Lekha (Completed)

Lekha 48

"Where did Roopmati jeeji go?" asked Lajo as she entered the room after sometime, followed by a maid carrying a covered tray laden with what seemed like food, then again followed by the girls. Here goes the most sought after peace I thought on seeing the girls, who were near enough to hear Lajo.

"Roopmati! Why did Roopmati come here?" gritted out Gayatri.

I looked between Lajo, the maid and the girls wondering what to say. Gayatri must have understood my dilemma as she asked the maid to keep the tray down on a nearby table and go downstairs. I could hear controlled anger in her voice.

"Lajo dear. Why don't you go play with your cousins who are searching for you?"said Vasundhara gently pushing Lajo out of the door.

The girls quickly positioned themselves on the bed and had thankfully left Maitri behind. It would have been quite awkward for me to refer to the past between Rudra and Roopmati again in front of her in detail. It wasn't as if nobody knew about Rudra's previous engagement but I wasn't comfortable discussing it in front of an outsider no matter how friendly she was.

"Now tell me what Roopmati said?" said Vasundhara softly while Gayatri glared at the wall on the opposite side.

"She came to offer friendship" I said and heard Gayatri huff in response.

"She said that she hadn't come to oppose the marriage... she just wanted to see whether I was a suitable bride for Rudra sa..." My throat felt constricted as I narrated all.

"That...That female will now decide whom my brother shall marry... how dare she? Especially after what she had made my bhaisa go through ... I am going to the guest room to throw her and that farcical mother of hers out right now." Gayatri trembled with anger and jumped down from the bed to put her words into action. The timely intervention from Vasundhara and me stopped her from going out as we led her back to the bed forcefully. Vasundhara ran to the door and locked it as a preventive measure.

"Gayatri it's alright. Think about the reputation of our parents besmirched by all this drama. People are already whispering about her and we should not provide them more fodder to chew upon. Moreover ... I don't think her intentions were wrong. She even said that she knew Rudra sa would never back down from his promise."

I said trying to calm her down while my own heart was troubled and unconvinced. I thought it best to leave out the latter half of the conversation I had with Roopmati, for everybody's peace of mind plus I had already gone back on my promise to her although it was unintentional.

Why I was actually keeping my promise to her even I didn't know. Perhaps I had started to lose hope of ever attaining my happily ever after with Rudra. It seemed that Roopmati might after all be the main heroine of this drama while I was just the small character artist whose only part was to gracefully bow down to the situation and depart from the scene. I sounded a pessimist even to my own self but the silver lining seemed to be have been hidden by a deep dark cloud of despair. Not even a faint glow.

"You don't know her dear. She is a very conniving person. I still wonder what her real intents are. She must have come to measure you up before she doles out her next card. I don't trust her one bit. You just be careful of her" warned Gayatri.

Although I was pressed for more details I didn't utter a single word more, scared of the scene an angry Gayatri might create if she suspected even a single instance of foul play. I was in a double frame of mind as I wanted some peace and quiet to think everything through, but on the other hand I was scared to be left alone with my thoughts. The to and fro discussion kept my mind busy trying to smooth over the matter.

It wasn't like I didn't want my kind of 'happy ending', but not at the cost of being a second best in someone's heart. Suddenly the feel of being second best didn't appeal to me at all. I could move over from the past love story had I been doubly sure that the present love story had me as the main protagonist. I wasn't an unreasonable kind of person but suddenly the matters of the heart had taken a competitive turn with the arrival of Roopmati. Now the arranged marriage felt like the biggest compromise of my life.

An obstinate person inside of me wanted either 'everything' or 'nothing'. I didn't want anyone to get hurt because of me but finding out the truth began to take precedence.

The girls left me only at the time for dinner as I refused to go again and their absence would have raised questions. They promised to be back soon with food for me as the food previously brought in by the maid had gone cold, plus food now seemed like the last of my priorities.

I was deep in my thought about how to find out Rudra's side of the story too. Had he actually moved on after his heart break or was he still pinning for his lost love secretly. It was very difficult to find him alone for this kind of confrontation with the house full of guests. I wondered if he would be honest with me when confronted. I had to find a way so that before the marriage the truth was revealed at least to me. What I planned to do if the information wasn't in my favor, I wasn't sure but going through with this marriage was not it.

I felt a presence standing near the pathway on the opposite side where the second set of rooms were. It started moving but not away towards the staircase as generally was the case when somebody was hiding but towards Rudra's room. That perked my interest as to who would move around like a thief. Although there was a little light reflected from the lamps lighted in the little alcoves in the wall at regular intervals but still it wasn't enough to make out the person's face. The figure had draped a shawl over the head as if to avoid detection.

My curiosity got the best of me. I quickly got out of the room to follow the figure and was stunned to see it entering Rudra's room. This got to me big time as I tiptoed, as soundlessly as I could and peeped inside the door. The scene I saw made me want to scream with pain but all I did was run back to my room soundlessly to avoid detection. My heart palpated as the scene kept playing in my mind like a stuck record. No more excuses were needed it seemed for me to stay back now.

I couldn't fool myself any longer. I quickly lied down back on the bed as I heard Vasundhara and Gayatri talking as they walked up the stairs towards my room. I pretended to sleep with my back towards the door. 

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