Sleep well

"Wura this is not your fault, nothing that is happening Is your fault, you should know that, so stop blaming yourself" said Richard.

"But uncle, I should have known that Elder Foden was up to something" said Wura with a sigh.

"Stop that Wura, what have I always said about you blaming yourself" said Richard as Wura sighed.

"Uncle, you and I both know that you are innocent, why do you not say something, why do you not defend yourself and accuse all these allegations?" asked Wura as she did not get how calm her uncle was in all of this, she wanted him to fight for himself.

"Even a fool when he keeps his tongue is considered wise" said Richard.

"Uncle, tell me the truth, you know about what Is happening do you not?" asked Wura as Richard said nothing at all, she refused to believe that he was actually guilty of what he was charged with.

"Uncle…" said Wura as she sighed.

"Elder Foden has evidence against you, your name is signed at the bottom of that letter, my hands are tied, tell me the truth Uncle, what do you know about this?" asked Wura as she handed the letter over to Richard as he looked at it and truly enough his signature was there.

"Uncle, do you know about the letter?" asked Wura as she looked at Richard carefully and he nodded.

Wura sighed, she had a bad feeling about this whole thing.

"Uncle, did you truly sign the letter?" asked Wura as she held her breath.

"Yes… and no" said Richard.

"What does that mean uncle? What do you mean yes and no?" asked Wura.

"if you ask if I signed this letter, then the answer is I did… but if you are talking about this particular letter, I did not" said Richard.

"Uncle, this is not the time to be speaking in parables, this is very serious, I know that you truly did sign that, I can recognize your signature, but at the same time, I know that you would never sign a letter such as this" said Wura.

"Something does not make sense here, there is something seriously wrong" said Wura.

"Wura" called Richard as Wura was still in her own thoughts.

"Wura, I want you to do something for me" said Richard as he handed the letter back to Wura.

"What is it uncle?" asked Wura.

"I want you to stay out of this Wura, this is not good for you, you are the Queen, and you should not in any way be associated with this" said Richard.

"No uncle, I cannot do that, you are asking something impossible of me" said Richard.

"You are my uncle, how can I disassociate myself from you just because of some false accusations that are obviously not true" said Wura.

"You have to do it Wura, you cannot let this ruin your reputation, I am not asking you Wura, I am telling you, your reputation is worth much more than this" said Richard as he knew that in the end all this would point to was trying to harm Wura, and they were trying to use him to do that, but he would not allow them.

"But uncle…" said Wura as she was cut off.

"But nothing Wura, do as I say, it is what Is best for you, you are the Queen, and you need to be respected" said Richard in a stern tone.

"But I don't want to leave you here Uncle, you do not deserve to be in a place like this, you have to understand that I cannot just sit by and watch you suffer when you are innocent" said Wura as she felt like crying.

"An innocent man will always be vindicated Wura, always" said Richard.

"Uncle it is not fair, I will not be able to sleep well knowing that you are in here" said Wura as Richard smiled at her.

"What a man sows he will surely reap, sooner or later" said Richard as Wura was not really in a good mood to try to figure out all the meanings of his parables.

"I will be fine Wura, I will be fine, Sir Mero assured me that he will get to the bottom of this, so rest assured that everything will be fine" said Richard as he smiled.

"Oh uncle" said Wura as she hugged him, this was not fair at all, he was an innocent man with a family who did not deserve to be locked up in here unjustly.

"Fine, I will do as you say" said Wura as she nodded.

"I have one more favour to ask of you" said Richard as Wura broke their hug.

"What is it uncle?" asked Wura.

"Please do not let Tessa come and see me here, she will not be able to handle it, tell her to take care of herself and Lily" said Richard as Wura sniffed.

"Alright, fine uncle, but you know that we all love you, and we know that you are innocent" said Wura.

"I know" said Richard with a smile.

"Take care Uncle, everything will be cleared up soon, I am sure" said Wura as she smiled and Richard smiled at her as she walked out the cell and out the dungeon.

"Please give this back to Elder Foden when he comes" said Wura as she handed the letter to the dungeon keeper, she had nothing to hide if she was sure that her uncle was innocent, she was sure that there was a misunderstanding somewhere.

"Yes my Queen" said the dungeon keeper as he nodded and he took the letter from her.

"Thank you" said Wura as she proceeded to walk back up the stairs.

…

"Father…" called Wura as she entered into the library.

"Yes" replied Lawrence as Wura walked to hug him.

"Father, I went to see uncle" said Wura as Lawrence hugged her.

"I know my dear, Nora informed me that you did" said Lawrence as he knew that this was very hard on Wura, if she was faced with a choice to choose between the kingdom and her family, he knew that Wura would choose her family in a heartbeat, but he did not want her to do that.

"Father, why does this have to happen? Uncle Richard did nothing wrong, I did nothing wrong" said Wura.

"Oh Wura, you know that you do not have to do anything wrong for people to unnecessarily hate you" said Lawrence as Wura let go of him and they sat down on the couch.

"But father, it is not fair, and Uncle Richard is suffering, I know that he is, but he is trying to be strong, he asked me to have nothing to do with this matter, but you know that I cannot do that father, I am going to make sure that he does not spend another day in that cell" said Wura.

"But before that my dear, you need to calm down, Mero already told me that he is working on a way to settle all of this" said Lawrence.

"So just be calm okay?" asked Lawrence with a smile as Wura sighed, she could not be calm at all, all this was just too much for her and her family, she could only imagine how horrible her Aunt felt, Wura knew that was why Richard told her not to let Tessa come and see him, she was sure that she would not be able to bear the sight of her husband behind bars.

"Father, I was looking through Liam's desks and I found some letters from you to him and vice versa, what were you both discussing?" asked Wura as she felt like those letters had something to do with what was happening right now.

"Well my dear, they were letters about many important things, Liam was informing me on how the rebels planned to destroy the kingdom by first starting with the dukedom, and they wanted to start with the Scot Dukedom" said Lawrence.

"Did Liam not speak to you about it?" asked Lawrence.

"He did father, but not in detail, he kept some details hidden from me" said Wura as she sniffed.

"Father, when were you going to tell me about the assassination attempt that happened in the plains?" asked Wura.

"I deserved to know father, imagine my shock when I learn of it through secret letters" said Wura as she was not pleased at all.

"We did not want to make you worry my dear, my girl, you had much more better things to think of than our safety" said Lawrence.

"But I am upset that I was left in the dark about it, and I am even more upset at Liam for keeping this from me, he knew how much in danger you all were, and still yet he could look at me with a straight face and tell me nothing" said Wura as she felt betrayed, she trusted Liam and he hid things from her, that was not how things were supposed to be done.

"My dear, do not be, he did It for your safety, and we discussed and decided not to let you know, we did it for your well being" said Lawrence as Wura frowned.

"Wura look me in the eye and tell me if you had known you would not come over rushing to the plains" said Lawrence as Wura looked at him.

"Of course I would father" said Wura.

"You see my dear, and that could have put you in danger as well, I have no regrets on how things were handled, Liam sent guards to protect us, he did his best" said Lawrence as Wura sighed.

"You know that my heart Is always with you and mother, and my Aunt, Uncle and cousin" said Wura.

"I know my dear, but at the time your heart needed to be with someone else" said Lawrence with a smile.

"To think that because they know you have no more heirs they want to kill you" said Wura as she was angry, just because her father had no male child, and she was the Queen and could not take over his dukedom did not give them any right to try to do what they did against him.

"Yes my dear, but that is all past now, all the rebels have been captured" said Lawrence.

"And because of that, tell me how my uncle who was living with you at the time would be in party with the rebels to kill you his own brother in law, that is so absurd, and yet Elder Foden has chosen to believe that and use it against me" said Wura.

"I do not know how or why Elder Foden got a letter that had Richard's name signed, but I am sure that this is deeper than we know" said Lawrence.

"I know that Father… I know" said Wura as she sighed.

…

Wura walked into Liam's room as she sighed and she sat down on the bed as she looked down and suddenly tears began to drop from her eyes, all the emotions are the tiredness from the day, everything it made her start to cry like a mess as she could not stop herself.

"Wura" called Ireti as she knocked on the door and she entered into the room.

"Wura, what is wrong?" asked Ireti in surprise when she saw Wura crying.

"Oh mother…" said Wura as she looked at her mother and she cried as Ireti stood there, unsure of what to do.

"Wura, what is it?" asked Ireti as Wura could not speak, all she could do was cry.

"Is it because of your uncle? If it is, he will be fine, everything will be fine soon" said Ireti.

"No mother, not only because of uncle Richard, it is because of everything, I just cannot take it anymore, I cannot take it" said Wura in between sobs as Ireti was surprised to see her child like this, she had never seen Wura like this ever.

"I am just so tire of everything, why me? Why me? What did I do to deserve this, tell me what? Why?" asked Wura as she cried and Ireti was perplexed she wondered if she should go and call Lawrence, because she really could not deal with crying.

"Mother, tell me why" cried Wura as Ireti sighed, if anything she could hear desperation, longing and pain hidden in Wura's tone.

"Wura listen to me, stop, stop crying and tell me what is bothering you" said Ireti as she sat down next to Wura on the bed and Wura cried even more, her tears flowing ceaselessly with no end in sight.