SWASAN – MR MAHESHWARI AND I
Heyy, It’s Anjali back with the next chapter!!!
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The game
CHAPTER 61
Thirty minutes later Swara was waiting by her ball near the third wicket.
Laksh : Pity about the mud
Laksh strolled past her as she glared at him. Saanvi passed by a moment later.
Saanvi : You’ve a bit in….. (motioning to her hair) Yes, there… (Swara brushed furiously against her temple) Although there is a bit more, well….. Er, everywhere.
Swara glared at her. Laksh came up to join them as Adarsh and Sakshi walked forward shooting her sympathetic looks. Good God, did everyone need to pass by the third wicket on their way to the sixth?
Laksh (helpfully) : You’ve a bit of mud.
Swara’s fingers wrapped more tightly around her mallet. His head was so very, very close. Her plan had been brilliant. She had managed to put Sanskaar at a disadvantage but then her own blo*dy ball had falled inside one of the holes AGAIN and then her damned husband had conveniently spilt the jug of tea a servant had brought near the mud there. Then tripping her into the puddle. Her husband was a dead man for sure. God, Was Laksh still talking?
Laksh : But at least it’s mixed with tea.
Saanvi (curiously) What has that to do with anything?
Laksh smiled at her as they walked along to wicket number 5. Swara craned her ears to listen to the answer.
Laksh : I’m not certain…….but it seemed as if I had to say something.
Swara counted to ten in her head, and then sure enough, Ragini happened across her, Karan trailing three steps behind. The pair had become something of a team, exchanging pointers on each other’s stance and play.
Ragini (pityingly) : You poor dear!
Swara actually growled.
Swara : Shut up.
Ragini : You made the holes. You were the one who tripped.
Swara (incredulously) : Whose sister are you?
Ragini (with a wicked grin) : Doesn’t change the fact that I’m right.
Swara : In this game, no one plays by the rules. Nothing’s right.
Karan : True enough. Shall we go, darling? (looking at Swara) We just finished with the 4th wicket.
Swara : And you HAD to come see me?
Karan : Oh, We just wanted to take the long way to the next wicket.
Swara knew she should have kept quiet, but she had to ask.
Swara : Where is Sanskaar?
Ragini winced.
Ragini : He’s in the last wicket. He still has to play though. Come on Karan.
Swara watched them depart through narrowed eyes. She wasn’t going to win—there was no chance of that now. But if she couldn’t win, then neither would Sanskaar. He deserved no glory this day, not after tripping her and sending her tumbling into the mud puddle. Oh, he’d claimed it was an accident, but Swara found it highly suspicious that his ball had gone spluttering out of the puddle at the exact moment she’d stepped forward to reach her own ball.
She’d had to do a little hop to avoid it and was congratulating herself on her near miss when Sanskaar had swung around with a patently false “I say, are you all right?”
His mallet had swung with him, conveniently at ankle level. Swara had not been able to outhop that one, and she’d gone flying into the mud. Face down. And then Sanskaar had had the gall to offer her a handkerchief.
The worst part was everyone thought shehad slipped on one of her holes. But she knew better. She had seen her husband’s triumphant smirk.
She was going to kill him.
Kill.
Kill
kill
kill.
But first she was going to make sure he didn’t win.
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Sanskaar was smiling broadly—whistling, even—as he waited his turn. It was taking a ridiculously long amount of time to get back round to him, what with Swara so far behind that someone had to dash back to let her know when it was her turn, not to mention Ragini, who never seemed to understand the virtue of speedy play.
But for once, Sanskaar didn’t mind. He was in the lead, so far so that no one could possibly catch up. And just to make his victory all the sweeter, Swara was in last place. So far so that she could not hope to overtake anyone.
It almost made up for the fact that Laksh had snatched the mallet of death. He turned toward the last wicket. He needed one stroke to get his ball at the ready, and one more to push it through.
After that, he needed only to steer it to the final pole and end the game with a tap.
Child’s play.
He glanced back over his shoulder. He could see Sakshi standing by the old oak tree. She was at the crest of a hill, and thus could see down where he could not.
Sanskaar : Sakshi! Whose turn is it?
Sakshi : Umm… I think it’s Swara’s.
Sanskaar smiled. Swara was still in the thrid wicket. Thought he was on the last wicket, He was actually closer to her as he had built the course in a circular fashion. He moved, trying to see where his wife was.
He wasn’t going to miss her struggle with her ball.
With a grin on his face, he jogged over. Should he call out? It would irritate her more if he called out. But that would be cruel. And on the other hand— CRACK! Sanskaar looked up from his ponderings just in time to see the purple ball hurtling in his direction. What the devil? Swara let out a triumphant cackle and began running over.
Sanskaar (shouting) : What the hell? This is the last wicket. You’re still in the fourth.
Swara (shrugging) I’m only on the third wicket, and anyway, I’ve given up on winning. It’s hopeless at this point, don’t you think?
Sanskaar looked at her, then he looked at his ball, resting peacefully near the last wicket. Then he looked at her again.
Sanskaar (eyes glinting dangerously) : Oh no you don’t
She smiled slowly.
Deviously.
Like a witch.
Adarsh : It’s your turn Sanskaar.
Sanskaar (surprised) : Swara just played, which means that Laksh and the others are left.
Laksh (playfully) : Oh, We had to see this. So, We played quickly.
Watching as the rest of them hurried near, he scowled.He stalked over to his ball, narrowing his eyes as he prepared his aim.
Swara danced in a little closer.
Sanskaar : Get away from me, woman.
Swara (slightly whining) : I just want to see. I’ve hardly had the chance to see anything this game, being so far behind the entire time.
Sanskaar (rolling his eyes) : I take responsibility for the mud and the tea puddle. However, I fail to see how your position in last place is my responsibility.
Swara : The mud made my hands slippery. I could not properly grip the mallet.
Off to the side, Laksh winced.
Laksh : Weak, I’m afraid, Swara. I’ll have to grant this point to Sanskaar, much as it pains me.
Swara (tossing Laksh a withering glare) : Fine… It’s no one’s fault but my own. However……
And then she said nothing.
Saanvi (voicing everyone’s question) : Er, however what?
Swara could have been a queen with her scepter as she stood there, all covered with mud.
Swara ( regally) : However…….. I don’t have to like it. And this being our game, and we being Maheshwaris, I don’t have to play fair. Sanskaar shook his head and bent back down to make his aim.
Laksh : She has a point this time. Good sportsmanship has never been valued highly in this game.
Sanskaar : Be quiet.
Laksh : In fact, one could make the argument that—
Sanskaar : I said be quiet…
Laksh : —the opposite is true, and that bad sportsmanship—
Sanskaar (exasperated) : Shut up, Laksh.
Laksh (smirking evilly) : —is in fact to be lauded, and—
Sanskaar decided to give up and take a swing. At this rate they’d be standing there until 2020. Laksh was never to going stop talking, not when he thought he had a chance of irritating his brother. Sanskaar forced himself to hear nothing but the wind. Or at least he tried. He aimed. He drew back.
Crack! Not too hard, not too hard. The ball rolled forward, unfortunately not quite far enough. He was not going to make it through the last wicket on his next try. At least not without intervention divine enough to send his ball around a fist-sized stone.
Ragini : Adarsh, you’re next.
He gave it a haphazard tap. Sakshi played and then it was Swara’s turn.
She stepped forward, blinking as she assessed the lay of the land. Her ball was about a foot away from his. There was a stone, however, was on the other side, meaning that if she attempted to sabotage him, she couldn’t send him very far —surely the stone would stop the ball.
Sanskaar (walking near Swara, softly) : That’s interesting.
Swara : You know, It would be so romantic of me of leaving your ball and allowing you to win.
Sanskaar (brows raising) : You’re not “Allowing” me anything.
Swara (shaking her head) : Wrong answer, Mr Maheshwari!
she aimed. Sanskaar narrowed his eyes. What was she doing? Swara hit the ball with a fair bit of force, aiming not squarely at his ball but at the left side. Her ball slammed into his, sending it spiraling off to the right. Because of the angle, she couldn’t send it as far as she might have with a direct shot, but she did manage to get it right to the top of the hill. Right to the top.
Right to the top. And then down it. Swara let out a whoop of delight that would not have been out of place on a battlefield.
Sanskaar : You’ll pay for that, My dear!
She was too busy jumping up and down to pay him any attention.
Karan : Who do you suppose will win now?
Sanskaar (quietly) : Do you know, I don’t care.
And then he walked over to the purple ball and took aim.
Ragini : Hold on, it’s not your turn!
Saanvi : And it’s not your ball.
Sanskaar : Is that so?
He let fly, smashing his mallet into Swara’s ball and sending it hurtling across the lawn, down the shallower slope, and into the lake. Swara let out a huff of outrage. “
Swara : That wasn’t very sporting of you!
He gave her a maddening grin.
Sanskaar : All’s fair and all that, Swara.
Swara : You will fish it out.
Sanskaar : You’re the one who needs a bath.
Adarsh : Let these two bicker. They’re out anyways. Come on, Let’s continue playing.
He left, the rest following him. Swara looked up at her husband, her lips beginning to twitch.
Swara : Well (scratching at a spot on her ear that was particularly caked with mud) I suppose that’s the end of the match for us.
Sanskaar (chuckling) : Seems so.
Swara : Hats off to your plan, husband.
Sanskaar : I need to be excellent to have a wife like you.
They laughed and hugged. Sanskaar pushed Swara away, though he held her arms.
Sanskaar : Not to ruin the romance, But you really do need to take a bath.
Swara (sorrowfully) : I do, Don’t I?
Sanskaar (wickedly) : You know what? Why don’t I join you?
He picked up an amazed Swara who hung on to him as they ran back inside laughing, the match already forgotten and romance filling the air.
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PRECAP : 3 months leap
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Hey, This chappie was completely taken from the 2nd epilogue of The viscount who loved me.. No credit to me
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