Part 12-

 

The khanna palace is located in khandala a place near Mumbai, its distance from Mumbai is 2 hours.

 

They had been driving for well over an hour. There hadn't been much conversation between them, rather an intense awareness that made any comment deeper than normal, a potential mine-field. She had not removed her engagement ring. She offered him no explanation and he would before the day was over.

She told her mother where she was going…………..

 

Gayatri – (with concern) is that wise krips?  

Krips – wise or not I'm going. I really want to see the old house. When I was little I thought it was a palace like the queen lived in.

Gayatri – and you want to see angad?

Kripa – I like him (what she failed to say was he had an extraordinary effect on her. It was something she had to keep secret, even from herself) .

 

They khanna palace was rising up before them. It was certainly the biggest, built of sandstone that had weathered to a lovely soft honey – pink. It lofted two tall storeys high, the broad terrace beneath the deep overhang of the deep overhang of the upper level supported by imposing stone columns,which were all but obscured by a rampant tangle of vines all in flower. The great roof was tiled with harmonizing grey slate. The gardens, were no more but the indestructible bougainvilleas climbed over every standing structure in sight. Angad drove his red beauty into the shade of the flowering gums, the low trailing branches scraping the hood.

 

Kripa – what it once must have been! It's still beautiful even if it's falling down.

Angad – come see for yourself (he invited, with a note in his voice that made her doubly curious).

 

Kripa stepped out into the graveled driveway, a petite young woman wearing a white knit tank top over cropped cotton drill olive – green pants, a simple wardrobe she somehow made glamorous. Their arrival disturbed a flock of rainbow. The birds displayed all the colors of the spectrum in their plumage, kripa thought, following their flight. They presented a beautiful sight, chattering shrilly to one another as they flew to another site. A sprightly breeze had blown up, tugging at her hair which she had tied at the nape with a silk scarf.

 

Kripa – what does it feel like to be back?

Angad – like I've never been away. This is precisely the place I belong .

Kripa – is it (his words touched her deeply)

 

She looked across at his tall figure. He was dresses simply as she was, in everyday working clothes – tight fitting jeans, and a short sleeved open necked bush shirt. He had a wonderful body she thought , starting to fear the effect he had on her. It was something entirely new in her life. She wondered could she resist him as she was so able to resist prithvi? At heart, she was beginning to question herself. It seemed very obvious to her she didn't love prithvi in the way a woman should love the man she chooses to marry. Everyone else saw him as solid choice. Did that automatically make for a good marriage?

 

As for angad khanna? She didn't have a clue where their friendship would lead. In short he presented a dilemma. Kripa's nerves stretched taut as her memory was overrun by images of her father and prithvi as they joined her yesterday only moments after angad had moved off. Both handsome faces wore near identical expressions. Anger to the point of outrage. It chilled her to the bone. She wasn't a possession, a chattel. She was a grown woman with the right to befriend anyone she so chose.

 

Her father didn't think so and made that plain.

Surya – better you don't have anything to do with him, krips .

Kripa – why not? (she had never in her life answered her father quite like that before. A clear challenge that brought hot, angry color to his cheeks) .

Surya – I wouldn't have thought I had to tell you. He's bad news. Just like his father before him. You're an engaged woman yet it's quite obvious he has his eyes on you.

Kripa – that's carrying it a bit far dad. Angad just came across to say hello. I like him.

Surya – people talk krips. I don't want them to be talking about you.

Kripa – (adding a taunt) you're very quiet today, prithvi? Nothing to add?

That earned him suryaban sharma's nod of approval.

 

Angad took her arm as they climbed the short flights of steps to the portico and on to the spacious terrace.

Angad – careful, just stay with me.

Guilt swept through kripa, why,why,why did she want so much to be with him? This was all too sudden. She had the mad notion she would have gone with him had he asked her to take a trip to Antarctica.

 

 

Kripa – oh! I've always wanted t see inside. It's as noble as I knew it would be .

Angad – I'm glad you're here, and you're not disappointed.

Something in his tone made somersault in her heart. She didn't look back at him – she didn't dare.

Kripa – what a miracle it hasn't been damaged.

Angad – the house isn't in any where near as bad condition as everyone seems to think. Which is not to say a great deal of money won't be spent on its restoration.

She stood in the sunbeams with dust motes of gold.

Kripa – it would be wonderful to hear your grandfather actually left you some money?

Angad – he had it!

Kripa – he couldn't have! How could he have had money and let this get damaged?

Angad – he no longer cared. Simple as that. He cared about no one and nothing. He only loved one person in his entire life. That was his wife. After she died he slowly sank into deep depression. My grandmother died early. My grandfather locked everyone out.

Kripa – yet he took you in? you and your parents?

Angad – it was only to spite the rest of the family, I assure you. My father worked like a salve for little more than board for us all. He kept my father at it by telling him he was going to inherit this. When my grandfather finally admitted he fully intended to sell up, my father decided it was high time to move on.

Kripa – what happened to your father?

Angad – he was working in industry that day when all of a sudden whole industry was surrounded by the flames .

Kripa – oh, angad! No one knew this. How horrible! Why should anyone have to die like that?

Angad – to save the rest of us I suppose. I had to concentrate on his heroism or go mad. My mother spent the rest of her life having ghastly nightmares. The way my father died left her not only bereft out sunk in a depressive state she couldn't fight out of. That fire destroyed her, too. I know she actually prayed for the day she would die. She truly believed she would see my father again.

Kripa – do you?

Angad – no, still I can't help but wonder from time to time.

Kripa – mystery, mysteries, the great mystery.

She looked at the staircase leading to the gallery which had to have a dome because natural light was pouring in.

Kripa – does the gallery have a dome?

Angad – it does, and it's still intact. The bedrooms are upstairs of course. Twelve in all. the old kitchen's are the buildings at the rear of the house. We'll get them. Let's move on. There are forty rooms in the house all up.