Rajeshwari moved to the centre of the cluster of trees, and swivelled slowly on the spot, scanning the entire backyard with interest. It looked unkempt and messy at first glance, with no neat arrangements for plants and trees. But a more leisurely examination showed the amount of care that had gone into maintaining the yard - not out of an urge to impress on onlooker, but only out of love. And it had a unique loveliness, with gorgeous flowers all over the place. There was a heavenly fragrance in the air, a beautiful mixture of the scents exuded by different flowers. And there was an odd peacefulness in the spot too.

She looked at Nandini, who was leaning against a large tree, with her hands behind her, and gazing vacantly into the distance.

Rajeshwari tentatively asked, "Nandini, what will we do if your family or Prithvi realise we've been crying?"

Nandini glanced at her blankly, trying to focus on the question. Then she smiled feebly and said, "We could say you were sharing sad stories about the people you met while working for your charitable foundation. And those stories made us cry."

Rajeshwari was impressed. "That's a believable story. How did you come up with it so quickly?"

Nandini smiled weakly in response. She could not reveal that she was accomplished at conjuring excuses for looking miserable and concocting stories to evade difficult situations, and that she had come up with this particular explanation even before they had left the guest room. Experience had also taught her to leave her hair open and arrange it tactfully on both sides of her face so that her state wouldn't be immediately visible to anybody. A bit of luck had also helped her this time, as she'd been on the steps outside the door when she'd heard her mother come downstairs, and she had hurried away to the backyard to avoid being stopped. But her mother knew where she was. Lunch time was in an hour, and she would have to go back to the house soon...

"You don't have to feel so bad for me, Nandini," Rajeshwari said earnestly. "I'm fine. I really am. And I'm feeling even better now after coming to this place," she said truthfully, looking around with curiosity.

"I'm glad you are," Nandini replied with warmth, but guilt was twisting her insides.

Rajeshwari smiled at her and turned away to wander among the trees.

Nandini pressed her palms against the trunk of the old mango tree, searching for the comfort and strength that it had always given her.

Her quick decision to seek refuge in this quietest and most secluded part of the yard had not been influenced only by Rajeshwari's condition. She had her own reasons for wanting to avoid being in the midst of other human beings for the moment, and especially to prevent any chance of seeing Prithvi until she had composed herself again. She couldn't face him at the moment. It would lead to an emotional disaster of the kind she'd been dodging since his arrival in Shamli.

She was battling to subdue her emotions, but it felt as though she was trying to block a monstrous tidal wave with her bare hands. Every bitter accusation she had made against herself in the past was crowded around her now, criticizing...cursing. And everything in her wanted to apologise to Prithvi in clear words for what she had done. After the bitterness of their interactions since yesterday, she could do it without causing any confusion about her intentions. They knew where they both stood...and that there was no going back...

Her heart, however, needed more. It wanted to express the insanity of the love she had for him...and the desperation with which she missed him every moment...

Nandini looked bleakly at Rajeshwari, who had cried a little along with her but had composed herself very fast. Now she merely looked slightly unhappy and confused. This resilience had been visible during their talk in the hotel too.

Resilience, Nandini thought tiredly. She'd thought it had become ingrained in her. But just one poignant story of courage related to love had brought her down to her knees.

The first time she'd met Rajeshwari...how frightened and frail she had seemed. It was almost inconceivable that the same girl had shown such majestic strength simply to give love a fighting chance.

It had been a staggering contrast to her own story, Nandini thought with a wave of self-loathing. In her current state, she couldn't endure to relive the incidents that had occurred after Priyamvada's return. But so many fears, anxieties and doubts had plagued her even during the happy days. How much more joy and beauty would those memories have contained if she hadn't squandered time in worrying about things that didn't matter...

********************

Sumer Singh paused on his way to the library and looked at the screen of his phone. He was astonished at first, and then his mind showed him images of a young man swathed in bloody bandages in some dark, unhygienic hospital room.

Terrified, Sumer Singh held the phone to his right ear and hoarsely said, "Hello.."

Slumped in the chair in his room, Prithvi smiled amusedly. "I'm not dead or dying, Baba," he said dryly. "You can relax."

Sumer Singh looked up to the heavens with dizzying relief. Then anger spurted in him. "Prithvi, I have told you not to joke about such things," he said severely. "You don't give any importance to my words anymore but can't you listen to me in this matter at least? You know how-"

"Sorry, sorry," Prithvi interrupted placatingly.

"You apologise and then you forget," Sumer Singh said sternly, "I think I'll tell your Choti maa about this and then you can deal with her."

Alarmed, Prithvi hastily said, "Don't tell her. I won't joke about dying for another two months, I promise. And as an added bonus, I will not raise the subject of your marriage with her - during this conversation," he grinned.

Sumer Singh shook his head in anger-tinged resignation. Then a different query occurred to him. "The network seems very strong. Where are you?" he asked with curiosity.

Prithvi hesitated, then muttered, "Shamli."

Shell-shocked, Sumer Singh couldn't respond instantly. After a long moment, he blankly said, "You're in Shamli?"

"Not out of choice," Prithvi said uncomfortably. "I had to come here for Rajeshwari."

"The princess is there too? How? Why?" Sumer Singh asked, astounded.

"It's a complicated story," Prithvi sighed. "For now, the official version is that Rajeshwari was passing by Shamli and decided to visit the Bharadwajs. She liked them and decided to stay with them for a while. She told her team they could take a break and visit their families. I had to return to the plains to take care of urgent work. And I coincidentally thought of halting at Shamli for a couple of days," he said ironically. "This is what Rajeshwari and the family believe. You were supposed to pay a surprise visit but cancelled the plan later on. That is why no one told you about Rajeshwari."

Sumer Singh listened to the baffling story and tried to process it quickly. Prithvi waited patiently for the question that was bound to arise.

"And what is the unofficial story?" Sumer Singh asked warily post a gap.

"Rai was in a bit of trouble, and I came to Shamli to make sure she's okay," Prithvi replied briefly. "I can't tell you anything more about it, Baba. Anyway, she seems comfortable with the family, so I'll be coming to Taravan tomorrow, and Sankatmochan will be coming with me. Rajeshwari might want to stay back for some days. You can share the official version of the story with others. And tell them I'd asked Rajeshwari to visit the family in Shamli, and that no one should ask her anything about it," he said flatly. He didn't need to add that no one was to question him about it either.

"Okay, understood," Sumer Singh nodded mechanically, though that was nowhere close to the truth. He was utterly confused and his brain was spinning with bewilderment, questions and doubts. But he was not going to get any answers from Prithvi. Not during this conversation at any rate. But he did need an answer to the most important question on his mind, though he was sadly certain that he knew the answer.

"And Prithvi..." he continued to speak, then his voice faltered. But he regrouped his feelings, and gently asked, "How are you?"

"Not good," Prithvi muttered.

A freezing cold spread rapidly through Sumer Singh's chest. He gruffly said, "I want you to leave Shamli immediately. Tell everyone an urgent business-related matter has come up. Try to convince your sister to come along with you. But if she insists on staying back, that's fine. But you have to leave that place...not in the evening or tomorrow. Right away. Prithvi, you must do as I say," he said doggedly. "I won't accept any excuses."

Prithvi remained silent for a while, then in a subdued tone, he said, "Okay. I'll ask Rai, but if she wants to stay back, I won't try to change her mind. And Baba, there is something else I need to talk to you about..."

After the call had ended, Sumer Singh spun around to return to his room with a grim expression. He had to make some calls.

But in his mind, two words were echoing continuously.

Not good.

Sumer Singh shuddered.

For almost five years, Prithvi had mechanically offered just one response to any question about his wellbeing irrespective of his actual state - I'm fine. He could have been reaching home after working at a gruelling pace for 22 hours without proper food or drink, or he could have been enduring a social function with enormous difficulty, or dealing with his mother's unending manipulations and mind games, or he could have been sitting quietly in the open, emanating a world-weariness much beyond his years...

And still, there had been only one standard answer.

I'm fine.

Until today. No...until he had returned to Shamli...

***************************

Prithvi cut the call, and looked at the screen thoughtfully for some moments, thinking of Sumer Singh, who had made very few requests in the last few years. And each of those requests had always been for his own good. Don't work for over twenty hours a day, try to have your meals on time, rest on weekends, drive cautiously, leave Shamli...

Everything for his own good.

Prithvi looked at the green woods visible from his window.

The view had always held a strange appeal, and at the moment, it appeared enchanting. But that was a silly sentiment arising from the thought that he was not going to be seeing this particular vista for a long time. If he had any say in the matter, that is. In matters related to this funny town, he had learnt not to make any sweeping declarations about his intentions...

*************************

Rajeshwari stopped underneath a slender tree and looked up at the blue sunlit sky through the leafy branches. Considering how she had felt before talking to Nandini, it was amazing that she could appreciate the prettiness of the sight in this moment.

She hadn't known the sadism with which her secrets had been suffocating her until she'd been liberated from them, or that it would feel so therapeutic to share her troubles with another human being. And instead of judging her, Nandini had been so understanding and sweet...

"You have extraordinary courage. I want you to understand that about yourself. Once you do, you'll know you deserve to be with someone who is as exceptional as you are."

Rajeshwari looked unsurely at Nandini, who appeared to be lost in her own thoughts.

Would she be as understanding if she learnt the final secret? That it was Indrajit for whom all those grandiose plans had been made...

No, she couldn't tell Nandini about Indrajit, Rajeshwari snapped at herself with a steep surge of horror.

It was a nauseating fact that she couldn't share with anyone on earth. The reaction of her aunt had only confirmed what she had feared from the start. No one would be able to tolerate it, not even Nandini.

But the secret was bubbling up to her throat now like a noxious fluid, and the urge to divulge it and be free of its stranglehold was growing stronger by the second.

She walked timidly towards Nandini, then stopped and turned towards the boundary wall in panic.

She couldn't tell Nandini about Indrajit. It would destroy the positive sentiments that Nandini had towards her. Like her aunt, Nandini too would look at her with revulsion. And that would be the end of this precious bond of friendship that become so vital to her in a short time...

********************

Nandini straightened from the tree trunk jerkily and looked towards her right in dread. It couldn't be happening. Prithvi couldn't be coming here at this horrible time when she was just about hanging on by a thread.

She forced herself to stay still and not peer around the tree. He was probably coming here to talk to his sister, and he would not speak to her in front of Rajeshwari. With any luck, he would not look at her at all...

A minute later, Rajeshwari turned on hearing Prithvi's voice and saw him stride past Nandini.

Nandini wilted. The sight of him was draining the scant amount of strength she had as of now. It was in her best interests to escape to the house, but she felt unable to leave his presence even if it was killing her on the inside...

Prithvi looked sharply at Rajeshwari as he walked towards her.

He wanted to give his sister time and space to recover from her ordeal, and he'd accepted that he had to work harder to help her understand that she could share her burdens with him, no matter what they were. But it was impossible for him to ignore the tell-tale signs of weeping on her face.

"Why were you crying, Rai?" he asked concernedly while halting before her.

"I wasn't," Rajeshwari denied, then recalling the story that Nandini had created, she hastily admitted, "Well, just a little...but only because I was telling Nandini horrible stories of the people I'd met in the past few months, and it made us sad."

It was a decent lie, Prithvi mulled. And definitely not one that Rajeshwari had come up with.

He glanced to his left at the young woman who was leaning against the mango tree, arms crossed and staring at the ground. His sister had evidently had company in shedding tears, or perhaps she was being mentored in the art of crying needlessly by a professional in the business. The expert's hair had clearly been arranged to cascade down her extremely tense shoulders to hide the pallidness of her cheeks.

Prithvi snapped out of his thoughts as Rajeshwari inquisitively asked him, "What brings you here?"

"I gave you a call but you'd left your phone behind, so I went to Vrindavan to talk to you," he informed her. "Mrs Bharadwaj said she saw you heading towards this place. The thing is...I have to leave for Taravan in a short while. Some urgent work has come up. Do you want to come along? Or would you like to stay back for some days?"

"Oh..." Rajeshwari said, taken aback. 

"I'll be leaving in an hour, you can think about it in the meantime," Prithvi said, not commenting on the visible conflict on his sister's face.

Rajeshwari tried to think rapidly. She had wanted to stay in Vrindavan for three more days, but then she would end up babbling out the ghastly secret to Nandini. That was inevitable, Rajeshwari mulled in fear. It was only a matter of hours...or less, and then Nandini would cut off all relationships with her...

"No, I - I want to go with you," Rajeshwari said impulsively. "I'll pack my things."

Prithvi didn't let any surprise show on his face, and mischievously said, "Good, I'll have company in enduring Mochi during the trip."

Rajeshwari smiled in spite of her mood. Then, she hurried to the house. She knew Nandini had been looking at them, and she remorsefully avoided meeting her friend's eyes, afraid of seeing surprise and hurt in them.

She wouldn't have felt so troubled if she'd known that Nandini hadn't been looking at her and hadn't heard anything beyond Prithvi's statement about needing to leave Shamli immediately.

Nandini felt as though she'd been punched in the stomach. He had not said that. She'd misheard because of her tumultuous state. He was not going anywhere. He couldn't.

Yet, even as she told herself that, pure dread was pooling up in her insides. And then she knew it was not a nightmare. His stay in Shamli had come to an end. But he had lied to Rajeshwari, Nandini thought distraughtly. His reasons had nothing to do with work. It was because of her...he wanted to get away from Shamli because of her. And once he left, he wouldn't return. 

The soul-crushing guilt that she wanted to express would remain buried in her, locked up in shackles of her shame and inability to make amends, and the pathetic words of apology, which sounded empty to even her own ears, would rot away in silence. He wouldn't find out about the years she had spent pining for him...and the longings that had robbed her of any real rest from the second she had seen him at the stepwell, the most fervent of which was a simple but overwhelming need to envelop him in an embrace so fierce that fate itself would reverse its course. He wouldn't learn that after all this time, the notion of spending a lifetime without him still seemed to be nothing more than a tasteless joke to her...

As Prithvi turned to leave, he looked at her with a cold nonchalance. "You don't look too well," he commented with a hint of satire. "You should go back home."

Nandini didn't acknowledge the jibe. She was too shaken to notice anything apart from the fact that he had started to walk towards the house. Every complication and conflict vanished, and her world was reduced to only two simple realities– his presence and his absence. Everything else was meaningless.

"You're leaving now? Why?" she asked shakily as he was about to stroll past her.

Prithvi halted and looked at her grimly. 

"Weren't you here when I was talking to Rai," he rejoined politely. "Unfortunately, I don't have any special secrets to share with you," he added with a mock regret, moving away.

But he paused after a few feet, and glanced back with an irritated scowl. He hadn't heard anything, so there was no earthly reason for this inexplicable reluctance to keep walking.

Muttering a nasty swear sword, Prithvi stalked back to the cluster of trees.

Nandini had moved slightly, and only her profile was visible to him now. Arms wrapped around herself, she was staring at the ground again. Silent tears were pouring down her cheeks.

He'd seen her cry more times than he'd wished to recall, and there had been nothing he'd hated more. It was the remembered emotion that was making him feel sick. It had nothing to do with the present-day.

Then he found himself moving forward to stand before her. Realising that his hands were rising to hold her, he hurriedly shoved them into the pockets of his jeans.

Nandini looked up at him with tear-glazed eyes. Then her exquisite features crumpled under the crushing burden of a heartache that she could no longer bear. Reacting quickly with a wisdom gained through vast experience, she quickly placed her hands on her face and pressed hard against her mouth to stifle her cries, lowering her head automatically and squeezing her eyes shut to stop the tears from overflowing and cascading down her cheeks.

Prithvi paled further in shock. This was a gut-wrenching, visceral explosion of pain, and it was more unendurable than anything he remembered... 

"Nandini," he murmured unsteadily.

Nandini's eyes burned fiercely as she opened them, and she saw his blurry outline. Almost frenzied with pain, she dashed forward blindly to bury her damp face in his chest, her fingers clutching the soft material of his shirt.

Prithvi froze. The softness against him and the fragrance of sandalwood were the only things in the world for some moments. Time slowed down...then stopped. Through a haze, he looked down at the svelte form, unbelievably sweet and vulnerable, that was attached to him. An old feeling temporarily broke free of its binds...the feeling of wanting to protect a sacred treasure against anything that sought to hurt it...and knowing that death would be a small price to pay for that goal. And that had ended up being the actual toll the relationship had demanded from him in the end - death...in every way except the physical, Prithvi thought with a strong upsurge of anger.

He'd been trying to think of what he could say from a distance to make her stop crying somehow while also striving to make sense of his devastation on seeing her break down. In the turmoil, he had made the mistake of letting down his guard completely. But he had to end this immediately. And for that he needed to separate her from himself. The problem was that the arms that were so restless until moments ago were refusing to stir now. Even the anger that had flared up temporarily had dissolved into a dim irritation.

Nandini's breath paused the moment her face came into contact with a hard, broad expanse. An unimaginably intense firestorm of emotions and sensations crashed into her out of the blue, shaking her to the roots of her being. The shock succeeded in doing that which her willpower had not been able to do for a long time – her tears stopped so abruptly that it seemed to be the work of the flicking of a switch. She clenched his shirt tighter, and felt enfolded by a clean, pure scent.

Then she sensed an increasing tautness in the tough frame against which she was pressed, and was immediately assailed by a stark fear that she was going to be pushed away. She wanted to wrap her arms around him but felt irrationally afraid that he would step back the instant she released the grip on his shirt. So, she only clenched the material harder and waited nervously, her eyes filled with a profound anxiety.

Prithvi looked down at her with a troubled gaze for a few moments. Then frustration spiked in his eyes again. He reluctantly grasped her upper arms and tried to detach her gently from himself.

With the panic of a drowning woman, she squeezed her eyes shut and clutched his shirt more rigidly.

Prithvi's jaw clenched with tension. He just had to constrict his grip a little more, and the pain would force her to let go. Or he could just remind her that they were not invisible. The large trunk blocked them from the direct line of vision of anyone looking in this direction from the house, but a person would only need to come close to the tree cluster to discover them, which would trigger a scandal of epic proportions. He merely needed to remind her of that...

Not thinking about why he hadn't let go of her arms, Prithvi tersely muttered, "You realise anyone in your family could come here right now and see you defiling the family's name." Then he felt annoyed because his tone had carried more anger than derision.

"I don't care," Nandini whispered unthinkingly, keeping her eyes shut. And she felt a vague surprise on realising it was the truth. But it didn't surprise or disturb her to the extent that it should have. It merely felt like a faint vibration of an earthquake that had happened far away. She could only focus on praying desperately for this moment to be prolonged somehow...until the end of time if possible.

The words sent a powerful shockwave through Prithvi...one that was so formidable that the jolts he had received so far seemed paltry in comparison.

She meant it, he thought in disbelief.

Maybe...just for a minute...he could look away from the blistering animosity and bitterness and be present in this moment...savouring the innocent sweetness of the past one last time before he left Shamli.

It should have been difficult for him. Even impossible. But as if it had only been waiting for his demand, the dark shadows in his heart slunk away temporarily and merged with the playful silhouettes of the leaves and branches on the ground.

There was immense uncertainty and confusion on his features as he let go of her arms and placed his hands lightly on her back.

With a choked cry, Nandini shivered and leaned heavily against him. Scalding hot tears flooded her eyes again as gruelling stress left her body. She had dreamt of this innumerable times in her waking and sleeping hours...being held by him again. But nothing in her imagination had come remotely close to this staggering emotional delirium...this whirlwind of ecstatic joy and love that was dancing in her. She coiled her arms around him and rested the left side of her face against his chest, smiling in happiness even as tears trickled down her cheeks.

Prithvi swallowed hard.

He could sense the emotions that were ricocheting through her, and he could hear the dim echoes of those emotions somewhere within him. They would have to remain in that form. No emotions would not be allowed to take over him again. He wasn't breaking that rule by holding her so lightly.

He wasn't going to hold her closer...despite this tentative embrace feeling akin to having a pure, fragrant and cool medicinal salve placed over an excruciating wound, healing it instantaneously and providing a relief so immense that he could barely comprehend it.

But would it really be wrong to seize a bit more of this inordinately sweet respite before returning to the meaningless void of his usual life...

Closing his eyes in weary defeat, Prithvi tautened his grasp around her, and then tentatively lowered his head to rest the side of his face against her forehead.

Nandini's breath got caught in her throat, and then her heart brimmed over with emotions too deep to be expressed through words.

The air slowly turned still, unwilling to intrude upon the silence that spoke of the shared, unspeakable grief of the loss that had deformed two lives...and the relentless, terrible strain of pretending to be alive day after day...

But gradually, the screams of the unspoken sorrows started to recede. And taking pity on the young hearts, they took along with them all painful regrets of the past and cold dread regarding the future. And then there was only this pristinely clear and beautiful instant in time, unpolluted by fears or anger or guilt...

Both had been tossed about aggressively by the tumultuous waves of the ocean so far, but now an unseen force was warmly pulling them beneath the water, where there was only a celestial tranquillity and loveliness.

Barely opening her eyes, Nandini withdrew her arms from around his torso. Without speaking or looking for answers, Prithvi loosened his clasp to allow her to curl her hands tightly around his neck. She rested her chin on his shoulder. Then he in turn wrapped his arms around her waist, tugging her to himself impatiently with a desperation of a nearly lifeless body that was finally feeling a warm sparkle of life spreading through it. He buried his face in a slender shoulder.

The gentle movements, as if adjusting to the changes in the atmosphere between them, transpired so fluidly that they appeared to following an unvoiced pact...or moving in harmony to a music that only they could hear.

An extraordinary peace floated down upon them like a soft, translucent veil. Welded to each other emotionally and physically, they silently soaked in an indescribable exhilaration and serenity.

The play of the sunlight through the branches and leaves cast them in a beautifully patterned cocoon of light and dark. They remained ensconced peacefully in it...until the hues of the air began to shift subtly again...

And then a different kind of ache was burning a path through the quietness.

There was a languorously growing awareness of the heat of the body pressed intimately against their own, burning into their skin...of hands that were clasping them fiercely...of skin that was turning warmer...

Nandini opened her eyes languidly. Her delicate fingers adoringly stroked his luxuriant black hair.

Prithvi lifted his head a minute later and quietly studied her features.

Something in his gaze made her heart stop, and then thud harder.

Her breathing quickened...so did his...

With a shaky breath, she clasped his face reverentially with soft hands.

His breathing paused as she brought his face closer and reached up to press her lips warmly against his forehead...his left cheek...then the right...

Quivering, she paused and touched his warm lips with unsteady fingers.

Prithvi's eyes smouldered with the ferociousness of the flames of hell but he did not stir.

She kissed his lips softly.

Powerful ripples of an electrifying heat bolted through them. Nandini felt a tremble in his body, and its simultaneous reverberation in her own.

She had scarcely lifted her lips from his when his fingers meshed into her thick, silky-smooth black tresses. He captured her lips gently and kissed her with a piercing sweetness. The tenderness of the kiss made her heart flail uncontrollably. As she kissed him back lovingly, she felt the frenzied thumping of his heart too...

As moments disappeared into oblivion, the acutely intoxicating tension simmered and pushed hard against artificial restraints.

Then it abruptly broke free and spilled over.

He deepened the kiss harshly. The fingers in her hair constricted painfully, and the hand around her waist tightened with a brutal insistence.

Instead of frightening her, his hot-blooded aggression stirred up her senses violently. The fierce, natural passion that she had denied and suppressed for too long was unleashed...and she was alive again...

She returned his kiss with a blazing fervour, burying her fingers in his hair...clutching at him desperately...mindlessly trying to bring him even closer as shocking pleasure thundered through her veins, and her insides went haywire.

They clung to each other in a red-hot frenzy, hounded by an unbearable hunger that seemed as ancient and savage as the elemental forces.

All of a sudden, Prithvi stilled, then he let her go roughly and stepped back.

Disoriented, Nandini stared at him in a breathless daze. Her skin was a glowing crimson...as were her lips...

Breathing hard, he looked at her with a searing fury and disgust that was directed more towards himself than at her.

Then he turned and strode away angrily.

****************************