“What have you done?” Bhumimitra was trying to shake the answer out of her, “For God’s sake, tell us what you have done? Vaidyaraj would know better how to treat you then.”

“Swami. Don’t begrudge me. I gave you what I had. But it was my fate that I was to have everything, and yet nothing.”

“What are you saying, Chandrika? I… What went wrong? Did you still not want to marry me? Just…”

“Don’t make my last moments difficult with such speculations, Swami. I am going a happy woman. I had your love. What could be better? Be happy for me. I won’t try to extract any promises out of you. But just… try to keep my sister happy. And if possible, don’t tell her that I committed suicide. Tell her it was a natural death. I want to talk to her. Will you call her please?”

Perplexed, Bhumimitra sent for Madhumita. She came in practically running, her dress and hair in disarray. “Chanda!”

“Madhu. My sister. It is time to apologize for all the troubles I have caused you since childhood, and which you so patiently bore…”

“Shut up, Chanda. Nothing is going to happen to you. Vaidyaraj is here… What has happened to her?”

“I’m afraid it’s too late, Rani Madhumita,” the doctor said morosely.

“What has happened?”

The doctor looked at the king, who signaled to him that he should not reveal the truth, as Chandrika had requested.

“It was a sudden problem in some internal organ, Ma’am. I am really sorry.”

“Madhu. You must tell my nephew the stories of her mad aunt,” Chandrika put up a brave smile, “But when you have daughters, you must not tell them about me. Otherwise they will grow up to be weird like me. And there aren’t many men like him, who could fall in love with eccentric women.”

“Chanda!” Madhumita started crying, “This can’t be happening… You can’t leave me like this, my child. What have you seen of the world… Oh God!!! Where are you?”

“Don’t cry for me, Madhu. Things could have been worse. But I have everything one could wish for. A sister like you, a husband like him… I am going from a world a suhaagan. You must also be happy for me… Keep her happy, Maharaj.” She addressed her last words to her husband and then closed her eyes; never to open them again.

—

The palace and antahpur had a haunted look since last one month. Bhumimitra hardly managed to spend an hour in the court during the day. Madhumita was in no better shape as far as managing antahpur was concerned.  The only time either of felt cheerful was when they were with the baby prince Bhanumitra. But they could not rid themselves of the Chandrika’s memories. Madhumita had been long accustomed to her playful presence around her. But even in the little over a year she had spent at Raigarh, she had become that one person in his life who would remind him that there was happiness in simple things, who could tempt him to step away from his work and to enjoy life and its lighter moment. And she was the only one who could excite such passion in him as he had never known for any woman before.

“Madhu,” he was feeling suffocated and felt the urgency to get out of the palace, “I want to go on a ride in the jungle. Will you come with me?”

“I am not a rider like her, Swami. But I will come…” she replied even as her eyes moistened.

Bhumimitra stopped after riding for a while and tied his horse to a nearby tree. He helped Madhu do the same and then stood completely still for a while. Madhu looked at him worried.

“Swami?” her voice trembled.

Suddenly the unthinkable happened. He knelt down and burst out in sobs. He buried his face in his hands and cried loudly, something he could never have done inside the palace. Stupefied, Madhu also knelt before him. “Swami… No… You can’t… you can’t break down like this…” her own voice choked, but if she also started crying then, all hell would break lose. So, she exerted herself to utmost and didn’t cry.

“I’m the culprit, Madhu. In my obsession for her, I killed her. She didn’t want to marry me.”

“That’s not true. What gave you the idea?”

“Why else would she commit suicide the very next morning of…”

“Suicide?”

“She didn’t want me to tell you. But… I can’t go on living with this guilt any longer. I had to confess. What have I done? I can never forgive myself…”

Madhumita slumped back and was saved from falling only because of the tree trunk that supported her. Wallowing in his own guilt, Bhumimitra took some time to notice her condition.

“Madhu!” he shook her.

She looked at him with blank eyes. “Talk to me,” he persuaded.

“She… she didn’t commit suicide because she didn’t want to marry you… She did it because…”

“What? What is it? Madhu – is there something that I don’t know.”

“I killed her. I killed my sister. She committed suicide because she didn’t want to be my rival. She had already tried it once…”

“What are you talking about?”

Amidst her sobs and hiccups, she managed to tell him how she had always been sensitive about marrying her sister’s husband. She also told him about her previous suicide attempt that had been prevented in the nick of the time…

“The same day when…”

“Yes,” she confirmed that the last time she had attempted suicide was when he had spent the night with her.

“And you came asking me to marry her? Telling me that she had consented? Wasn’t I supposed to know what was going on under my own roof?”

“But she had consented, Swami. At least I thought that she realized how childish she was being. We, royal women, don’t expect our marriages to be about love, and life-long loyalty. They are political decisions and no one can stay without a rival. I know I was being selfish thinking that a loving sister was better as a rival than… But… I didn’t, really didn’t think that after getting the taste of your love, she would still be so stubborn… And you wanted her so much…”

“I wanted her… But not at this cost, Madhu. I know that you were being practical and mature. And what you say about royal marriages is all true… But… she was not a baby. How could you not respect what she felt and thought… And it was… it was such a noble thought!”

Madhu hung her head in shame. What could she say in her defense? That she had brought her up and continued considering her a baby, like parents do? It was hardly a satisfactory explanation to something that had such disastrous consequence.

“But…” he suddenly stopped his tirade, “Why am I blaming you as if you were the only one to not do the right thing by her. I fared no better. I did worse. Because I thought I understood her… I still want to think I would have understood her… And she didn’t tell me… Probably because she was afraid of me… Or probably because she didn’t think I would take her seriously… And there was one moment when she was vulnerable, when she surrendered to me despite herself… And that was the moment when I could have made her talk. But I wasted that moment in satisfying my lust. And then she agreed to marry me… Because she didn’t want to die disgraced. The disgrace brought upon her by my lust… Oh Lord!! What did I do? Why didn’t I…”

“Don’t berate yourself, Maharaj. I am the real culprit. I misunderstood everything. I kept things from you. You can punish me in whichever way you think right…”

“Who am I to punish you, or even myself, in this case, Madhu? We will all live our punishments in the form of this life. God must have willed it to be the most tragic love-story in the world. Both of us loved her. She loved both of us. We all tried to do the right thing by each other. You wanted to keep her with you, to protect her because you didn’t think she could survive in this world on her own. And you were right. She wasn’t of this world. Look at what she gave her life for. And she tried to do what she thought was right by you. And I? I loved her. The first time I met her, she was in a jungle, riding a horse and wearing God knows what… something very absurd that I couldn’t imagine any respectable woman wear. And yet, I fell for her. Not despite her eccentricity. But because of it. If I wasn’t so hopelessly in love, I’d have done better. Yes, I would have…. Oh Lord! Let’s go away from here, Madhu. This place has too much of her… Do you know she could find her way back by marking the trees… Like jungle-dwellers do… And she knew the poisonous fruits from the domesticated ones… She had saved my life once by stopping me from eating…”

“Swami!” Madhu got worried for him. Was he rambling in shock and despair? He was talking too quickly, going from one thing to the other. It was unusual for him.

He looked at her and gave a sad smile, “Yes! Let’s go back.”

—

“Rani Madhumita,” he addressed her when he came to her room that night, “There was only one thing that Chandrike had wished for before dying. That I should keep you happy. And I know what her idea of your happiness was. But I must know from you. Will it make you happy, if I promise not to marry again?”

Madhumita’s eyes widened. She barely managed to speak, “Swami. You don’t need to…”

“I know. You are far too practical to ask me for it. Coached by you, I think, even she did not make me promise. You don’t have to ask. You only have to answer this question for me. Will it make you happy?”

Her eyes clouded with tears and she choked. So, she replied only by nodding her head.

“Madhu. Life just passes by. We take things for granted. She taught me to not do so. I never took even a moment to appreciate you, to tell you how wonderful you have been, how deftly you have shouldered all your responsibilities here… I have never said all this, but it does not mean that I didn’t appreciate…”

“No. Stop. You don’t need to tell me. Everything doesn’t have to be spelled out. You have been as generous, loving and caring a husband as any woman would wish for. You even asked me if I was angry before marrying her. You didn’t need to… You don’t have to do anything to prove that you appreciate me. There might be situations… Politics… War…”

“I don’t need to, but I still promise. If Shri Rama Chandra could manage, I would…”

She chuckled through her tears on hearing that, “Chanda wouldn’t have accepted Shri Rama Chandra for her husband. But I can do with it…”

“Why not?”

“He didn’t stand by his wife.”

“I will do better. Just give me lots of sons and daughters, who could be married to worthy princesses and kings, if there is a need.”

She blushed and for the first time in last one month, he held her close and laid her down on the bed.

– The End –