A Suitor for the Princess - Chapter 38

                   Now they viewed her with caution as they noticed how she warmly spoke with each of them, appearing genuinely interested in their jobs in the office. They decided to wait and watch before becoming too friendly with her. The Boss was also a factor here. They admired and respected him but dreaded his outbursts of temper when things went against his wishes at the office. He ruled with an iron fist and had total control over his enterprise. He had all the facts about his office and its work at the tip of his tongue. He was always entirely clued in to the goings-on there even when he wasn’t around, thanks to his super-efficient secretary.                                             

                 Meanwhile Martha was bracing herself for her introduction to the formidable John D’ Costa. She had a good idea of what he’d look like, thanks to her ever-fertile imagination! But she was entirely taken aback when she came face to face with him. In fact, she felt faint when she saw him rising from his high-backed chair to greet her. She wildly clutched Norman’s hands, even as she felt the sweat descending on her brow and her throat going parched.

                  John D’Costa was blonde-haired, tawny-eyed, rugged and handsome with the identical features of Juan. Above all, he was one-eyed! He had a black eye-patch over his right eye. John, Juan, John, Juan, the names danced rhythmically in her head till she felt dizzy and sat in a chair, even as Norman and John gazed at her strangely. She did appear out of sorts.      

                John quickly filled a glass of water from the jug on his table and offered it to her. She sipped it gratefully and said “Thanks”. She was aware that she was staring at him. But she couldn’t help it. Not when he resembled her novel’s hero so uncannily! She was face to face with the person whom she wrote about nearly every other day. In fact she was the one who had ‘blinded’ him, thanks to her imagination. Now she felt very sorry for him.   

                   “Sorry”, she muttered, with tears in her eyes. John and Norman exchanged a quick glance. Maybe she felt awkward about her dizzy spell; they thought and rushed to assuage her feelings. “It’s all right, Martha. Hope you are better now,” said Norman. It was Martha’s turn to look with a confused expression at Norman. “Why, of course, I am? I am sorry for Juan being blinded by me.” John and Norman looked aghast at her, wondering about what she was blabbering. “I…… the eagles…… the shrine……”

                     John rushed to her rescue. “Madam, I was blinded due to a crow pecking my eye. It wasn’t an eagle. But you are bang on in your assumption that I lost my right eye due to a vicious bird’s pecking. You see, as a little boy, I stole two of its eggs and it just swooped on me and partly blinded me for the rest of my life.  Now I don’t even feel its loss. And by the way, I’m John, not Juan.”   

                     “You may call me Martha, John. I hope that I may call you by your first name too. Norman tells me that you are very particular about the end result of the scripts that are chosen by this publishing house for publication. I am here to help you, that is, if you’d let me! I say this because I know that people, who are used to having their way, seldom trust other people’s opinions or judgment. I hope that you aren’t biased in any manner. I hope to have a friendly association with you. We’ll go far if we respect each others’ views and decisions.”

                   She saw that John was watching her warily, while Norman was grinning from ear to ear like a Cheshire cat.  He was highly amused at the manner in which Martha had voluntarily introduced herself and made herself crystal-clear to that eccentric (in his opinion) task-master!

                    He watched John redden with embarrassment and then recover quickly to say enthusiastically, “Fore-warned is fore-armed, Martha. I’ll try to be amicable, I promise. He knew that Norman had briefed her about his strict ways and no-nonsense approach to his job. Still sparks were bound to fly, as he realized that Martha would be a formidable opponent, going by her practical and bold premise that they would have to work in total co-ordination like two wheels in a cog!

                  He had never toed anyone’s line in his entire life of 47 years (that included his Boss, Norman) and wasn’t about to do so now, no matter whether that other person was as beautiful and confident as this blonde-haired, blue-eyed, elegant lady in front of him! He already viewed her as a serious threat to his job. Was she a trainee who was being slyly groomed to take over his position in that publishing house or was the Boss really keen on someone sharing his immense work-load? Well, he’d soon know!

                 Till then, he’d try to keep her strictly under his command. She appeared very intelligent and had a good experience of several years of fine writing to her credit. Would she steal his thunder? Definitely not! He was equally accomplished and experienced. Suddenly he felt that this challenge would be good for him. Maybe he had become too complacent in the knowledge that there was no one to challenge his authority.

                   Martha was observing him from an entirely different perspective. He so uncannily resembled Juan that she was now itching to go back home and write her novel. She was getting new ideas…. “Norman, can we go home please? I am tired and want to rest,” she said with an imploring look in her eyes. Norman immediately agreed, concerned that she’d have another attack of nerves or amnesia again! Turning to John, he said, “Well, we’ll call it a day today. By the way, how’s that new novel shaping up? From tomorrow, Martha will be helping you to edit it. Be a good boy till then. See you tomorrow.”

To be continued... 

The copyright of this novel is with Mrs. Priya Ramesh Swaminathan.