, "Follow me."

She was about to follow him into the office when Lady Lavanya huffed and said to her, "You are such a ridiculous girl, you are! I can't believe I let you ruin my dress!"

And Lady Lavanya turned about proudly to make for the stairs and as she turned, she lifted her umbrella and opened it, as if to shield her wet feather hat from alien gazes. Well, you probably know that her umbrella had been held upside down, closed and hung upon her arm, when the water had sprayed all over the place. And now that she had opened it, holding it upright, the collected water found consolation in gushing out and anointing Lady Lavanya from the top in embellishing hilarity.

Lady Lavanya shrieked again, but everyone ignored her this time, and she stormed down the stairs and out of the industry, her wet head lifted up proudly, and her wet umbrella wagging above her head.

After the departure of this woman, Kushi walked into the office and there she saw another man waiting upon Lord Arnav who was seated on a huge armchair behind a huge table. The second man was handsome and young but shorter than Lord Arnav though quite well-attired. Lord Arnav looked at this man and said, "Aman, write this down."

The room felt gloomy and the dark walls, devoid of paintings or drapings, seemed to bore down upon the helpless girl who had entered within its immense space.

Master Aman had picked up a quill, dipped it in ink and his hand hovered above a clean parchment, waiting for Lord Arnav's further orders.

Lord Arnav sat at his immense chair, his elbows rested upon the arms of his chair, and his fingertips brought together in front of his face. He eyed the girl standing before him while he dictated, "I, Kushi Kumari Gupta, swear to work under the First Lord Arnav Singh Raizada for fourteen days, and until he permits me leave on the fourteenth day, I will abide by everything he orders me to do. If before the expiry of the fourteenth day, I intend to exempt myself from further service under him, I shall have to redeem him the loss of his grainage, accorded by my recklessness, in full."

Kushi looked up at him, hating him more now in honour of the words he had made written down.

He stared at her uncompromisingly from above his clasped fingertips and didn't look away even when Master Aman had asked him, "Which section do we place her, sire?"

"She will be given no specific section for now," said the First Lord, and Kushi didn't like that statement one bit, "She will present herself in time as the others do and leave when the others do, but what work she does here will be solely decided by me."

He leaned forward when he said 'solely decided by me' and then looked at Master Aman, "For today, she may leave. Her work starts tomorrow."

Master Aman placed the written contract before Lord Arnav and the First Lord, with his eye on Kushi, fisted his hand, dipped his ring in a bottle of red liquid that was on his table and sealed his insignia at the end of the letter.

Then he turned the faade of the letter to face Kushi and waited for her to sign it. His eyes were still on her, when he opened out his left hand and Master Aman respectfully placed the quill upon it, which the First Lord offered Kushi but she refused to take it. Instead, taking the First Lord and Master Aman by surprise, she dipped her thumb into the very same liquid Lord Arnav had dipped his ring, and lifting her thumb, she hovered it above where Lord Arnav's seal was upon the parchment and right next to it, neither above it nor bellow it, Kushi pressed down her thumb. When she had lifted up her hand, Lord Arnav saw how the fierce imprint of her thumb glistened with rage and determination upon the pact.

He gave her one last look, and then told Master Aman, "You may now escort her to the exit for she may not know the place well to find it herself."

Kushi wordlessly neither refuted Lord Arnav nor disobeyed. She followed Master Aman, who after bowing to Lord Arnav and closing the office door shut behind him, couldn't take his eyes off from admiring the girl walking beside him.

"No one has ever talked back to the Master before," he said, respect resounding in his words for Kushi.

"Well, it's time someone fought against his arrogance," said Kushi simply and then she was silent for the rest of the passage.

So tell me, Comrades, how did you find this strip of the tale…….I know the beads were few but I shall string the rest soon. If you want, I can update every alternative night but you must be there to sit with me at the inn and listen to me when I narrate a chapter. You see, a story is only complete when there is someone to listen to when it is told……right? And I am so grateful for my dear friends and readers who dedicatedly stalk, like and comment on my chapters even when they find no time…..And before I leave the inn for tonight I would like to raise a toast, on behalf of all my Comrades and dedicated readers, to dear Aura who was the auxiliary of Aquiline in her absence. Though Aura herself has not yet read the FF, her dedication to keeping the story alive whenever I could send her a ready chapter is touching…..

So friends, here's to the dedication and sunshine of Lady Aura!!! *raises glass and clinks*

P.S. My "like" button's not working but I've read, re-read and fallen in love with all your comments!!

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Heyyy.. so now khushi will work at AR...cool!! no lyk button?? ..anyhow i simply looovvve this storyyy!! cant wait to read the next part!!

urgh no like button...

Welcome back :-)

Hi dear!
Welcome back.Lots of hugs to you.
Chapter 40:So we have the entry of Lavanya.The way u r running this stiory is fabulous.It is lot more exciting than the original story.Really!
Chapter41:OOO even Shaym is cursed!!!!The story could never get better:)
Chapter 42:So Khushi will end up working for Arnav.Feeling jittery.
Chapter 43 and 44:Will we see Kushi Arnav face off?
Chapter 45:Wow Khushi is with Lavanya now.The coming chapters are sure to keep us at the edge of our seats.
Chapter 46:Glorious!Loved Khushi.So ASR all set to get into his meanest avatar...
I would be delighted to hear the narrations all the time.They are simply beautiful.
Thanks and take care:)
Convey my thanks to Aura for keeping us updated.

Hooray for Khushi!

well first of all welcome back ...!!