I was dragged to the roof terrace making me wonder if the assassin planned to kill me or kidnap me. My imagination ran wild with fear. I had seen some people do it in the movies as they jumped directly over their horses from the tall buildings. I had a sneaking suspicion that Roopmati was somehow involved in this but then she had just left in the morning, even she couldn't be that fast.

I struggled hard to make things difficult for my kidnapper but he was too strong for me. He carried me towards the backend of the terrace which mainly had the kitchen and the storerooms below it and since most of the family lived towards the front nobody would have been able to hear me even if I screamed loudly. The thought terrified me.

My eyes widened in surprise as I saw a mat spread on the floor. Somebody must have forgotten to pick it up I thought. All of a sudden I was free.

I quickly turned around to attack him but froze midway stuck in my karate kid pose.

I saw Rudra and he was taking deep breathes instead of panting which I consider an achievement in itself. I had struggled hard giving my captor the hardest time possible all through the two floors of stairs he had to climb holding me tight.

"You are such a wild cat and heavy," he said snapping me out of my reverie.

"You wanted me to go willing with the intruder who might have just killed me." I said in a sarcastic tone " plus I am not that heavy. You need to have more strength" I added.

"Why did you kidnap me," I asked still puzzled.

"Bringing one's wife to the terrace is not kidnapping"

"Wife ...? hmmp... I refuse to be called your wife... You married me by fraud and you brought me here by fraud. If you had been a decent person you would have requested me not kidnapped me" I said giving him a glare.

" You hate the prospect of being married to me," he asked cautiously as he approached me slowly, trying to take a closer look at my face.

Though he did look a bit menacing in the dark night lit only by the half-moon, I didn't scare me.

"Yes," I replied.

He just stood there staring at me silently. I wondered what he was thinking.

I suddenly remembered that I had been searching for him before he kidnapped me.

"Vaishali wants to leave too. I had been coming to inform you about that before..." I gestured towards him to silently say ' before you happened'.

"And you...?" He asked.

"What of me?" I asked confused.

"Are you planning to leave with them too."

I could see him concentrated fully on my face. I wondered what he was trying to decipher there.

"Me!... Why?... Do you want me to leave?" I counter questioned him.

Why was he questioning me in such an odd fashion?

"If you could ...would you leave?"

"Why are you asking me all this? Do you want me to leave so that you could pursue your unfulfilled love story again?"

I felt super angry as I said that. Angry that he had acted cowardly and not reclaimed his love when he had the chance and now wanted to use me again.

"Love story... Which love story?"

He had the audacity to appear surprised but this trick was not going to work on me again. I didn't want to take that girl's name but if he thought I was naive then only God could save him from my wrath.

"Roopmati the love of your life... Roopmati whom you actually wanted to marry... But couldn't because you got scared at the last moment. Now you are stuck with me"

I was actually sounding jealous but then I was past caring. Nobody would ever make a fool out of me ever again.

"So you accept that you are married to me and 'we' are stuck with each other" his emphasis on 'we' was not lost on me and neither was the smirk which followed.

"Out of all that I said you only heard this. I am done conversing with you. I had come to tell you that Vaishali would be travelling with Anil too, so make preparations for her. Now that I have relayed the message I am going back" I said with determination making my way towards the terrace door.

He grabbed my hand suddenly making me halt.

"Do you love Anil sa?" He asked.

" What?" I exclaimed turning back. I wanted to say yes, just to see if he would actually feel hurt by my declaration or elated. Then seeing his serious eyes boring down on me I decided to stick with the truth and said" No, I don't. He is just a friend"

"But you planned to marry him when you left from here" his tone was accusatory. I wondered where he was going with this as he too was planning the same thing.

"So says the man who planned to marry his ex-fiancé by crafting out a clever plan where I get ditched in the end that too in public... At least I had been truthful when I told Anil that I won't marry him."

He suddenly jerked me closer with a tug at my hand. I glared at him but all he did was stare.

"I won't let you go" he whispered and then took me by surprise as he gently held my face between both his hands.

"Vaishali. must be..." I tried escaping this weird situation.

I couldn't finish my sentence before he bent down and kissed my lips. For a second I didn't know how to react but when he pulled me into an embrace and continued kissing me, I couldn't help myself and kissed him back with all the love I had. My head kept prompting me that it might be a mistake, things were not...

I forgot what I was thinking.

When did we move over to the durrie(mat) on the floor I couldn't remember. Slowly he moved his lips away from mine and I immediately missed their warmth. He looked at me with a smile.

"Never ever leave me and go... Even if you don't love me right now. I will make you fall for me" he said softly rubbing his thumb gently on my cheek.

"You are not going to pursue Roopmati?" I still couldn't get past that point.

"I was never pursuing her " he smiled.

"But then you said you wanted my help in getting married to your love..." I frowned.

He smoothened the frown line on my head with his finger.

"Don't frown so much. It will leave a mark. Plus, I didn't lie... I married her... my love ...didn't I"

"Married ... but you. You like me !... Me! " I was quite surprised that instead of Roopmati he chose me, but why? How? My mind was all muddled up.

"Not like ... I love you and only you " saying this he gave me a peck on the lips.

"Why did you lie to me?" I still didn't feel convinced about the fact that he loved me.

"I didn't lie exactly... I just missed mentioning a few things ... agreed to a few things you misunderstood. For that, I am extremely sorry. Please forgive me"

This was too much information quite out of the blue. I slowly moved a little away from him as the close proximity was making me lose my thinking ability and I needed answers.

"So you had been in love with me all along?"

He didn't seem to understand the meaning of personal space as he again tried to hold me in his arms. My heart bubbled with happiness but this time I had to make sure that we were on the same page with no misunderstandings. I wouldn't be able to handle another heartbreak.

"What about Roopmati?" I asked cutting the chase.

He gazed at me as if he was trying to read my emotions.

"You are still jealous of her. Didn't I clear the misunderstanding"

" When?" I gaped at him.

"When I married you and not her," he said as if I was the stupid person...

"That is what you call clearing the misunderstanding" I shrieked.

"Shhh... Don't shout someone might come. It was so difficult to get you here. You kept on chatting with your friend. I thought I would have to kidnap you while you were sleeping"

"You were eavesdropping on our conversation" I growled.

"No I wasn't" he looked as if I had insulted him. " I was simply keeping an eye on your room"

That cooled me down a bit but I remembered where we had last left our conversation.

"So... Back to the point ... is this how you clear the misunderstanding while keeping the other person in suspense all throughout," I said sternly showing him that I mean business.

"I didn't want you to run away again. Anil sa had as good as proposed to you to run away with him ... didn't he? What did you expect me to do? If I had told you the truth you might have sneaked away like before"

"So you threaten my friends and lie to me"

He had the decency to look ashamed.

"Why don't you tell me what happened that day when your ex-fiancé came to meet you in your room" I was like the dog with a bone. I couldn't let it go until and unless each and every point had been cleared.

"Nothing happened... She just came in asking me to marry her instead, but when I refused she took me by surprise and pounced on me and kissed me"

"So she had the strength to pounce on you and kiss you... and you, a weakling couldn't move a muscle," I said sarcastically.

"I didn't kiss her back," he said in a defensive tone. He looked so cute being all defensive but I had to be stern.

"You must have left before I pushed her away. ... " He protested.

"You could have clarified all this when I said that I had seen you with her" I was persisted.

"But that is what kept you by my side"

"What?" Now I was totally lost. Men and their logics were beyond me.

"If I had clarified it to you then you would not have agreed to marry me ... The first time it was because you were stuck here. And the second time you agreed because you wanted to fix things for me but if I had told you nothing was actually broken... You would have run away"

For a second I was speechless.

"Are you dumb?" I shrieked in English, forgetting to keep my voice low. My immediate reaction could have only been best expressed in English, so I did.

He actually gave me a dumb look unable to understand what I said. That made me realize my mistake. So in order to quickly rectify my mistake, I made what I considered as my second mistake.

"I would have married you if you would have asked properly. I loved you" I spoke in a hurry with my hands raised towards heaven begging for some brains for the man sitting in front of me.

I realized it was me who required them as I had blurted out the thing which I would have only revealed to him after making sure that no other stones of misunderstandings were left unturned.

He too looked at me zapped and a slow smile started to form on his face which I totally disliked. Then it vanished.

"You said you 'loved' me ... What of now?" I believe he too was making sure to turn all his stones up.

I had this sudden urge to deny it and let him think the worst as revenge but I realized that even I was tired of this game of misunderstandings.

"I do"

Well, that got him to act like a true-blooded caveman. He pounced on me and embraced me so tight as if he would never let me go and then kissed me all over the face.

I found it very sweet but coming from Rudra it was a bit crazy. I would never have believed if someone had told me that he could behave like this.

I gave a soft laugh as I remembered reading somewhere that boyfriends were sometimes like small puppy dogs when happy.

The puppy dog turned into a full-fledged wolf as he started kissing me passionately. It was then that I realized that this man was truly completely in love with me.

I loved him but I had a feeling that 'perhaps' this wicked conspirator loved me more. We sat there on the mat with our backs leaning on the boundary wall in blissful silence. We were at last at peace after so much of melodrama.

I remembered the real purpose of my visit for the second time in this timeline.

"Rudra sa do you know, I realized after our wedding that we were destined to be together"

"I had always known that" boasted the superior being making me roll my eyes.

"You don't know anything... Otherwise, you would have straight of proposed to me instead of creating all this ruckus"

He had the decency to keep quiet or perhaps he was thinking of a better counter reply. I took advantage of the pause to get my message across before we lost track and got into another tangent with our bickering about what now seemed like useless stuff.

"I had visited this village in my timeline. I had seen that this house had turned to ruins, which was quite fine considering the time gap but the reason behind it is why I got scared and came back here"

Now I had his full attention.

"I heard about some chieftain starting a fire here out of revenge. The villagers said that luckily the family wasn't here when this happened. They escaped. "

"Who was that chieftain?" Now his eyes blazed with anger as he looked towards me.

"The chieftian from Rajkot "

" What Roopmati's father?"

" Yes"

"And you wanted me to marry her after knowing all this" he gave me a grim look.

"I didn't want you to marry her but you insinuated that you were... What do you think I could have done? Wouldn't you have accused me of making up a false story to break your marriage" I said defiantly.

"How did you plan to reveal it then if I had actually married her"

That thought itself hurt me but I knew what he was getting at.

"I would have told maasa before leaving and might have given you a hint to beware... It wasn't as if I had planned to accuse Roopmati directly but just her father"

It was his turn to roll his eyes while shaking his head.

"Don't worry your silly head now I will take care of it"

"I am not silly... And it was me who deduced from the information we got from Lajjo that both father and daughter were in cahoots with each other in their scheme to get you married to her. Plus, when she left she was talking about some revenge." I said giving him a superior smile.

"So much had happened and you didn't think about telling me all this ..till I went ahead and kidnapped you"

"So... I was angry with you and I still had time to tell you everything. It's not as if things would happen tomorrow itself"

"Women and their anger issues," he said rolling his eyes.

"Men and their stupid schemes they think that they are so...."

I was made silent by another kiss which started building up towards the next level when I remembered that Vaishali was waiting for me.

"Vaishali is waiting for me" I blurted out.

"You were thinking of that while I was kissing you? "

"No ... I mean ... But she will think I have been kidnapped"

"But that you have been. By a very handsome kidnapper."

After a bit more of bantering with him, I asked the very question every girl in this world likes to ask and every 'man in general ' wants to avoid answering because they never remember.

"When did you fall in love with me?"

"Hmmm... I don't know. I think it was a gradual thing."

Men! I rolled my eyes. They were all so vague. So I concluded that it wasn't just our 21st-century 'thing' but something that had been going on from the beginning of time. I knew it would bring similar results like knocking your head on a wall, so I let it rest. 

What do you think about this chapter. One more left to tie up the loose ends. :)
As always ... Would love to hear from you 😊❤️