An Adventurous Story: Treasure Hunter For Hire, Chapter III -

Treasure Hunter For Hire: Chapter III

Previous Chapters:
An Adventurous Story: Treasure Hunter For Hire, Chapter I
An Adventurous Story: Treasure Hunter For Hire, Chapter II

“What are you saying m’lord? Leave her? Forget about her? Trust me, your majesty, I love her dearly and will protect her from any harm that befalls us. Please don’t separate us like this.”

Saying this, Desmond fell into Orvil’s feet begging for mercy.

“I already have decided upon a potential husband for my daughter. A street bum like you can never keep her happy.”, Orvil said.

“But m’lord —”, cutting Desmond in mid-sentence Orvil proceeded saying, “I have a proposal for you. You leave Elaine forever and I will tell you the location of the biggest hidden treasure that you have ever seen. This treasure is said to be so huge that 7 generations after you can survive on it. I will provide all the expenditure dealing with the staying and traveling and I will also provide you with 20 skilled men to protect you and your team. Do you accept?”

“No! Never! How can you even think of bribing me? I’m going out of here.”, and Desmond started to walk out of the chambers when Orvil said,

“Wait! Think about my proposal. I give you a week to give me an answer.”

“No need to wait for a week, m’lord, my answer will remain a no.”

Saying this Desmond stormed out of Orvil’s chambers. Outside he met a worried, kind of shaky Elaine. She asked him what had happened but he was so upset that he couldn’t look into her eyes, so he left the palace without even saying a word to her.

The next day, Elaine was sitting on her bed. She had been crying all morning. She got to know about Orvil and Desmond’s conversation through Fatima. She was devastated. She did not ever imagine that her father would be so against her choice. Her mother didn’t care for her and Orvil was the only person in the world she could trust. Her heart broke at the thought of her father this way. Orvil has always taken care of Elaine as a queen. All this and other things were going through her mind when she heard a light rap on the door.

“Elaine? Are you in? Honey, why didn’t you come for breakfast today? And I didn’t see you at lunch either? What’s the matter? Let me in.”, Orvil’s sweet voice conveyed.

“I don’t want to see anybody. Go away, father. I don’t want to talk to you.”

“Come on now, at least hear to what I have to say.”

“Okay, you can come in.”

Orvil entered the room and saw Elaine sitting, hugging her knees, with marks of tears on her cheeks and red, swollen eyes.

“Oh dear! Have you been crying all day? Come here, hug your father.”

Orvil started approaching Elaine when she said, “Stop! Don’t come near me, father. You knew I loved him so much. Why would you do that? Why would you tell him to leave me? Don’t you trust me at all? Don’t you trust my discretion that I’ll find the perfect man for myself? And he is, the perfect man father.” Fresh tears started streaming down her face.

Orvil turned his back towards her and said, “There is a reason why I do everything. Don’t ever question my decisions. Do you understand that?”

“So is that why you decided to kill uncle Joce?”

Orvil was left shocked at this. He whirled at her and said, with wide eyes, “Who told you anything like this? How did you come to know any such thing? Tell me! Tell me!”

“I heard you talking to a big, burly guy, planning the murder. I was just passing by your room when I heard strange noises coming from inside. The door was not completely closed so I peered inside and heard everything.” Upon hearing this Orvil was so stunned that he did not move at all for a couple of minutes. Instead, he stared at his daughter with wide open eyes. Then suddenly, he ran to her and whispered, “Dear, you won’t tell anybody now, would you?”

“Believe me father, as much as I want to, I won’t. Because this would defame our family in front of the whole kingdom.”

“You know, even if you will, I am the king now, you won’t be able to do anything. I will make sure you won’t be able to make your voice heard.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ll throw you into the cellar.”

Elaine gasped. Tears flooded from her eyes.

“You would do this to your own daughter? What kind of a father are you?”

“It pains me to say this, but if I can kill my own twin brother then throwing you into the cellar will not be such a big problem for me. So listen to me nicely okay? First of all, you will not open your mouth about any of this and second of all, you will tell your lover boy to accept my proposal or else….I’ll simply get the hunter lad executed.”

All Elaine could do was gape at her father’s devilish face. She put her face between her knees and slowly said, “Get out of my room. Now.”

Orvil, with a sick smile on his face, slid out of her room.

In the upcoming week, she thought much about what her father had said. On one hand, she was scared by Orvil’s threat because she had no one to look towards, for help. Her mother didn’t care and Fatima had no power against Orvil. On the other hand, she did not want to let go of Desmond. She loved him dearly and could not bear to be away from him. So after some speculation, she came upon a decision and wrote Desmond a letter.

In the letter, she simply wrote two sentences. “Meet me near Silveroak tomorrow. We have to talk about something.”

The next chapter of “Treasure Hunter For Hire” will follow soon.

The writer of the story “An Adventurous Story: Treasure Hunter For Hire, Chapter III” is Gitanjali Mishra. Connect with her on Facebook.

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