Til Kingdom Comes - The Banished Prince Vol 1: The Beginning

C056 Expect the Unexpected

"But I would better off warn Your Lordship about something... So take this as a heads up from us." Levingstone or Eagle spoke as a sign that he had concluded almost all that he needs to deliver the message across. Not only did he and the 3 of the engineers had prevented a certain disaster, but had offered to pay his last respects to my father and the rest of the family.

Sigh... All I could do was to bury the clothes they had worn last before they succumb to the injuries. I would do something later on with the pioneers upon the arrival of the engineers right after their looting.

"Please excuse us, Your Lordship," Eagle spoke as everyone stood up, clasped their hands to their chest, bowed slightly as they dispersed and heads back to the windmill as they rested.

Seeing the engineers left, the Chadwells slowly place both their sleeping children on the benches while they place another bench alongside their sleeping children so they would fall off when they sleep.

Then with heavy feet, almost dragging them on the ground, with their hearts pounding as if a hundred horses were running in muddy riverbanks... The husband and wife with their little infant slowly sauntered over as a black cloud of sorrow hovers their heads.

When the Chadwell reached our circle of pioneers and me, the man dropped his crutches at his sides as they both suddenly dropped down to their knees and began to weep bitterly.

I and the rest were taken aback at their reactions and was wondering whether what Eagle had said about a warning earlier because he knew what the Chadwell would be saying? Did the Chadwell tell the engineers beforehand? Oh my God ... The suspense is killing me...!

We were all completely baffled at them and after they both had claimed down a while bit, the first thing they did is to ask for pardon. "Why...? What did you do wrong that needs to be pardoned? The corns and wheat at the residential lots haven't produced any yield yet."

"Please calm yourselves down before you speak. Speak your mind, slowly."

"Sir, we do not want you to have a bad impression on us of what we are going to say next. We do not wish you to think we are taking advantage of you in order to gain extra favours and also to highlight to you because we have 5 members in the household."

"Actually sir, we only have 4 members in the Chadwell household."

"Huh? What do you mean? You, your wife and the 3 kids including the infant baby girl."

"Actually sir, it is our fault for keeping this from you as well as the rest of the citizens. But the one who is at fault is me, sir. I neglected the duties of a husband towards my family until they had fallen in a very impoverished state. I was addicted to gambling and wanted to earn an easy fortune on the Raffle."

"I became a follower of the Devil and was enticed to play the Raffle during my breaks at sundown in the taverns. I am supposed to squirrel away all my earnings for my family but then, I thought I could spend 6c to gain 12c back or even break even."

"But after playing for some hours, gaining a few but losing all, I started to borrow money from others, especially those loan sharks that always linger around losing punters like me."

Chadwell cleared his face and snot but his regret was beyond forgiving as he started to bawl again. So the little girl ever told me that the family went hungry because of this bloke's doing? His wife went hungry for days but won't let their children suffer?

"Sir, I was beyond control as I borrowed from the loan sharks but ended up unable to pay them back a single copper. Those loan sharks approached my foreman and demanded an exorbitant amount of coins to be returned to them even though I had borrowed only 50c from them."

"In the end, I stayed back in the mines working myself to death as my foreman settled the debts for me and I had to work almost a month for free. From the day I am supposed to return to my family to share the joys of my month's of hard work, instead, I had to work an additional month and only gotten 30c in return."

"Due to my gullible, irresponsible and thoughtless act, my whole family didn't see me for 2 months straight and had to rely on their own as we were immigrants and had support from family members, relatives or friends."

"During that time, something tragic happened... Huu Huu... My whole family had gone hungry for days in the end and survived on scraps that my wife had given to the children but not to herself. Please, pardon us, sir. We had committed a very grave sin."

"What we now doing is not for ourselves, please believe my words, but for the sake of our children. You, sir, are good with children and we sincerely hope you could sort it out to them and tell a tale or something."

I was feeling bewildered and had a premonition that something bad would happen. The rest of the pioneers' eyes were looking at them, trying to find a single clue on why their young master would need to tell a tale to the children instead. Couldn't they tell the tale themselves? Aren't they good at storytelling or what?

But they kept quiet instead of voicing their thoughts.

"During the times of hunger, since my wife sacrifices herself for the sake of the children, my wife got severely stricken by it. She couldn't produce milk for our baby girl and she even begged farmers, livestock herders, even for spoonfuls of milk but she was totally ignored. She tried to drink a lot of water but in the end, without any nutrients in her self, she was still unable to produce milk for the baby."

"I thought that certain mishaps happening to me was the punishment that was meted out specifically for me but..."

"In... The... End... My poor... Little baby girl... She... She... She... Huu... Huu...." the man totally broke down in uncontrollable sobs as he lay sprawled on the ground face flat and was unconscious because of the overwhelming grief...

I suddenly felt a sudden tightness in my chest and I lost the ability to breathe. Gwen and Crystal who were mothers knew what's the outcome and they too cried and buried their faces in their husband's chest as they were being comforted.

Both I and Heather clasped our hands to our mouths, both of us knew somewhat was forthcoming while Jack even though he looked sorrowful, slowly carried the man up and prop him against a bench and tried to arouse him from his state of unconscious.

"S...Sir...MY LITTLE ANGEL DIED IN MY ARMS WITH HER LIPS STILL ATTACHED TO MY BOSOM...!!!"

Oh my God... This world is so innocent but why certain people would make it seemed so cruel...!!!

Heather bawled so loudly that she lands herself on me and sobbed uncontrollably and her shoulders shook violently as do mine. The vision in front of me was so blurry not because of losing consciousness but because I felt the loss of an innocent human being due to a selfless act...!

The wife didn't cry that much because she had faced these predicaments and had overcome this alone during the absence of her husband. But still... Her eyes were swollen and she still held on to the infant to her chest...

When did the baby die? How did she pass? Did she succumb to her hunger here in GraceHaven? No wonder she didn't allow me to touch her baby or even let me take a look at her.

Kayla took her ammonia salts and place it under the man's nose and he was suddenly aroused and found Jack beside him. With careful steps, she walked over to the wife, knelt on the ground before her and places a gentle hand on her shoulder.

Even with the most controlled gentle voice, Kayla spoke, "Then this baby..."

Ever so carefully, the wife reached in and slowly removed the infant. The moment Kayla laid her eyes on it. She grabbed the shoulders of the wife and embraced her hard. Everyone in the circle cried their eyes and heart out ...

Even Sir Blackie who was beside me whimpered incessantly and covered his face with its paws as the while atmosphere became extremely depressed and funereal.

The infant that she had been carrying all along was just some sacks that were filled with hay and weighted with some stones. Some strings were tied to the top of the sack to take the shape of the head while others were shaped like the legs and sewn together.

The man threw himself at Jack as he hugged him tightly, and was desperately looking for solace and comfort in his darkened heart.

Oh my God... I can't help feeling as if my heart had dropped right to the bottom of my feet.

"Sir... I wished you could tell a tale... To my daughter... That the... Stork that came... To send the... Baby... Had taken... Her to a better place... To be... Among the angels... And not... To live... By her... Heartless... Father... Huu... Huu..... "

After some time, everyone seemed to regain their composure as Kayla deftly removed the cloth that was sling over the wife's shoulders and quickly shrouded the 'infant'. "I will take it from here..." Kayla simply said as she walked towards her house that was in the furthest end and placed the 'infant' inside.

Everyone's eyes were red and awfully swollen. The usually beefy man before the man too succumbed to the overwhelming sense of sorrow and grief. He had no offsprings of his own but he had his fair shares of children calling him Gramps or Granpa but he could sense the loss of a child that has yet to see the world before her eyes.

I had regained my composure and walked away from the bunch to wash my face at the riverbank accompanied by Heather and Sir Blackie with its tail down and was walking as if it was a human being, with hunched shoulders that had a million ton of untold sorrow on its back.

It took a dunk into the river, shook its head and then its body to dry itself as it walked back with us, with its eyes cast to the ground, its ears lifeless and almost dragging its tail behind.

I wanted to scream at the man, "Are you a human or a man?! Tell me...! A human would have a sense of dignity and humanity but you, a man is utterly heartless...!" but no words formed in my mouth and nothing escaped from my lips...

There is no further reason to humiliate a man who was already down... Calling him a dog would also not able to justify the events that he and his wife had faced. Even if I called him a dog, Sir Blackie was surely ten or even a hundred-fold better than that man.

At least he had become clean with his actions. His mistakes had resulted in a grave incident that he will never forget until the day he died. His little baby girl was dead because of him and he would carry that guilt forever.

Even if it is an act of God, as a punishment to him, it would not suffice. Even when he was bitten by the wolf and may have cost his limbs, it would never bring back his dead little baby girl.

However.....

=*=

Author's Note:

Man do cry, not in front of others but maybe behind their mobile or their lappy.

It took me nearly 5 hours just to complete this saddening chapter. Most of the time, in every paragraph I had to pause since the world around me turned so blurry.

Poverty is indeed very harsh, making the slightly wealthy ones to safeguard that even the wife of Chadwell did ask for just a mere spoonful of milk. If only there was some form of assistance, at least the little angelic baby girl would even appear in this chapter and grew up into beauty.

Most of you very supportive readers had not seen poverty when it was hit the hardest, seeing pictures and videos from YouTube or maybe through f******k, Twitter and other media platform. It would not even tickle one's emotion but when one sees poverty happening right before your own very eyes, it sure does open a whole new window and the colours one might see would be just black and grey.

I am just a veteran who had witnesses these in some countries that was not merely hit by calamities or other Acts of God, but when I saw these things happening around me, I do start to wonder... Where is God and why does He let this happen to His followers?

Well, this is just my thoughts back then and now, I wished humans around the world would just cut back their hours chasing the paper trail or working just for a few thousand dollars in their wallets and starts looking back on things that were left for granted... Our parents and our family.

Cheers... Thanks for your super greatest support and continue to enjoy the next few chapters, yeah...!

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