Chapter 28 Secrets

'Vandita could almost feel Awnirudh's lips on the crook of her neck... He was sucking her, biting her. Vandita felt that familiar surge of pressure building down her abdomen. She could feel Awnirudh's hands on her softness as he pressed her, kneaded her with mild aggression. His hands moved further south on her body and Vandita felt desparate. She grabbed his hand and guided him down in between her thighs. She wanted him to touch her, probe her... She wanted him to fill her with his hardness...'

Vandita arched her back in her sleep as her unconscious mind visualized the experience of Awnirudh's touch, recreating it in her dreams.

She clutched the bedsheet tight and her body reacted to this delirious feeling. She dreamt of Awnirudh's hardness growing inside her as a sense of warmth escaped her body. She felt the warmth engulfing her being and flowing out of her. She was falling, falling into a deep dark abyss of nothingness. She floated in a pool of wetness before something hit her on her stomach with a black mist of affliction.

She was in pain. She felt an acute cramp. She clutched her lower abdomen and sat up on her bed, drenched in sweat and a moistened feeling.

'Only a dream' she tried to calm herself down. But then, she felt that sharp pain again, surging through her abdomen, only in reality this time. She took a deep breath and removed her comforter.

"Oh Goodness... Not tonight!" Vandita murmured to herself with a sense of hopelessness evident in her tone.

She got up and strolled to the bathroom, dragging the blood strained bedsheet along with her.

It was early when Awnirudh was skimming his morning newspaper. He was sipping his Darjeeling earl when Koeli walked past his study.

"Koeli..." Awnirudh called out. "Vandita isn't down for breakfast yet?"

"Um..well", Koeli hesitated. "Vandita Bahu is taking her breakfast in her room upstairs.... She is not keeping well." Koeli blurted out.

"Not well? Why what happened?" Awnirudh looked concerned.

"No nothing much... She is fine... Just not feeling... umm..." Koeli fumbled with her words.

Awnirudh quickly got up from his chair.

"You are not making sense Koeli. Please send my breakfast upstairs to her room."

He stormed out of the door, walked up the stairs to reach Vandita's room. The door was closed but not latched.

He knocked before entering.

"Why have you come here Barrister Babu?" Vandita looked up and asked him sharply.

"I heard you are not keeping well. I just wanted to see you Vandita." Awnirudh spoke gently as he pulled a chair to sit in front of her.

"I want to kill Koeli." Vandita growled, pouting her lips, her face was turned away from him.

"Why did she have to tell you!"

"Tell me what?" Awnirudh asked.

He noticed her uncombed traces and her grumpy face. She had clutched a pillow, tightly pressed to her stomach. She was squirming uncomfortably in her bed.

Anirudh sighed, and then smiled. He had known this face long enough to understand the source of this sudden eccentricity. He got up from his chair and walked towards the bed. He sat near her and took her hands and his.

"Have this glass of warm milk." He pointed towards the breakfast kept on the bedside table, untouched. "Then get a warm bath. You would feel a lot better, I promise. I'll get you Rosogullas in the evening"

Vandita didn't look up as Awnirudh lowered his face to reach up to her ears.

He whispered, " Or, I can help you bathe..!"

Her face had flushed at once, in every shade of crimson, and then she quickly got off the bed and almost ran towards the bathroom. Stopping at the doorstep, she turned around to look at Awnirudh once, as she spoke in a low coy manner.

"I'd like that very much.... Someday."

She slammed the door behind her.

Awnirudh kept staring at the closed door, and then exclaimed.

"Damn... What a lassy she has become!"

....

It was evening, and as promised Awnirudh had bought her a handi of the coveted sweet. Vandita was munching Rosogollas happily as their gatekeeper Lachman handed a chit to Awnirudh.

"What's that Barrister Babu?" Vandita enquired curiously.

"A note from Suresh I'm assuming. I sent one to him in the morning asking about the girl." Awnirudh replied as he read the note.

'Barrister Roychowdhury,

Mira lives for now. We have plastered her limbs. Please arrange for a place for her to stay as you had promised.

Also, she is pregnant.

- Dr. Suresh Chatterjee.'

He read the note and passed it to Vandita quietly. A deep sigh escaped from his heart, and the dark cast on his face didn't miss Vandita's careful eyes.

"Pregnant?" Vandita repeated, and Awnirudh nodded his head half heartedly.

"So now?" she asked again, and in response Awnirudh ran his fingers through his hair thoughtfully.

Vandita smiled.

"I know exactly what to do. We'll bring her here." She remarked. "She'll stay with us."

Her answer had startled him, but then he extended his hand to hold hers.

"That's sweet of you Shona. She may stay here, temporarily perhaps. But that's not the future. I'll have to speak to Lenny and arrange an admission for her. Education is the only way, Vandita." Awnirudh looked determined as he reluctantly left her side, and walked towards his study room... leaving Vandita and her potful of Rosogolla immersed in thoughts.

"Vandita Boudidimoni, your friend has come to see you." Time passed without an account, and the trance broke when Koeli called out loud. Vandita was standing on the terrace as she saw Kshitija entering the Banglow gate.

It was still early evening, as the two girls met each other. Kshitija hugged her as she whispered in her ears.

"You thought you could hide it from me?" she hushed, and Vandita looked visibly confused at her question.

"Hide what?" she asked, and in reply, Kshitija placed a small kiss on her cheek.

"I know your little secret, girl... you are caught!"

She raised an eye brow in a sarcastic torment.

"Now... what if everybody gets to know about it? And, what if your Barrister Babu gets... "

Kshitija broke into an ironical fit of laughter, leaving Vandita baffled in confusion.