The falling seasons

Part 10

The wind that breezed through the windows of the main hall was colder than usual and Yuktha shivered once in response. Sunanda was lighting the candles and she smiled when every candle she had lit got blown away the moment she looked away from them. Sunanda was lost in the way her mistress moved across the floor. The sight was nothing but magnificent. It was as if she was elegantly flying in the air and never touched the ground. And Azuma's face showed how fond she was of dancing. She wore a white salwar with white pants, and it seemed as if Haruni's mother was made for dance.

"I don't think... There is any need for me to teach you, my lady!"

Yuktha said as she went near the windows to close them. She was a short lady with a long face. Yuktha hated it, but her friends liked to call her 'Horse face'.

"It's like I cannot be with Haruni all the time and you are my connecting link to her, so..." Haruni's mother stopped dancing and stood slowly getting back to her paleness.

"Why can't you teach her yourself, my lady? She seems to be a girl who learns very quickly and I am envious about your dancing skills..." The dance teacher closed the windows and said with a smile that had only true intentions behind it

"you are way better than me!"

"This may be a bit unnatural for you but..." Azuma sank into the chair that was near the mantlepiece. "I may not be able to do anything even with all this..."

"What do you mean, my lady?" Yuktha frowned

"I mean... I cannot hold onto my promise if my fate has something else in its store!"

The dance teacher was embarrassed as it was more unclear than the previous thing Azuma had said and she didn't like complicating things, but the smile on Sunanda's face had disappeared. She shivered in the absence of the wind, just thinking about the inevitable. Azuma was visibly panting now.

"My lady... I think you need to get the dresses for you and Haruni, for the dance..." Sunanda said as she started to rekindle the ivory white candles.

"But..."

"No buts my lady, I think you have sucked in enough of the air from your room, so I think that it's time for you to get out and have some fresh air..."

"I really can't..."

"No, you can..." Sunanda reached the chair that Azuma was seated upon and had caught her hand. She had already started to lift her. Her other hand occupied with a lit candle.

"I have also got the car ready, so it's only you getting ready my lady..."

"You have decided to put me out of this house, haven't you?"

Azuma laughed as Sunanda pulled her back to her feet and said

"Yes... my lady, only if you weren't so stubborn, now get ready..."

Sunanda pushed her lady. Azuma had stopped resisting, smiling at how fate had given her one more daughter, and how selfish she was that she could never give the little girl back then... The life she was giving her real daughter.

At the doors, Azuma stopped and turned around, while Sunanda was still pushing her. When she couldn't do so anymore she looked onto her mistress with the blue eyes that had amazed Azuma long back.

"My lady..."

"Thank you!" Azuma said as she entered her room. Sunanda stood stunned at the entrance of Azuma's door, as it was a thank you that had nothing but deep-seated regrets and somehow she felt it. And she never knew that inside the room, Azuma had a breakdown and she was crying, for all she was, was nothing ever she wanted...

The wind blew harder and the snow-frosted the glass, the daylight was shifting as the clouds waited for their moment to come!