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Both our mothers looked scandalised at her haste to get away, but the rest of us laughed in delight.
She piled into Dheer’s armoured SUV and I followed her in, trying not to sit on her long train-like dupatta. My parents followed us in their car. It was a short ride to Gulab Mahal, and as we drove up to the ornate wrought iron gates of the mansion, I was excited to see what Isha’s dream house looked like.
I was expecting a smaller version of the ornate Trikhera Palace. But it turned out to be a haveli, with tall curved pillars, jaalis and jharokhas, and a centre courtyard.
“There is a formal rose garden laid out behind the house, and a lily pond in the courtyard,” explained Isha, as we got out of the car.
Diya had already arranged for the house to be cleaned, painted, lit up and decorated with flowers for us. My parents waited for us at the door to perform the aarti, and I led Isha into her dream house. We couldn’t move in immediately because we needed to hire some help, but Dheer had loaned us some of his staff for the next few days.
Isha ran a fond hand over the furniture.
“Gulab Banna had this all hand-made by local artisans. Every painting, every cushion, every artefact that you see here is a testament to his exquisite taste.”
“I’m sure he’s very happy to know you finally got the house. You clearly love the place as much as he did,” I said, putting an arm around her.
Isha stiffened and shot me a quick look. With a deep breath, she skipped out of reach as tactfully as she could.
“Let me show you around the property,” she said, but Ma shook her head disapprovingly.
“Not now, beta. You can’t go scampering about the house on your wedding night,” she said pointedly.
Isha gave a huge sigh and followed her up to our bedroom. Ranvijay poured me a drink as I waited tactfully until I was summoned upstairs.
“Did you file the nominations?” I asked him because his firm was running my campaign.
“Of course! As soon as Chandel Sahab okayed it,” he replied. “The team will get in touch with you after your honeymoon to plan your campaign. Where are you guys going?”
I had no answer to that because we hadn’t planned anything. The wedding was arranged so quickly that we’d barely had a week to finalise the plans. And most of that time had been spent on arranging to take possession of this house and compiling my nomination papers. Diya and Ma had picked out my outfit because I didn’t have the time to go shopping.
Ranvijay sighed heavily and shook his head in disgust.
“I’m wondering if I should break Isha out of here before this goes any further. How could you forget about your honeymoon, Veer? I’ll get my team on it.”
“You’d need an army to pry Isha out of this house,” I informed him. “And they’d have to go through me first. Don’t worry about us, Ranvijay. We’ll figure out everything, including the honeymoon. All we need to do is pick a place, hop in my jet and fly away. We don’t need your team to plan that for us.”
I set my glass down and called out to my mother who had just come down the stairs.
“Let’s wind up this party, Ma. It’s getting late.”
They were all going back to the palace, and I couldn’t wait to be alone with my wife. A warmth settled around my heart at the sound of that word. It felt… right.
“Such haste is unseemly, Ranveer,” said my mother primly, but Baba led her out firmly.
I saw them to the car and looked up to see Isha standing at the window staring down at me. I held her eyes as I walked towards the house until she stepped away abruptly. I raced up the stairs and knocked on the door. There was a slight pause before she asked me to enter.
Isha stood in the middle of the room, still fully dressed in her wedding finery.
“Your mother wouldn’t allow me to change out of this outfit,” she complained.
“I’m glad,” I replied simply, running my eyes over her slowly.
She flushed at the look in my eyes and shifted uncomfortably. I exhaled slowly. This was not how I envisioned our wedding night. I had no intention of making love to her against her wishes. I wanted her as willing as I was. I knew I could make her want me physically, but I needed her to want me of her own will, not if I had to coerce her into it.
“You can change first,” I said softly, gesturing towards the huge en-suite bathroom.
Her eyes flew to mine and I smiled reassuringly at the question in them.
“We should get some sleep because Ma has a big puja planned in Jadhwal tomorrow. After that, we need to figure out a way to announce our wedding.”
