Lekha (Completed)

Lekha 32

"Even I am dying to take you out to see our farms. We have a beautiful grove at some distance from here" said Vasundhara all excited.

"I heard Suraj sa that you can stand on the horse's bareback and ride" I asked. He nodded his head with a big grin.

"I want to learn too" I exclaimed excited.

"Kakisa will kill me if I try to teach you that" replied Suraj laughing.

"That will be our little secret" I mock whispered. All three of us burst out laughing at that. The horse jerked and started to gallop a bit too fast for comfort.

"What happened to the horse bhaisa?" It's running too fast, jerking Lekha's foot" cried out Vasundhara.

Rudra didn't reply but he slowed the horse down. I wondered what Vasundhara and Suraj found funny as they again started giggling for no reason at all.

We soon reached Parvati's house. It was beautifully adorned with all the paintings related to the Rajputana way of life. I sat in the carriage staring at the adornments forgetting to get down.

"Come Lekha I will help you get down" said Suraj.

I slid towards the edge of the carriage and as I tried to hold the side of the carriage for support, I was lifted up like a child in strong arms. I opened my mouth to protest but my voice got stuck, as I saw that it was Rudra who carried me. I closed my mouth shut but gave him an angry glare, which he returned with a smirk of his own.

I had wanted to say something rude to him but I knew we had an interested audience and so did Rudra. He put me down in a slow motion just to irritate me. To an outsider it must have looked like he was being extra cautious but I could understand his ulterior motives.

"You can leave now. You had work... Suraj sa will help me inside" I said deliberately loud enough so that others could hear me. I could feel his body tense at that but he let me go as Suraj came forward to support me. Rudra gave me a long hard stare as if he wanted to read my very thoughts but I averted my eyes so as not to give myself away. I still had a tendency to get all flustered when he was near.

"Come Lekha... here comes Parvati. Parvati... meet my sister Lekha. She is maasa's niece" said Vasundhara in a sing song way.

"Lekha ... nice to meet you. I heard a lot about you from the village girls" Parvati replied politely, but her eyes seemed to be engaged on someone behind me. I turned slightly to see who she looked at.

"Rudra sa won't be coming inside" asked Parvati still looking at his retreating back.

"He has some work with Mukesh sa. He will come in later as he has driven us here." replied Vasundhara.

"What happened to your foot?" asked Parvati , her attention back to us.

"I fell down from the horse" I said distractedly, trying to figure out if Parvati was interested in Rudra. I had thought as per Vasundhara that Suraj was interested in Parvati, so felt sad for the poor boy.

Suraj helped me walk into the house. I was introduced to her mother and other family members as maasa's niece but no reference was made to my engagement.

Everyone was very pleasant to me and was truly interested in my injury. It seemed to be a main topic of discussion for quite a while and also how Suraj was known well in the area for his great horsemanship.