Dhi

Epilogue: Unsaid, Never Unheard

She was exquisite under the moonlight - her skin a milky incandescene contrasting the midnight blue clothing embroidered with tiny gems as if she were drapped in the star speckled dark sky itself. The hair captured the tandem of tides, wild, free yet in order, capricious in a way that would make the whimsical spring showers jealous. She adorned the diadem allowing it to have value for it was merely metal and rock without her love for him. The lower end of the veil carelessly laid near her hidden feet leaving her shoulders and back uncovered - a sight meant for his eyes only. Slender fingers were curled around the cold stone of the balcony railing as she overlooked the gardens of the palace obscured from all unwanted eyes by the artfully placed banyan boughs preserving her desired privacy. A familiar thin gold chain rested around her delicate neck, the pendant peeking over the seam of her blouse. Void of any other jewellery, she looked like an embodiment of detached divinity unbothered by the cold winds blowing against her figure. Every foggy exhaled warm breath mingled with the late winter air until they were inseparable. Their boundless nature left like a mockery of what was to be his truth from tomorrow. In this night before the dawn of inevitability, her eyes were fanthomless lakes of thoughts looking heavenwards and when they turned on him, they mirrored the melancholic love of her lips.

His gaze was the dry cracked earth soaking up her sight like the first drops of rain. Untouched by the full moon's grace, he stood near the doorway shrouded in shadows. The turquoise dhoti in its pretence of being teal rode low on his hips fastened by a tasteful sapphire studded girdle. A blue topaz rested over his navel bound to the long gold necklace encircling his neck. Wrapped in a rust coloured shawl, his chiseled physique housed the patience, understanding, helplessness and plea of his hundred ancestors waiting for her to offer salvation one last time before he ventured to dig an empty space in his heart for another. His eclipsed fair skin was dim reflecting the somber churns of their heavy uncertain hearts. Tomorrow he would stand beside another woman in front of the austere fire, pledge themselves to each other for an entire year then embrace his second wife gaining the complete rights of being her husband and she, his first love-his first wife-the mother of his daughter, would relinquish her own rights as she had vowed.

She advanced towards him without any inhibition, any complaints, any demands and accepted his offered hand. Soft palm pressed against his harsher one as slim fingers interlaced with his. The shawl providing him warmth found her shoulders. A flicker of surprise in her eyes proved his previous assumption correct. She was too lost in her head to be aware of her environment. Yet, like a bee always sensing the flower nearby, she never failed to register his presence. She followed him inside, walking close behind him, away from the dome of solitude she often crafted to cope with her turbulent mind. Her shoulders intentionally brushed against his to ward off the cold from causing him discomfort.

Her sleeping chamber was cosy, carefully protected from the outside chill. A few lit earthen lamps illuminated the room enough for her to be able to decipher his features. The absence of her infant's bedding from the bed was noticed by her husband. His knowing eyes stagnated a moment longer. Her mother-in-law Kunti had come asking to take care for their precious little Anvi for a night. Sympathy clear in Kunti's gaze, she was very kind to her. A wife desperate for her husband's love had gladly handed her daughter to Kunti. Being a new mother had taken up all her time for the past month. Combined with the uncertainties of what life was to turn into, a hot flush of shame and guilt arose in her.