Lekha (Completed)

Lekha 46

"Roopmati!" exclaimed Maitri from beside me.

I immediately turned towards her to confirm if I had heard her correctly. Her stiff face and the reactions from others confirmed that my worst fear had come alive. Standing in front of me was my nemesis who I had never wanted to meet in my life. My eyes immediately scanned the crowd for Rudra, as did her eyes it seemed. I felt violent towards her at that and then depressed.

I turned around to leave, when I saw Rudra entering from one of the rooms. He immediately came to a halt as soon as he saw her and stared as if he had seen a ghost. I like a moron turned around to see her reaction even though I knew in my heart what I would find. She gave him a coy smile and stared back at him as if there was no one else in the room except the two of them. I couldn't take it any longer and removed myself from this unwanted situation. I couldn't make myself look back at Rudra to see his reaction as I passed by him with my head bent low. The girls followed me too in sympathy and support I supposed.

As we reached the room Gayatri fumed at the person who dared to call Roopmati for this occasion. I myself being deeply troubled could find no words to calm her down. We couldn't openly display our dissatisfaction as it was a topic I was officially not supposed to know about.

After sometime I heard some hustle and bustle in the corridor and looked up to see trunks being carried towards the guest's quarters which were on the third floor. Soon two ladies appeared following the servants one of whom was around taisa's age and the other was 'Roopmati'. I was grateful that at least they were not given rooms in the same floor as mine. Roopmati must have felt my eyes on her and looked towards me. She gave me a very friendly smile which would have even melted my heart had I not known who she was. I simply stretched my lips trying to replicate a smile not to appear rude, as the smile refused to form due to my troubled thoughts. It's good the girls were too busy getting angry that they didn't notice this interaction.

A sudden thought crossed my mind, whether I had been brought back to this century to unite Rudra and Roopmati back together. Was it a mere coincidence that Roopmati had been invited right before I was to be married to Rudra? Was it God's sign that Rudra and I were not meant for each other? Would I be pulled back to my timeline the moment I was successful in my mission? Lot of questions floated in my mind but one which pained me the most was that why my heart had been played with by fate if 'this' was not meant to be.

I once again was at a crossroads in my life but I simply couldn't discuss my worries with anyone. I had quite recently started to believe that things were moving smoothly for me and nothing further could go wrong. I almost felt like I was in the middle of highly emotional television soap.

"I will ask maasa "I heard Gayatri say in a determined voice as she moved towards the door. I had tuned out the conversation in my worry, so just caught on to the tail end as she moved in front of me.

"What happened to her? Where is she going?" I asked. Both Maitri and Vasundhara gave me a weird look as if I was some dumb person.

"She is angry about Roopmati's arrival and has gone to taisa to enquire about it" explained Vasundhara.

"Oh!"I sighed. What could have been avoided had already taken place that was the meeting of Rudra and Roopmati, so what the use of crying over the spilt milk.

In my heart I knew that Rudra will never go against his words and will marry me despite Roopmati making a comeback for whatever reason but would I have a happy married life knowing that his heart still belongs to her. It was true that he had become quite friendly in the past few days but then didn't we agree on being friends. Now that I had started accepting everything as my destiny and being happy about it, this new twist of fate made me restless again.

That day passed by me in a blur after that. I responded to all vaguely so as not to attract attention to my distressed self. Gayatri had drilled out the information from her mother that the invite had been sent to Roopmati's father as he was a chieftain and it would have been considered in bad form and a direct insult if he had not received the invite while others had. Everyone had assumed that considering the circumstances they would send in some excuse for their absence which would then have been accepted gracefully by the family. It had come as a total shock to all that Roopmati and her mother had actually dared to come instead of her father but good etiquettes required everyone to welcome her as a guest no matter how annoying it was.

This information did nothing to soothe my heart but confirmed my suspicion that she had indeed made a comeback to win the affections of her lost love. I also could not deny the fact that Rudra had actually stared at her forgetting all those around him, especially me even as I passed from by his side. I had excused myself for bed earlier that day from dinner citing a headache and had got sympathetic looks in return which made me feel even more pathetic. A warm glass of milk with gur (jaggery/brown sugar) had been sent to me by maasa as was the tradition followed by all before going to bed.

My last thoughts were to again let destiny take its course and to be prepared mentally to handle whatever I was served next. Till now everything somehow had turned out good for me 'in the end' whatever the twists and turns, soothed the optimistic side in me.

The next day I avoided leaving my room again citing a headache. I knew it was a coward's way out but I still felt mentally unprepared to face Roopmati. The others too didn't insist too much on my coming down for the meals. I believed they in their own way and for their own reasons were trying to protect me, but it seemed fate had something else in mind for me.

During the afternoon my peace was broken by the enthusiastic Lajo.

"Jeeji! Look whom I have brought to meet you. She really wanted to meet bhaisa's bride" exclaimed Lajo with laughter in her voice.

I turned around to greet the guest with a smile but it froze and then slowly died on my face. Roopmati stood beside Lajo with a beautiful calm smile on her face.

"It seems you know who I am" she said in a very soft voice full of sadness.

Before I could react Lajo continued talking like a chatterbox that she was.

"Didn't I tell you our Lekha jeeji is so pretty? Bhaisa is very lucky to have found her. I am so happy that she will soon be part of our family" said Lajo unaware of the tension around her.

"Indeed she is very pretty, just like you said" replied Roopmati. I could feel her eyes analyzing me. There was great sadness in them as I looked up.

"Lajo, can you ask someone to get us something to eat? It seems both your jeeji and I have forgone the lunch" she smiled at Lajo with her request. It seemed she had Lajo all wrapped around her little finger as the girl happily turned around to follow the request. I realized that Roopmati had sought the most appropriate time to catch me as others were busy having lunch.

"Can I come in?"She asked coyly although she already was inside the room.

"Sure, please sit down" I gestured towards the chair in the room. I prayed to God to send in the girls if she had some kind of confrontation in mind although right then she didn't seem to be angry just mildly saddened it seemed. Then again looks could be deceptive.

I was taken by surprise as she chose to sit beside me on the bed instead of the chair. There was complete silence after that as each seemed to be trying to formulate how to begin the conversation in their minds. She seemed to have made up her mind before me as she bent forward and touched my hand placed in my lap.

"You indeed are more beautiful then I had expected" she said gazing my face with concentration making me blush.

"Can we be friends?" she asked softly, as if she suspected that a tone louder and I would run away.

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