A Forlorn Hope

Chapter - 3

Prince Crail had left an hour ago and now I was all alone in this room, my hands being still tied up. Suddenly the door of the room opened, jerking me out of my thoughts. Prince Crail walked in. But before he could say anything, I said.

"Can you open this? Please? It hurts a lot.." I gestured to my tied hands, my voice carrying the pain my hands were bearing.

As I said this, I saw some emotions flickering on his face and then I heard him mutter some curses under his breath. Then he was across the room, bending besides my tied hands, untying them.

I wondered why he was untying them himself, I mean he was a Prince and he could have definitely asked someone else to do the job, didn't all the Princes'  have servants?

"I told Rob to untie your hands, an hour before. Seems like he forgot as usual." I heard him say.

"Did you?" I questioned him stupidly. Why would he do such a thing, he thought I was a spy, didn't he? Then why? "Oh, well, thank you." I decided I should at least thank him if he did so.

I looked up to meet his eyes to find him looking at me, but then lowered my gaze to the ground due to the intense look he was giving me.

I still had to convince him I wasn't a spy and at the moment I didn't know how. 

"I am not a spy, can you believe me, please?" My voice was small and just above a whisper and the desperate need to be believed evident in it.

Crail was standing besides me and I saw his body visibly stiffen when he heard my words. Then he sighed heavily and he said something which shocked me completely.

"I already knew you were not a spy." He looked around before saying so and I noticed that his voice was low. 

"WHAT?" He knew?!  "YOU KNEW? But then why-"

I was cut off. "That's the excuse under which we are keeping you here."  

If I didn't understand anything before, nothing made sense right now. But I at least tried to understand. But still nothing made sense. If he knew I wasn't a spy, didn't that angry blond, Rob, knew too? Hadn't Crail told him? No, of course, he didn't, Isis ! Didn't I remember the way in which that angry fool had yelled and shouted at me?  My thoughts were once again interrupted.

"Rob and me were just acting." He said. 

Acting? They were just acting? If that was the way they acted, they deserved an Oscar ! Especially that guy, Rob.  But the main question was, why were they acting as if I was a spy? Before I could question him, he continued.

"We are going to claim that you are a spy so that the people here don't suspect anything else. Am sure you hadn't noticed, but when you were being questioned by Rob, there were some people at the door who were watching you both. So we had to act, we didn't want them to take an interest in you, so we thought if you posed as a spy, no one would ask further. An outsider being suspected as a spy is a common thing here." Now, a small smile was forming on his face and he continued, "You were quite entertaining so even after those people left, me and Rob played along..." 

My mind processed this information. About one thing he was right, I was too engrossed to notice anyone except Rob when he was shouting at me. After Crail's explanation, I should have been angry but instead I was shocked. 

One thing was puzzling me, if they hadn't brought me here for suspecting me to be a spy, then why was I brought here? 

As if answering my unspoken question, Crail opened his mouth to say something. All traces of humor had left his face now and it was completely serious.