Crowns of Heritage

Chapter 47-Meeting

(PRINCE MOISES P.O.V)

The sun was starting to set, when Yeshiva and I left the villa. We headed to the town of Navas, it was a town within the Northern region of the kingdom. My brother Morgan, set up the location and made it possible for me to meet one of the neutral party members.

“How far are we from the town?”Yeshiva asked.

He insisted that he should drive, while I looked at the file Nashi had written for me.

“About three hours”, I replied.

I was reading one of the documents that had a list of names. I remember some of them were my advisors that used to work for me in the palace. I saw a familiar name, Count Vaughan, he is a part of the Noble Faction of the nobility that sided with me, when I was the crown prince.

“Count Morris Vaughan”, I said his name out loud, “We definitely need to get him on our side.” I said to Yeshiva.

“Do you think he will join the rebellion?”Yeshiva asked.

I continued to read the document and started to say, “His knightage is strong and he's a very skilled military strategists very strong, I fought alongside of him during the great war.”, I stated.

“Sounds reliable”, Yeshiva said.

Three hours later, we arrived in the town of Navas. We parked in front of a medium size villa. When Yeshiva and I got out of the car, I turned my head towards the front of the villa and saw three men walking down the stairs. As they got closer to the gate, I noticed one of the men was my brother Morgan.

When the gate opened, two of the men bowed their heads.

“It is such a great honor to see you again, your highness”, one of the men said.

“You may raise your head Count Vaughan”, I said after realizing who he was.

He raised his head, and reached his hand out to shake mine. After I shook his hand, we started to walk towards the villa. Once we were inside, we followed Count Vaughan to his office on the second floor.

“The walls are soundproof, we can have our discussions here," he said.

I sat down and my brother sat next to me. Yeshiva stood behind me, since he came as my guard.

“And who is this gentleman?”, I asked Count Vaughan, as I looked at the unfamiliar young man.

Count Vaughan placed his hand on the man's shoulder.

“This is my nephew Bavari Vaughan, he's a commander in my knightage, and my successor for my title since I only have daughters who have already gotten married and left the household, He will inherit my estate and title .”, he explained.

I nodded my head, “Nice to meet you young Count”, I said.

He bowed his head, “I heard many stories about you over the years, your highness, I truly respect you”, he said.

He raised his head and I reached out my hand to shake his hand. His expression brightened up and I could see his admiration.

“Before we discuss the plan Prince Morgan has”, he stopped talking and looked directly at me.

I looked at him waiting to see what he was about to say.

“I heard from Prince Morgan you finally reunited with your wife and children.”, he said, with a warm expression

I nodded my head and slightly smiled, “Yes, I'm happy to be with them again, my daughters definitely take after their mother”, I said, just thinking about the recent events and how they have the exact same personality as their mother has me worried for their future.

“That's wonderful”, Count Vaughan said, with a warm smile.

“Now, shall we begin the meeting”, Morgan said.

The rest of us nodded our heads.

Morgan placed a document onto the table and slid it to Count Vaughan who was sitting on the opposite side of us.

“I received some news from one of my informants, he stated that the neighboring kingdom of Kalpana plans to attack the kingdom after Prince Marshall takes the throne. If they can't come to terms for a peace treaty, we'll be going to war.” Morgan said.

Count Vaughan picked up the document and started to read. After a few minutes passed he started to speak. “What about the rebels, aren't they planning to overthrow Prince Marshall once he becomes king as well?”Count Vaughan asked.

Morgan and I nodded our heads. I placed my right hand on my chin while thinking for a second.

“Are you planning to become king, your highness?”he asked, looking at me.

“Yes I am”, I said, with a serious expression.

“Moises must become the king, it's the only way the kingdom can become strong once again”, Morgan said. “The coronation is in three months, and we can't allow that bastard Prince Marshall to become king, he's a tyrant just like our father.” He added.

Count Vaughan and his nephew looked at each other for a moment and then turned back towards us.

“I agree, Prince Marshall would be a horrible king”, Count Vaughan said, while tapping his finger on the table.

“We have two options”, I said, getting their attention. “We should monitor the situation, if they can come to terms for a peace treaty and Prince Marshall becomes king, then we should start the rebellion or we join the war and fight both sides.” I said, with a serious expression.

Count Vaughan and his nephew stood up and bowed their heads.

“We're willing to join you sir, if it means you can become the king you were meant to be”, he said, in a determined tone.

“Let's have the next meeting in a couple of days, after my wife comes back with the information about Count Livens and Prince Marshall plans. We shall meet again and discuss them”, I said, as I rose out of my seat.

Count Vaughan looked at me confused as he tilted his head to the left side.

“Your wife, what do you mean sir?”, he asked.

Morgan and I glanced at each other and I sighed. I wondered how he'll react once I tell him who she is and what she does.

“My wife is a mercenary, She's the daughter of Masiro Henrico”, I said, looking down at him.

“Masiro Henrico”, he mumbled. His mouth dropped. “the Chief of the largest mercenary clan”, he said.

I laughed a little while watching the expressions on his face changing as he processed what I said.

“How the hell”, he mumbled.

“Long story”, I said, “it's getting late, I should head back to the Duke's villa, my daughter should be returning from the palace. She went to a tea party in disguise to meet my mother”, I continued on saying.

Count Vaughan was still looking appalled.

“I should get ready to leave as well”, Morgan said, “I'll try to set up the next meeting and invite one of the rebel leaders”, he added.

After the meeting, Yeshiva and I headed back to the car. It had already gotten dark outside and I wanted to get back to the villa to see If Sage made it back from the palace.

I wonder how Rosie and Natalie are doing“, Yeshiva said.

“I'm sure they're doing fine”, I responded.

(ROSEMARY P.O.V)

Once it became night time, mother and I left the local inn. Instead of taking the car, we decided to travel on foot through the woods. After studying the map mother gave me, I remembered that the woods were a shortcut to the Count's estate.

We traveled through the woods for thirty minutes as I had kept up with the time. When we finally made it to the end of the wood, we reached the wall behind the Counts estate. It was smaller than the previous one, but this time we didn't see any servants outside.

We climbed the wall and looked over to see what part of the estate we were in.

“Looks like we're near the garden again.” Mother said, as she looked around.

“But there's no one outside, how are we going to get in?”, I asked.

Mother pointed at the side of the mansion.

“We have to climb up and find an empty room”, she said.

I nodded my head and followed behind my mother. We ran to the side of the mansion and instead of climbing the side of it, we decided to find an empty room on the first floor. When we got to one of the windows, mother peeked inside as the curtains were open. The lights were on and we didn't see anyone in the room. Mother placed her hand on the bottom to see if the window would open. Since it was unlocked we climbed through after mother opened it.

“Now what?”, I asked after we were inside the room.

“Since we changed into maid uniforms before coming, we should be able to go into the hall. If someone notice us, we can incapacitated them and drag them inside the room.

Mother peeked out the door and saw that the hallway was cleared. She gestured for me to follow her and we walked into the hallway.

“Now we just need to find a ventilation passage”, mother said.

We walked until we reached another hallway connected to the other side of the mansion. Two maids walking with trays in their hands, and noticed us.

“Are you two new as well?”, one of the maids asked. She had long blonde hair and pale skin with brown eyes.

“Yeah, it was our first day”, mother answered, “Where are you two going?”, mother asked.

“We're headed back to the maids quarters” she answered.

“We were on our way there as well”, mother said.

“Let's all go together,” the maid said.

We followed behind them and walked down the hallway. There was a door at the end of the hall. When the maid opened it, it led to another part of the mansion. There were many doors on each side of the hall. We continued to follow them until we reached a door on the left side of the hall. When she opened it, it was a room with four small beds.

“This is our room, we can pick our own room, you two can room with us if you want until they assign our works tomorrow.”, she said.

We settled in the room, each picking a bed.

“Some more maids will be arriving tomorrow, once they get here they will be assigned positions within the mansion”, the other maid said.

I decided to get a little friendly with them.

“We didn't get a chance to introduce ourselves, I'm Rosie”, I said.

“I'm Emily”, the other maid said, she was taller than me and had long wavy ginger colored hair.

“I'm Natalie”, mother said.

“I'm Casey,” the maid that let us follow her said.

We talked for a while, until the two of them decided to go to sleep.

Mother and I waited until they were asleep to leave the room. We walked up the same hall that we came from and roamed around the mansion until we found the basement. We snuck into the basement and mother searched for a ventilation passage. Once she found it, we climbed through searching for the Counts office.

After thirty minutes of roaming around randomly, we stumbled upon the Counts office that was on the third floor. Mother raised her hand up, as we started to hear voices. She gestured for me to move closer slowly, and we peeked down and started to eavesdrop.

We saw Count Livens talking to a gentleman that was dressed in a knight uniform.

“Are you sure we'll be able to pull this off sir?”, the knight asked.

“As long as we keep pretending to be on his side, it'll be easier to access information and sell it to the neighboring kingdom”, Count Livens answered.

Mother and I glanced at each other for a moment and started to peek again.

“Selling military information to the Kingdom Of Kalpana, is considered treason if we are found out.”, the knight said.

Count Livens sat back in his seat and folded his arms.

“We need this war to happen in order to give Prince Christian the throne, once we kill all the remaining members of the royal family, our family will become royals.”, Count Livens said.

“Are you sure the people of the kingdom will accept the king's illegitimate son as the king”, the knight asked.

Mother and I looked at each other.

Holy shit, so the king does have an illegitimate son, I thought to myself.

“After my sister left the palace she gave birth to Prince Christian. When we framed Prince Moises for murder, he was the first obstacle we had to remove to start our plan. Finding out Prince Moises also had illegitimate children was just a bonus.” Count Livens said.

I balled up my fist and mother grabbed my hand.

“What's our next move now sir?”, the knight asked.

“Prince Marshall wants to attack a few rebel camps,” Count Livens said and handed the knight some type of document.

It was quiet for a moment.

“This man”, the knight paused for a second.

“He's one of the rebels camp leaders, he was a famous bounty hunter and a former knight a long time ago and disappeared. He's back for some reason and for the past three months he's been gathering people at a fast pace that has any type of problems with the royal family. I don't know what caused his return but we need to find him and get him to join us”, Count Livens said.

Mother tapped me and gestured for me to follow her back down the passage. I nodded my head, I was about to follow her but suddenly heard a name that caused my heart to race. I stopped and looked back down to peek at them again.

“His name is Nathan Williams,” Count Livens said.

I held my hand over my mouth in shock and felt the tears roll down my face. I mumbled to myself, "You're alive."