Confected Castles : Of Cards and Dreams

𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 𝓝𝓲𝓷𝓮

Everything was pleasant about that morning. She woke up, did her chores, read a book, pluck some flowers. She was supposed to visit the library that day, issuing some more books. No matter how rich her family was to bring the books at her doors, it still couldn't provide her the solace of roaming through aisles, searching amidst genres, choosing ten books and then short listing only a five of them with a heavy heart. These things are needed to be experienced and not killed under the burden of the ancestral wealth, she thought. Moreover, the last night was still pricking her conscience. His unusual disturbed demeanour, the hidden sadness in his orbs that she could decipher the tinge of his irritation, everything flashed across her mind, cloaking her chest with sudden uneasiness. She had sensed something might be wrong with him and giving him his space would be best for her own. She might have overstepped her boundaries. After all, she had met him just thrice. Her mind was all a mess of ifs and buts, garnished by her skills of over thinking that cloaked her heart. But a tour to library can fix it all, she believed. All ready with her long gown and a hat, she glanced at her reflection in the mirror.

"Perfect!" She muttered.

She stepped out of her room with a glee on her face. Her mind was humming a fresh tune of Rabindra Sangeet that she just played on her music player, before getting ready for the library. Music had always healed her, a sort of escapism from the barbarous realms of this world. She hopped through the stairs, swinging the little purse she carried with her.

"Priyala! Are you going somewhere?" A familiar masculine voice caught her attention. She completely forgot she was standing in the hall until he called her.

She saw the guy sitting on the huge sofa of her hall, sipping the warm tea from the saucer. Her eyes fell over his gentle features and the two familiar figures sitting beside him, the dominant males of Thakurs indulged with their little tea party with the son of Rai.

"Ah-Anirban! You here?"

"Umm yes! The dad's work stuffs you know." She decided to believe him as few red files were messily kept on the table near him that were lying beside the mess of pens and quills.

"So! Done with the work?" She asked, under the burden of being polite to the guests.

"Ah yes! It was completed an hour ago. I was then chitchatting with Kaka and your dear brother."

"Oh!" She didn't know how to react with this piece of information. She saw her rest of the family sitting with him, indulged in their petty business conversations. Sometimes she felt the men of her family could talk is all about business and business and more business. She barely remembered the last time had she ever talked with her Baba about life, which seemed far gone behind the veils of their zamindari duties. The dilapidated connection that was suffering under the gist of duties.

"You didn't answer me by the way!" His voice snapped her back from her thoughts.

"Answer what?"

"Are you going somewhere?"

None of your business Mr. MotaMatha(bighead)! Obviously she can't reply him with this. The room was occupied with her family who were looking at her with a sheepish smile, god knows why? Her family was a complete weird, she thought. Not that she was unknown with the latent impulsions of their 'to be alliance' with the Rai. But she was not in the good phase to consider about that. The thought never fails to haunt her soul, no matter how much appealing it sounds to others.

"He is asking you something!" Karnav's voice ringed in her ears as she saw him staring at her with 'pay attention' look. She twitched on her place with his sudden pitched voice. Her brother definitely had some unexplained problems with her.