In Regina, at his wits’ end, the
King again consulted Juan and his mother. She quietly said that she would get
her future daughter-in-law to the palace. When she went to that inn with the
soldiers, Myara had vanished! After searching the whole day, the soldiers hit
upon an idea. They sent a message to the palace to bring her favorite mongrel
named August. When he arrived at the inn, he started running in the direction
of Regina then suddenly veered off track and started bounding towards the hill
where the shrine was located. Heaving excitedly up the steps towards the cave
where Myara had taken refuge from the angry eagles while going to rescue Juan
from the shrine; he left the others following him far behind. The eagles who
were hungrily hovering overhead, kept a safe distance due to his incessant
barking.
Once near
the cave, he sniffed around the opening, picked up her scent and leapt into the
cave and was delighted to spot his mistress, Myara lying down on the cold and
damp floor, curled up to keep herself warm. He licked her tear-stained, soft
cheeks till she opened her eyes and looked at him in amazement. As he barked
excitedly, she caressed his head and body and gathered his eager brown body
close to hers. “How did you find me, darling?” Then her eyes widened in
realization. So someone from Regina was desperately looking out for her! Why?
August
shook himself off from her gentle grasp and bounded outside the cave, barking
loudly. When the soldiers who had been busy warding off the birds with their
pointed staffs and Juan’s mother spotted him they were relieved and he led them
into the cave and waved his tail at his mistress.
Juan’s
mother asked the soldiers to wait outside the cave for a while. She knelt
beside Myara and held her hand gently. “Myara, my dear, come back to Regina.
The King and Juan are waiting for you.” “But I don’t understand, mother, why am
I needed there right now?”Myara asked in a bewildered tone. “Myara, as you are
aware, Sara, your best friend is no more. Only you know about the curse that
the Master of the shrine gave Juan. Hence the King has decided that you must
marry Juan and become the Queen of Regina.” Quickly she narrated the events
that led to Sara’s suicide and the private conversation of the trio to Myara.
With a pained
look, Myara said, “But I had promised you that I’d have nothing to do with your
son after his marriage, hence how can I break my promise?” Juan’s mother said
firmly, “I had given you that oath and now I relieve you from it. Hence there
is no harm in breaking your promise now. Come soon. We’ve no time to waste!”
Myara looked wistfully at the tunnel. She had again lost a chance to
investigate that puddle and solve its mystery. Now a greater mystery awaited
her in Regina. How would Juan and she
ever have a child? Would Regina remain without a successor forever?
****************************************
The door bell rang
incessantly, as Martha wrote feverishly. When the noise became too much for
her, she got up from the desk, annoyance writ large on her face and stomped to
the door. She opened it to see Dr. Hussey standing there. He looked tired after
the long day at his clinic. She immediately felt sheepish and welcomed him with
“I’m sorry, Doctor. I was very engrossed in writing my novel. Please do come
in.” As she stepped aside, he noticed her gown and the way it clung sensuously
to her curves. She sensed him watching her and quickly offered to make coffee
for both of them.
She glanced
at the clock on the mantelpiece and was alarmed to see that it showed 8 p.m. as
the time then. Dr. Hussey had asked her to be ready for going out for dinner at
7.30 p.m. and he was a stickler for punctuality. Though he had himself overshot
his time-limit by half an hour, she didn’t have any excuse for not being ready
on time! She watched the milk boil absentmindedly. What would happen to Regina if she went for dinner? She felt the
absurdity of her thought but was also annoyed that her writing had been
interrupted by the Doctor’s arrival. Then she guiltily remembered that it was
his house and not the other way around!
She started
as the Doctor entered the kitchen swiftly and deftly closed the stove even as
the milk threatened to spill over the brim of the vessel in which it was being
boiled. “Martha, come out of it! Where are you dear? Pull yourself together.
See the milk would’ve ended up making the place messy had I not come in the
nick of time.”
Vaguely, as
his voice registered in her brain filled with thoughts of Regina, she said,
“Oh, I’m sorry!”
“Martha,
leave this job to me. Please go and get ready. I’ll bring the coffee into the
living-room and wait for you. Five minutes and no more!” he jovially ordered
her, keeping his voice firm. She knew that he meant what he said. She hurried
into her room, washed her face and hands, pulled on the same dress that she had
traveled in, applied lip-gloss, brushed her beautiful hair, left it open and
walked out into the living room. A gaping Dr. Hussey welcomed her and told her,
“By God! That was fast. You look heavenly dear. Come, have some coffee. Tell
me, how was your day? Did you eat anything at all?”
Lightheartedly she said, “Thanks Doctor, I’ve had a lovely day. I had
lunch, rested for a while and then wrote till ten minutes ago, when you
returned….” As he noted a slight wistfulness in her tone, he joked, “…and
disturbed your thoughts!” She brushed his self-deprecatory remark by saying,
“It was just as well, Doctor, other wise I would’ve ended up without dinner and
got up in the middle of night, feeling ravenously hungry!” Both of them laughed
loudly.
It was 8.30
p.m. when they set out for the restaurant. Martha could feel their neighbor’s
eyes following them from behind the peep-hole of her apartment. “Quite a nosy
one there!” she remarked casually to him as he agreed. “Yes, it’s so sad that
we can’t choose our neighbors, isn’t it? I would’ve loved to have you as my
neighbor,” he said with a twinkle in his dark eyes. She found his ready wit
endearing and even surprising. She hadn’t expected him to have a funny bone!
To be continued....
The copyright of this novel is with Mrs. Priya Ramesh Swaminathan.
