The head guard who had reported bowed his head, and he said, “We haven’t checked the rooms that belong to the royal family.”
King Laurence’s eyes narrowed, and his lips were set in a thin line. The main hall had turned extremely quiet, and everyone waited for the King to say something, wondering if the culprit was someone they had not expected.
“I order you to look for it in the royal members chambers. Make sure to check every nook and corner. Wait,” said Laurence, getting up from his seat, and he said, “I will come with you. The servants will be staying here until the matter is resolved,” he ordered.
Lady Samara, Queen Morganna and Calhoun, and Theodore followed King Laurence and the guards followed behind them. They first headed to the empty rooms that belonged to the other relative’s rooms in the family. Once they found nothing in there, they moved to the King’s chambers.
Lady Samara was more than embarrassed to see the guards go through the things in their room. She was the King’s wife, but Laurence had not made an attempt to stop the guards from what they were doing, and it only said how little trust the King held in his heart right now.
Finding nothing in there, the guards informed, “There’s nothing in this room, my King.”
“Go to the next room,” ordered Laurence, and everyone obliged.
The next one was Calhoun and Theodore’s room. The guards went through every little thing in there, from the cot to the mattress, the windows, the walls in the room and the floor, before moving to the cupboards and drawers.
Morganna folded her arms, watching the guards keenly doing their job. She wondered if she would be able to expose Calhoun right now. She had thrown her parchments into the fire before coming to meet her son. That meant the only copy left was with Calhoun and the sign she had made. It was different.
“You don’t mind if I have a look around your room, do you?” questioned Morganna, turning to look at Calhoun and seeing his lips twitch before he smiled.
“Please,” Calhoun complied. “I would never stop my grandmother from being involved more with me,” he offered her a smile.
Morganna moved towards the drawers and cupboards, wondering where Calhoun might have placed the parchments that consisted of the deal they had made with each other. Her red eyes carefully moved from one corner of the room to another because when the guards were going through the two young men’s things, they didn’t find any parchments in the room, at least not the ones she was looking for.
Her eyes then finally fell on the fireplace, and she noticed a hollow place at one corner of it.
Morganna walked towards the fireplace, bending down. A smile came to appear on her lips. She had finally caught him. Putting her finger in the gap, she pulled out the parchments.
“What is that?” questioned Laurence.
Morganna turned to look at Calhoun with a triumphant look in her eyes. “Would you like to explain to your father what this is, Calhoun?”
Laurence frowned, and he walked towards where his mother stood.
“Why would you keep something like this hidden away in such a place when we have offered you a room that has cupboards and drawers?” Morganna continued to pour oil into the fire that she thought was present.
“Calhoun,” King Laurence demanded his son to answer his mother’s question. “Let me take a look at this.”
Morganna tipped her chin up, her eyes on Calhoun before she heard Laurence sigh, and he handed it back to her. Seeing her son’s quick loss of interest, her eyes fell on the wordings of the parchments, and she saw it to be a bunch of poems in praise of the King and the land.
“What is this?” she whispered, her hand shaking in uncontrolled rage. She tried hard not to crush the parchments that were in her hand.
Calhoun gave the woman a polite smile, “They are poetry, grandmother. I am embarrassed to share them with anyone, therefore, I hide them in here.”
The guards at the same time returned from finishing their search and informed the King once again, “There’s nothing in here, my King.”
“Apart from the rooms, we should check each person,” ordered the King. When they were done checking, they found nothing on anyone.
Finally, they moved to Queen Morganna’s room. Morganna didn’t seem fazed because she had her loyal guards guarding her room, and she knew she poisoned neither Calhoun nor Laurence.
But one’s assurance was never enough.
The castle guards started to go through her things while the royal Hawthrone family members stood at one side, watching the guards do their job.
The guards then opened her cupboards, using the key which Morganna handed, and they pulled out her jewellery boxes where some of them were empty as she had given some of the jewels to Helena which belonged to the cursed jewels’ set.
As the guards continued their search, one of them found a small velvet pouch in one of the jewellery boxes, and he opened it, tilting it around to see what it was, only to find powder fall into the palm of his hand.
Morganna had not expected this, and her eyes widened in shock by seeing this. Lady Samara, the King and the other guards who were in the room were stunned.
“T-this isn’t mine! I don’t even know how this came inside the box!” Morganna could feel the tension in her body increase, and so did her anger. “It isn’t me but Calhoun who did this!” she accused her grandson.
Calhoun frowned at Morganna’s words, “Grandmother, how could you. I trusted you, I thought our relationship was improving,” there was a clear disappointment in his voice.
“Mother, what is the meaning of this?” Laurence demanded from his mother before saying, “Bring the physician here right this instance. I need to verify what this powder is!” and the two guards who were in the room quickly hurried out of there.
“I swear on you, Laurence, I really don’t know how it got there! This is Calhoun’s ploy, it is a set up!” she glared at Calhoun.
