"I was little child when I found it." She answers his my question without meeting his eyes.
Found it where? He asks her.
Tis a damn secret dammit! Stop questioning me. She says throwing her arms in the air.
"If you do not answer my questions then I wouldn't give it back." Hunter threatens her.
Then keep it! She yells at him in frustration.
"My governess would be walking directly into my room as of now and I must be there." She stands up to leave but then turns back.
"The bead will come back to me, just wait and see." She says decisively. Also, I hope you can keep it a secret of what you saw at the forest? She says, a voice taking a different emotion.
Why should I? You haven't given me the answers I needed yet. He tells her and she sighs.
"That bead is important to me, please do not lose it." Tomorrow at twelve midnight, let us meet at the same forest and maybe you will see what I see. She says to him.
What do you see? Hunter asks her.
"I see what you see of course." She returns the cloak over her head, holding up her gown before heading out of the room.
He watches her leave the room with a stern glance and realizes that she was the most uncultured person he had ever met in my life. In the manner of how she spoke and behaved.
He has been drawn to the war for half of his life but he s never forgotten courtesy. Whereas, Vixen has been living her life under the palm of her father, the king and the skirts of her governess and she lacks it in every way and somehow she has been chosen as a Queen by his late father?
If only his father could see what nuisance she had grown up to be, he would take back the betrothal and find a better match.
__________
The day is as clear as water and the House of benevolence is being re-furnished.The walls were been repaired as over the years cold had been an issue for my mother's health. The termite diseased furniture were removed from house and replaced with furnished ones. The floor and ceilings were replaced, the holes and cracks were the major factor. Hunter couldn't still believe my mother lived through these defects for many winter years.
"My Lord, Grace says." Your mother is back from the Queen Dowager's gathering. I have taken her to the gazebo to rest. I nodded to her attentively.
"I think you should go and check the replacement of the kitchen utensils and make sure they are perfectly selected."
"Of course." She answers and do as she was told.
"My Lord," Alfred says running towards Hunter along with workers carrying heaps of provisions.
"I am here with the provisions you ordered." He says.
"Yes, I know cause I can see that." Hunter tells him while beckoning the workers to keep them in their appropriate places.
"My Lord,who is that gracious beauty that was standing beside you just now?" Alfred says following me.
"Do not get any ideas Alfred, your men have been slacking off since our arrival in Southland." There are new lads who have to be trained and training hasn't been started.
"General, isn't about four days still small for men who just returned from a twenty-five year old battle." Our men want to reconnect with their families also, we are the only ones who do not have wives or kids in the army. Alfred says.
Hunter laughs at Alfred before saying.
"If you need a wife that badly then start searching for one." So, do not distract my work. I finished.
"General Hunter, you are still a fine man." Why don't you grow a seed yet.
"I will when you've found one yourself." Hunter says walking away from his atonished expression.
"Eloping with a woman was the least of things I have come back to Southland for." I am planning on finding a young lad who is as determined as I was as a young child and I will make him my better half.
"My mother would probably want a grandchild but she knew my life and how far the story went on." So, she would not ask.
Hunter would probably use thirty or more years out of his life to make use of my father's land. He isn t ready to be bonded in some?matrimony with a woman whom he may have to leave earlier or put up with her shenanigan before he dies.
He thinks to himself.
And if he were in relation to that Vixen of a girl who lacks courtesy. Hunter will definitely not spend the remaining of my years with an impetuous character.
He has?never seen anything like that before. That kind of being was the one David picked to rule beside him, Hunter feared for the people of Southland.
Women of Southland are at latest twenty when they get married. No household will let their female get married later than that? and so the thought of marriage to a mature woman is rare unless she was a widow. Hunter looks around him and there was infact lots of work to be done but as he stands right at the centre of all the activities, Hunter can see what the House of benevolence would become after he was through with it.
Hunter wakes up with regret after realising that he slept throughout the night. He missed the chance to find out the history of the bead which draws him mysteriously. Lady Vixen must be the most vexed about the situation. He raises his head when I hears the knock on the door.
"Come on in." He says.
Grace walks in giving him a slight bow.
"You have an early morning visitor, my Lord and she's waiting in the guest room."
"A female guest." He whispers.
For how long will the amendment of the main house take? He asks.
"Two nights." Grace answers.
"Go attend to our guest, I will be down shortly." Hunters orders and she obeys.
A morning guest, and a female one for that matter.
Could it be the foolish child? He hopes not!
He gets up from the bed for a quick hygiene. Hunter steps into the bath chamber and washes up before putting on freshly scented clothes. Next, he picks up his knife and tugs it behind my pant sealed inside a safe keep.
Being a man of full thick beard that were aligned with the pattern of his full coarse tresses. His eyebrows were bushy and thick as usual adding to the braveness in his focus.
He walks into the guest room to meet the female. Hunter remembers her as one of the attendants who was a follower to the Lady Vixen, the particular one who held a sword. She should be her bodyguard.
She raises her head upwards to him and bow.
Can I help you? He asks her.
She takes deep breath before she spoke but her eyes never wavered from his.
"It's about the Lady Vixen, weren't the both of you supposed to meet at the forest? She asks."
"Yes, we were." He says standing in front of her.
"Actually, due to an unspoken slumber...I slept off and didn't remember to meet her." He tells the attendant.
What! Her eyes shines in shock and she places her palm on her forehead.
My mistress hasn't returned home! She cried.
What do you mean? I said with a rise in my voice. How come you didn't follow her like you are supposed to?
"She ordered for us to wait behind while she spoke to you in private and we all waited. When we saw no sign of her, we searched the forest but we couldn't find her." We didn't alert anyone because she wouldn't have wanted us to do that and also, I thought she'd be with you since both of you had an agreement.
The attendant says as she paces around in distress.
"Lady Vixen is supposed to be having breakfast with the king this morning in less than two hours." I fear that Madame Anna will find out and she will be in a big mess.
Madame Anne? Hunter asks her with an arched brow.
"Madame Anne is Richard Dounty's mistress after her mother died." She answers and he nods to her.
"Go ahead and search places that you believe she might be and I will go to the forest." Hunter says and the attendant nods in acknowledgement.
Wait, tell me what places you think she might be? Hunter asks.
"She loves to go to the village and hide in snack stores or purchasing clothing materials, she also loves to stop and watch the village wrestlings or...gambling." The attendant said in bitterness as if she was confessing her lady s clandestine.
The more Hunter knew about her, the more confounded I became. How is she never caught in such negative activities?
"I will be on my way." The attendant says and he bade her farewell getting ready to leave also.
Hunter mounts on his horse and rides to the first place where he met the woman.
The forest is foggy once again and the dews on the branches were still alive. It was cold and he couldn't imagine her being here for the whole night. Hunter was finding it hard to see his surroundings due to the obscure environment.
He gets down from the horse to get a clearer view after tieing a rope to keep the horse from running.
The enigma of this particular forest is still something he couldn't decipher. There was this attraction that he couldn't concur after coming here. It had to do with the bead, he s sure of it!
Hunter opposes wether to take another step. There would be animal traps in this place, much worse bear traps. He decides not to pursue another step not until he sees a movement.
Hunter dashes to the spot puting a hand behind my back were the knife was supposed to be. He cannot still see an appearance, apparently she was looking like morning fog too.
Vixen s face was pale and frozen, the glow it had prior to this time has been wiped out and she was left looking like a dead body. Her hair is fallen, scattered everywhere on her shoulder in a damp mess, she holds her cloak clutching to her shoulders like a wet chick.
Her lips are murmuring some wordings and it was when I looked closer, he could see the blood that stained her lips.
Hunter pulls her out of the uncanny condition and she screamed like a mad woman neither meeting my eyes or trying to know who summoned her. She fought with me using her hands to hit me on the chest. He drags her cold face closer to mine where she is forced to look deep into my eyes.
Hunter couldn't forget what her green eyes really looked like. It was the most beautiful thing he d ever seen in his life. She kept silent for the first time and he was able to hear her heartbeat.
It was beating loudly like it wanted to jump out on it's own accord.