Golden

Written on 1/2/2012 

Enter into the Golden Lantern Inn.  I sat waiting, looking around. It’s been at least 15 years since I’ve been here last. The smells of sweet cinnamon and mint tea leaves swelled in my nose. Then a young man came up to me. He wanted to know how I gained my fortune. And so I told him how it started….  

On May 22, 1598 havoc broke loose on Wales in Britain. The Duke had ordered his soldiers to destroy and kill everything and everyone within it. He believed they would rebel against him. Only few snuck away. 

1609– My name is Elizabeth Turner. I’m 21 years old and I just discovered the name of the man whom killed my parents when I was 10. He’s a soldier named Sam Henry. I have been trying to seek the whereabouts of the Duke whom is an evil, devious man. The Duke presents himself as a harmless being, but underneath he is a murderous, selfish, disgusting pig. For he was the one who ordered to have my parents and people killed. I despise him, and I plan to take everything he has ever loved away from him, just the way he did to me. And just to start off I will take his “precious” gold. But first, I must learn where he puts his treasury…. 

I was under the alias of Samantha Dagmar, a lowly servant girl, in the duke’s castle. I searched almost every part of the castle, but with no luck. The only part I haven’t checked yet was the Duke’s sanctuary, bedroom. The only way I’d be able to get in there, is if I was one of his mistress’ he always takes advantage of, but for me to be a betrayal to myself would never happen. Instead, I entered as an act that I’d clean the filth in there. As soon as I entered the room, the wretched stench filled my nose, and what was oxygen was dowsed with an overload of cologne. I wanted to bolt, but right when I was going to bolt out of the room, I heard a couple of voices down the hall, I froze. They were whispering back and forth. I only caught a couple of lines of what they were saying.  

“..We must make sure every bit of that gold is on that ship tonight…” 

“But sir…” 

“Shh… we don’t want everyone knowing.” 

“But sir, won’t the Duke suspect his treasury to be missing? I mean doesn’t he check it at least twice a day?” 

“.. That’s why we must move out at mid night tonight; get the men set, so we can get out of here before he realizes it’s in America…. Besides he’ll be too busy feeling up those sleazy whores tonight, so we got enough time to get 12 hours behind us.”  

As they walked by I caught a glimpse of the men. The tall one, I assumed as the leader, had a savvy way about him. He had strawberry blonde hair, dark blue eyes, and a lean body. The one next to him was a bit shorter but had the same lean body. They were both dressed in soldier uniforms. Something was pulling the back of my mind, like I knew the tall man, but just couldn’t put my finger on it. At that moment, I made a split decision to follow them. I figured if they had the gold, then I could stowaway on their ship, find their hide out, and sneak the gold away little by little.  

At midnight, I went to the loading docks; I could see the men loading the ship quickly. I crept closer to the ship, out of sight, trying to find a way to get in. I was by some crates, when I spotted one empty; I climbed in, hoping I was unseen. While waiting to be carried on the ship, I heard footsteps by the crates; they lifted me up vigorously, and then dropped me turning their attention elsewhere. As I hit the floor, the pain traveled up my arm excruciatingly. As soon as I knew it, I was lifted up again and started moving sideways and upwards. The journey seemed longer than I expected, soon I was in the cargo department. And we were off to America.  

For a woman to be on a ship, with over a hundred men is very hard, especially if she is trying to keep out of sight.  I hid under the bunkers and scraped my food from leftovers left on plates that I found.  It may seem impossible to stay out of sight, which it was, but I managed. It took one month and a fortnight to get to America. We had arrived in Virginia. Once we were docking, I slid down to the cargo department and back in to my crate. I was carried to shore. I quickly emptied out of the crate before they came back. As I watched them from behind a wagon, I caught the eyes of a very handsome man. His eyes seemed familiar. I stood there watching the men put heavy crates on wagons and just as I was going to sneak on to one, the man with the wondrous eyes came behind me. 

He asked, “What’s your name miss?” 

I told him, “Eli… Elizabeth.” But before he could reply I ran as fast as the wind in the direction the wagons were going. He didn’t follow. 

The wagon stopped just in front of a little house, to the looks of it. Above the door was a lantern, a gold one to be exact. That’s when I realized the sign hanging before it, and that the little “house” was actually an Inn. Then I noticed the men going round back with the crates. I crept behind them and saw an underground tunnel that they put the crates in, I entered.  

It was dark and damp, I crept closer; then all of a sudden a huge man ran passed me, looked at my face, but kept running. I heard voices at the end of the tunnel. As I descended down the passage way, I discovered that the tunnel was a water way and that soon we’d be under a flood. I rushed out before they could see me and then I was grabbed by the arm and before I could turn around, I heard the voice of the man, and It startled me. For it was familiar, yet seemed only like a dream so many years ago.  

Eleven years have passed, thinking that my father was dead, and suddenly without even thinking of the hope, he’s standing behind me. I stopped. The single word slipped out. “Dad.” His grip loosened. He backed away slowly; I turned toward him. 

“Elizabeth?” 

“Dad….? I… I thought.. I thought you were dead.” 

“..Elizabeth… is… is that really you?” He reached out to me; I hesitated a little, and then gave in. His embrace felt like an old memory, sweetly developing a new one. We stood there for some time, until realizing the men surrounding us. My father was the first to let go and he went ahead and told me what really happened that distant night in Wales. 

My father heard about what the duke was going to do, so he came up with a plan to escape somewhere far off. He planned to have it look like one of the Duke’s soldiers killed him, that’s where Sam came in supposedly, but his plan went south when I started running away. He tried to reach me but I ran too fast. When I turned to look at my parents, I saw my mother get slain and my father attacked. He said that after he was attacked, some of his eldest friends that were still alive came to see if he was alive and they saw he was breathing. They took him to a hide out where they could await a ship and sail out to the distance without a trace. When he awoke they told him I was dead and also his wife.  I always thought they were both dead, and now I know my father is the only parent I have gained back.  

My father told me that after he found out I was dead; he sought revenge to the Duke. So for the past 11 years he has been creating a plan to take his riches and eventually destroy the Duke. But in the meantime, he had developed some land where he could hide his fortunes underground and overtime he built an Inn. And in memories he called it The Golden Lantern Inn, for we had a small gold lantern we’d carry at night when I was young. 

Today, was the first time in 14years I’ve stepped into this Inn, because shortly after a year of getting my father back he had gotten real sick and died. I couldn’t look at the place anymore so I traveled a little south, where I live with my husband and two girls. I came today, in memory of my father, he was a bright brilliant man, very loving and caring. He would have never left me if he didn’t have to.  And now he has supported me through all these years, one way or another…. 

The End