Chapter 14: Spotted

        The ship finally reached Lancoast,the fish village after a week on the sea.All  passengers and crew members rolled out to stretch their bodies on land. It became  more alarming for  Jaylyn and her new family for now they were on land,hiding from her uncle was almost impossible.

The crew members began to offload their luggages one after another, Jaylyn said her goodbyes to the nursing mother and her crying baby before heading back to join Miss Camilla who was still chatting with Old Marthy.

Despite the intriguing conversation she was having with Old Marthy,Jaylyn could still Sense that she was tensed up as she frequently turned behind her shoulders for any signs of danger .

Jaylyn had so much on her mind that she didn't realise Simeon was walking closely behind her. He whispered as he drew closer softly in a way that only her could hear.

"Think lightly!Think brightly! Castaway every evil thoughts so that good things may come your way,"

At the sound of his voice , Jaylyn blushed deeply.She had never been so close in such a manner with any man not even Jacob this made her face redden like tomatoes.

"Where might you be heading?," 

Old Marthy asked Miss Camilla.

"Oh..my dear sir ,to see some old relatives of mine,"

She answered beckoning the girls towards her. Before he could ask any further questions, she cut him off sharply indicating their acquaintances had come to an end.

"We better leave now for the weather isn't favorable,"

"Thank you so much for all you've done, I pray we meet again in future,"

"My pleasure,"

Old Marty bids them farewell before he moves away with Simeon.

      As they set to leave , Jaylyn glanced once more towards the direction they had taken.

"Till we meet again," She muttered slowly.

Miss Camilla notice how Jaylyn stared back at Simeon,she was certain that Jaylyn was clearly taking away by the boy whom she found no fault in but given their circumstances they had to trade with caution.Once again she reminded them of what was at stake and how badly they needed to protect themself before heading to Bridgebrock which would take a whole week  to reach if they were free from danger.

     From the Seaport, they walked down towards the village before finding a suitable carriage that could contain their luggages. The weather in Lancoast was normally cold ,the chilling rain had started to drizzle again as the carriage moved. Grace counted the number of houses they passed, not more than 15 to 20 houses.

She had heard a lot about Lancoast, a small simple homely sea village where bad things happen. She had vowed  previously to avoid such places because of their present predicament she had to accompany Jaylyn but failed to inform them of what they might be getting into.

 A former Street child like her knew that Lancaster was bad news,everyone knew, it was more or less a place for those fit to survive.

        The carriage stopped in an almost rundown inn,the rusty buildings were almost falling apart even the floors were cracked. The place looked poorly managed . As they walked in ,two servants were stationed around its entrance, rigidly and ready to throw out penniless people back to the cold street. At the counter stood the indifferent looking Keeper as they walked further towards the counter,he wore an inpatient expression as he struck his funny goatee, at first he showed a sign of sympathy at their mourning attire before his face wrinkled up again.

    A loud trashy male voice yelled out as other servants dragged him out from a room he had once occupied; he was roughly handed over to the muscular servants at the entrance after he was giving a massive beating.

"Make sure you break his legs and don't ever let him walk around this place ever again,"

The Keeper barked out orders before dragging back his attention to Miss Camilla.

"Now how may I help you ladies?,"

        Captain Lewis walked aimlessly around the street of lancoast in search of Stiles. It was still a mystery how he almost survived death at the hand of Lord Bennett,thankfully his wife came at the right time. He was furious at how he had gotten himself into such a problem in the first place especially since he wasn't even giving any penny,if he had not sneaked in some money for himself he would have been in a far worse situation.

If only he could lay his hands on Stiles he would kill him even before the Baron does. He was now hungry and needed to refill himself before continuing his search.

     Captain Lewis made his way into the local Pub turned Inn after he had examined the filthy place with disgust and cursed  the Baron for rendering him into a Pauper to his ultimost  surprised he caught sight of the elderly Cook from the Baron's house who had  served him  one time,dressed in black beside her stood a beautiful young Maiden who look more like the Baron's niece also dressed in black.

He thought his eyes were messing with him and wondered what could have brought them this far to all the places in the Witherfall but Lancoast.

     He had always fancied her; he even begged the Baron to marry her off to him. The Baron agreed to do so once he sold off all the three large shipments,he would spend as much time as he liked with her but since he lost everything he knew he didn't stand a chance.

"What could they be doing here?," He asked himself. A wild mischievous smile crossed his face.

He thought to himself 

"Whatever that brought them here wasn't his business for he was ready to claim the prize the Baron had failed to reward him with."

He watched from afar as they booked for a room and meal before the Keeper led them to their room. He was surely visiting them again maybe tomorrow when he was fully prepared.

     That evening he returned back to his room to take a rest, one of his men handed him a letter that came for him. "This arrived this morning Sir!,"

He said, handing him the letter. Captain Lewis took it and read further for more details about the sender of the message, not before ordering him to keep an eye out for Jaylyn and Miss Camilla probably he would make use of them.

To his surprise the letter was from no other than Lord Bennett, inside was a good sum of money to get him some men in order to help him search for his niece whom he was ordered to find dead or alive.  He even promised to reward him handsomely once he had found her .

This was indeed his lucky day who would believe he could kill two birds with one stone, he laughed out loudly. The first thing to do was to satisfy his desire of having her before sending her off to her uncle in chains which would also fetch him bigger reward. Immediately he added more men to monitor their movements while he writes a letter to Lord Bennett telling him about what he had discovered in Lancoast.