Unmarriageable(82)

Alys had hoped to have a few moments alone with Jena, but she quickly realised that a few moments would not be enough for what she’d decided to share with her sister and that, once they got home, privacy would be a dream. Consequently, she told the Loocluses that she and Jena had decided to stay an extra day in Lahore and that they’d take the Daewoo bus back to Dilipabad.

Two days later, Alys and Jena boarded a deluxe bus. The bus hostess introduced herself as Qandeel Baloch and, with a striking smile, distributed the boxed lunches and pointed out the toilets at the back. Once the bus started moving, Alys told Jena to brace herself for all she was about to hear.

‘What?’ Jena opened the box lunch to a chicken-salad sandwich, crisps, and an apple. ‘What great secret has required us to spend money on bus tickets so we can get privacy?’

‘Darsee proposed to me.’

Jena’s hands stilled on the apple.

‘Darsee sought me out one evening when I was alone at Sherry’s and informed me that he loves me and respects my opinions and wants to marry me.’

‘Dear God!’ Jena said. ‘Oh my dear God!’

‘I said no.’

‘Valentine Darsee proposed to you and you said no?’

‘And that’s not even the real explosive secret.’

Alys took out Darsee’s letter from her bag.

‘Read from here.’ She tapped at the beginning of Wickaam’s section.

‘What’s this above?’ Jena said.

‘You know what’ – Alys bit her lip – ‘read the whole thing, except it’s about you and Bungles.’

Jena read it slowly, her expression going from wounded, to hurt, to puzzled, to resolute.

‘Are you all right?’ Alys asked gently as Jena came to the end of the part on Bungles.

‘Yes and no.’ Jena shook her head. The fact was that of course friends asked friends for advice all the time, but Bungles should have trusted his own intuition about her rather than what his friend or sisters told him. They had not seen her looking into Bungles’s eyes; he had. They had not seen her ensuring that his plate was always full of food; he had. They had not heard the tenderness in her voice for him when they were alone; he had. He should have trusted what he was seeing rather than what they were seeing.

He was weak willed and, the fact was, she did not want a weak-willed man.

Jena returned to the letter. As she got deeper into Wickaam’s section, she began to fidget. Often she glanced at Alys in agitation. When she was done, she folded the letter and handed it back to Alys.

‘Can Wickaam truly be so two-faced? Can he hide his double nature so well?’

‘Yes,’ Alys said, ‘and yes.’

‘But there’s got to be some misunderstanding between Darsee and Wickaam. What Darsee relates here is just terrible.’

‘Doesn’t make it untrue.’

‘My God, Alys, Wickaam spending nights, our mother offering any of us up to him for marriage, Lady in her nightie!’ Jena’s hand flew to her chest. ‘My God, do you think—’

‘Lady is not that stupid,’ Alys said. ‘She’s zinda dil, full of life, but even she knows the limits.’

‘Poor Jujeena. Do you think Bungles knows about this?’

‘Darsee’s clearly written that only he, Juju, and now I know.’

‘And now I know,’ Jena said. ‘Are you going to tell him you showed me?’

‘No. Not yet. I don’t know. I trust you.’

‘As he trusted you,’ Jena said, sighing. ‘I honestly don’t know what to believe.’

‘I believe Darsee. I do. He’s not the villain after all.’

‘I always told you not to judge so quickly.’

Alys looked out the window at the orange grove they were passing.

‘Jena,’ she said, turning to her, ‘ever since I read the letter, I knew you were right. And Sherry was right too. I was being unreasonable in my dislike for him, a dislike that started because he wounded my vanity and I let his judgement cloud my judgement. He’s such a snob – you should have heard the dismal way he proposed to me – but surely snobbery is not equal to evil. I’m not saying he’s suddenly turned into a saint, but I am cringing at all the times I agreed with Wickaam that Darsee was horrid. Cringing at all the times I defended Wickaam to Darsee.’

‘You didn’t know any better.’ Jena squeezed Alys’s hand. ‘You didn’t have all the facts.’

‘Had Wickaam told me Darsee kidnapped babies and ate them for breakfast, I would have believed him.’

‘Oh, Alys.’

‘Darsee was right. I like to tell others the truth about themselves, but I’m not so keen to hear truths about me and mine. I’m ashamed that I’m not the person I thought I was.’

‘You should be proud that you possess the ability to revise your opinion and want to develop qualities you lack.’

‘Yes,’ Alys said wryly, ‘I plan to be very proud at being able to call myself out on my own prejudice. But, seriously, Jena, what should I do? Should I warn Miss Jahanara Ana Aan? Should we tell others about Wickaam?’

‘It’s not our secret to divulge,’ Jena said, truly troubled.

‘Doesn’t Wickaam need to be exposed so he can’t dupe other girls? But this could truly ruin Jujeena Darsee’s reputation for the rest of her life.’