Saving The Pirate (Book Two)

70. Confrontation

"I will speak to the king," his mother said, standing up. Her face was white and tears had begun to drip down her face. This wasn't the first time she shed tears today.

"There ez nothing that can be done. His Majesty has already given the command." Jack crossed his arms over his chest in an uncomfortable action. "The ball shall continue. His Majesty does not want thez to get to the public if he can prevent it. In two days, there will be the ball, and the morning after..." He didn't need to finish the sentence for Diane to make an ugly noise and for me and Tristan to look at the floor.

"There is nothin' that we can do?" Tristan piped in, his face still to the floor.

An uneasy silence filled the room that we shared with other prisoners that were listening in, probably hoping for the same answer for their own fates. At last, Jack responded with, "unless there ez evidence to prove otherwise, there ez nothing that can be done." He paused. "I'm sorry."

"Sorry? What does sorry have to do with anything? I'm dead! In the next few days, I'm dying for something that I never did or tried to do, and all you can say is sorry?" His voice was raised to a shout that bounced off the concrete walls. Immediately, all eyes turned to his thin form shrunken in the pale darkness.

"Christopher," his mother began in protest but held her tongue. There was no use arguing with a soon-to-be-dead man.

Christopher fixed his eyes on Jack, and though Jack was wavering, he didn't refrain from his cold stare."I did nothing. Why can't you believe me? I have nothing against you people. If anything, look back at your ridiculous prince. Anne and I crossed paths with him last night with some girl and the shuffling of paper. I heard them."

"Hector has admitted to being awake when all of thez occurred. Though he too have broken the rules, his alibi was that he heard something in the halls to investigate. He said nothing of any sort of paper." Jack looked like he was thinking something over before abandoning the thought and saying, "we also looked into the matters of the gentleman by the name of 'Skip' that resides on your ship."

My stomach did a flip. This could be good or bad in the means of Christopher's life with this news.

"We obtained and locked him in a separate prison hall. He has no knowledge of Christopher's situation and we plan not to tell. We also managed to talk a few things over with your crew members, Christopher." Christopher's eyes didn't move from Jack. "They had not a bad thing to say about you."

"As they shouldn't. I'm an excellent captain."

"I will look into thez, Christopher. I can promise you on that. In the next two days, I will conduct interrogations and look for ways to waver his Majesty's opinion with my finds. Simple begging will not work for thez kingdom ez of more importance than of simple lives, even if those lives are deeply rooted into his history." He looked at Diane that could only hug herself and nod. "He ez just as brutal as he ez kind, so I cannot make any promises."

Tristan motioned for the bars, gripping them right enough that his hands began to turn red. "We'll get you out, mate. You need to believe that."

"Belief never worked in my favor anyway."

***
I was given an hour for me to clean myself up and clear my aching head before the integration, though I wish it was more than just an hour.

Since the 'culprit' was found, all the restrictions were lifted and I was back in my room with Cora as my maid again. Only, I didn't have the gut to be happy. I left that in the toilet bowl.

"I heard what happened," said Cora, holding my hair back. She stroked it lightly, trying to ease me. "I'm sorry."

When I finished, I sat back and wiped my mouth. "Christopher's going to die," I said more to myself than to her. "I don't know what to do."