The Haunted Fortress of Bhangarh: Book 1

44. It's her turn now

After an eventful evening at the college canteen, Rudra again offered to drop Shravani home, but much to his chagrin, she refused once more. Piqued by her insistence on going home by herself when he desired nothing but to not lose sight of any of his friends for a moment longer than necessary, he resisted her fervent objections and coldly told her to assume the seat behind him.

Left with no option, she had to begrudgingly place her palms on his shoulders and perch behind him on his bike. As her hair flew in all directions once the vehicle drove through the city at a heightened pace, the invigorating air hitting her face and calming her jittery nerves, she couldn't help herself but reminisce the pleasant evening she had once experienced in the warm presence of the prince. Oh, how much she wished to turn back time and relive the moment when his lips had met her neck! All would be good soon since she was supposed to be reunited with her paramour in no time. In no time...

Returning back from Neemrana, Chitralekha was disappointed. She had spent some wonderful moments with the prince over the course of a full moon, but the two of them never had the chance to interact as freely as she would've liked. But then he was always around, accompanying Princess Kalavati as she and her handmaidens went hunting in the wild woods, or when she went out to explore the town of Neemrana with her handmaidens holding the trailing end of her royal attire. He was perpetually by his sister's side, smiling at Chitralekha when no one was looking, or stealing glances at her, assuming she wasn't noticing.

However, she had caught every action undertaken by the prince out of the corner of her eyes when pouring water into a golden goblet for the princess, when fixing her outfit, or even when Surya animatedly spoke to Kalavati. Somehow, her heart did a somersault every time she gleaned he was peering at her. At times, even she had the audacity to shamelessly gawk at him. How could she not when his enigmatic presence was sufficient for her heart to soar in joy! She didn't know what it was—attraction, infatuation, fixation, or love, but she was quite fond of the tickling in her stomach when their fingers as much as brushed against one another.

Surya was always in her vicinity, and perhaps both of them preferred to keep it that way. But towards the end of the trip, when he mounted his royal horse and she was compelled to retreat towards the back where all the handmaidens of the princess were sitting inside a palanquin behind Kalavati's, her lips drooped as realization struck her hard. He was close to her—so close, only at an arm's distance—yet he was so far off, almost unattainable. The barrier of their social statuses stung her as she realized how she would always be a mere servant while he would be royalty. Hence, not only her mood was sullen, but she was also shedding fat teardrops by the time she and Raghuveer returned home.

Her best friend constantly kept asking her the reason behind the melancholic mood, the briny liquid overflowing out of her attractive black orbs, and the sour expressions she had adorned throughout the ride back home, but she had no answers to provide to him. He had cautioned her repeatedly. Even after teasing her the other day, he had pulled her aside, patted her head, and suggested not to harbor any feelings for the prince as it was bound to be futile. But her unintelligent heart had already fallen too deep into the gorge to heed his admonitions and forewarnings.

Days passed, but her mood did not alleviate. Her other friend—Chitra—had also gone off with her mother to attend a wedding, and Raghuveer was keeping busy with military preparedness since Bhangarh was on the brink of a war with the neighboring kingdom. The intense heat of the summer did nothing to lift her spirits either as she was left to tend to the needs of Princess Kalavati in her stifling and suffocating room devoid of any sunlight. Chitralekha didn't know why the princess preferred darkness over light even when the sun's rays were ready to flit through the massive arch-shaped windows of her palace. But those windows were blocked by thick curtains. She didn't comprehend why Kalavati was losing the color of her skin or the depth of her eyes or even the plumpness of her lips. She couldn't understand why Kalavati looked more like a skeleton these days rather than a human—a mass of bones tethered together with her skin over which the eye sockets seemed like a misfit due to the hollowness beneath.