Unmarriageable(99)

The truth was, Alys had no idea why exactly Darsee had decided to spend a fortune on the cousin he despised. She would like to ask him, of course, but who knew if she’d ever see him again? Their paths were unlikely to cross; they had no reason to cross.

When Alys returned home, Binat House was in an uproar.

‘You won’t believe it, Alys!’ Qitty said. ‘He just drove up and rang the doorbell and asked for her as if it was the most natural thing in the world. I said, “Yes, she’s home, in the living room,” and he went straight in and then he took her straight out and it’s been over an hour since they left. But where have you been?’

‘Who came in and who took who out?’ Alys hurried to the living room, where both her mother and Mari were on prayer mats. ‘What happened?’

‘Jena happened!’ Mari looked up from the Quran she was frantically reading on Jena’s behalf. ‘Bungles came and took Jena out. Mummy and I are praying for them.’

‘We are praying,’ Mrs Binat said, ‘that this time the silly man gets it right.’

‘Oh my God,’ Alys said, and she rushed to find her father.

Mr Binat was in the garden, transferring sprouting seeds from a pot into a flower bed. He was most amused at this turn of events but also had fingers crossed that this time Jena’s heart would not be broken all over again.





CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE





Jena had the shock of her life when Bungles came into the living room. She’d been sitting in the window seat, threading her moustache. Mari was holding up a magnifying mirror for her. When Bungles walked in, Jena stared for a long second and then hid the threading thread behind her back. Was her moustache area red? Then she decided, to hell with embarrassment. If anyone should be embarrassed, it should be Mr Weak Will.

In fact, when Bungles asked her if she would please go on a drive with him, she agreed just so that she could tell him he was a weak-willed person and shame on him. Jena got into the car and hardened herself against the way his hair flopped over his forehead and the way he was nervously pursing his lips. They’d hardly turned the corner when Bungles parked under the mango tree that had grown not by design but due to littering. He turned to her and said, ‘Jena, will you marry me?’

‘Are you here,’ Jena said, ‘because you’ve been given permission by your sisters and your friend?’

‘What do you mean?’ Bungles said.

Jena told him she knew that Hammy-Sammy and Darsee had previously been opposed to their match.

‘They were,’ Bungles said slowly, ‘but the truth is, I honestly didn’t know the difference between a crush and like and love. And when Hammy, Sammy, and Darsee kept telling me you were not interested, it was easier to accept that than to sort out my feelings. I’m so sorry to have hurt you. No, it wasn’t a matter of a weak will, not at all. No, I’m not unduly influenced by others. I swear I’m not. Jena, I truly did not trust my own feelings. Jaans was the only one who always said he knew what I felt was true love. But Jaans. You know. Who listens to Jaans?

‘But I didn’t stop thinking about you for a single moment, and I finally admitted to myself that these feelings I have for you are it for me. As for my sisters and Darsee, while I value their opinions, this is my decision. I want to marry you. I hope you want to marry me. They told me that they’d known you were in Lahore and that they hid it from me. I was furious with them. They’ve apologised, profusely, and I hope you won’t hold it against me that I’ve forgiven them. I hope you forgive them too, but if you can’t, I’ll understand.

‘I told my parents of my decision to propose to you, and they flew in on the first flight out of California so that, if you say yes, there are no further delays for them to visit your house with a formal proposal. They came in last night, and here I am today to ask you if you will please marry me.’

Jena returned home carrying a box of cream rolls from High Chai. She told everyone to sweeten their mouths, and then she broke into an ugly cry.

‘I’m getting married to Bungles!’ Jena said. ‘Mummy, you were right all along. He did propose.’

‘I told you so.’ Mrs Binat chortled with joy. ‘I guaranteed he would propose, only none of you girls have any faith in me, not to mention your father prancing around insisting I eat my shoe.’



Bungles’s family was due to visit the Binats the next day with a formal proposal in order to ask for Jena’s hand in marriage, as well as give her an engagement ring and set a wedding date. There was a great flurry of activity as residents of Binat House prepared for this event. In the morning, Mrs Binat sent Jena to Susan’s Beauty Parlour for a facial and to get her hair blow-dried. She was going to wear a simple pale-yellow cotton shalwar kameez, Jena had decided, and just lip gloss and her garnet earrings. This time she was getting dressed up for herself and not for anyone else.

Mr Binat was dispatched to the mithai shop to order several kilos of motichoor ladoos, which would be distributed to the neighbourhood and sent to the gymkhana and taken to school by Jena; oh, they were going to send celebratory sweets into every home in Dilipabad, such that no one would ever forget, cost be damned.

Bungles’s parents turned out to be lovely. His mother kept kissing Jena’s hands and telling her tales of Bungles’s childhood and how naughty he’d been. For the first time in her life, Mrs Binat did not have much to say, because she was so full of joy. She kept looking at the glorious diamond on Jena’s hand and thinking it was exactly as she’d predicted: big and sparkling.