Desert Rose

Chapter 1

The white horse galloped toward her in the twilight. It came to a stop a few feet from her and the rider alighted in one swift motion. As he began to stride toward her, the skies began to darken throwing him in shadows. He came up to her, pulled her flush against himself and bent down to touch his lips to her.His eyes!She felt like she was drowning in their depths. As his eyelids dropped, she saw thick lashes fanning his cheeks, his lips just a breath away......

It was the same dream again! She sat up in the bed, clutching her heart which was beating erratically.....

'This is what happens when you watch Baazigar before you go to sleep Khushi Kumari Gupta!' she berated herself.Why did she keep getting this dream over and over again? She had been getting this dream ever since the strange encounter at her parents' memorial four years ago. But she couldn't remember much. All she could remember was his eyes ---- eyes the colour of molten chocolate that had made her heart go dhak-dhak as they burned into the very depths of her soul.

But there was no point in dreaming about brown eyed Baazigars, was there? Haar kar bhi jeetne waale ko baazigar kehte hain..... The protagonist in the movie had turned out be a manipulative killer who had killed the heroine's innocent sister for revenge. Though he had won over the heroine with the intensity of his love, he had died in the end leaving her with intense pain and heartbreak.

Suddenly, she heard a noise in the kitchen and saw that Payal's side of the bed was unoccupied. She rushed out to see her standing in the kitchen,milk all over the floor. The pungent odour of gas assailed her nose.

'Jiji! what do you think you are doing?' she yelled as she rushed up to her and switched off the stove.

'I am sorry Khushi,' cried Payal, 'I was just going to boil some milk and the vessel slipped...I ___'

The smell of the gas was pretty strong and Khushi pulled her sister out of the kitchen into their bedroom.

'Where were your thoughts jiji? What if something had happened to you?' said Khushi angrily, 'Nobody is worth it!'

'But he loves me Khushi.'

'I don't know jiji,' Khushi spoke more brusquely than she had intended, and repented instantly as she saw her sister's eyes cloud with hurt.

'Jiji,' she went on more gently, 'you met him for just two days at the wedding!'

'Sometimes, you don't even need that much time Khushi.The moment we met, we both just knew that there could be no one else for us.'

'Then why didn't he come to Delhi?' Khushi asked the dreaded question.

'I don't know. Something must have happened to prevent him ------ delay him.'

Khushi could make a cynical guess what that 'something' might be. Akash Singh Raizada had probably remembered, just in time, that he had a fiancée ---or even a wife ----already.

Khushi remembered how their lives had changed one month ago when Payal had wanted to go to Jaipur to attend a class mate's wedding. It had seemed perfectly safe at the time. Palak Mathur, Payal's best friend and their neighbour, was also going along. She had relatives in Jaipur, and had assured Khushi that she would take care of Payal very well.

How wrong she had been! Payal had met Akash, at the wedding and they had ended up talking for hours.

If only it had stopped at that, Khushi thought with a silent groan. Or if Payal had been sophisticated enough to realize she was being spun a line by an experienced charmer.

On her return, she had informed her younger sister that, she was going to be married.

Khushi had taken a deep, steadying breath, and done some gentle probing.