Silver for Sale (part 2)

Click here for the first part of this story.

Recap: Tyla was exploring an old mansion to figure out why it was abandoned, and witnessed a burglar looting the silver spoons from a display case in the parlor.

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Zayn knew from the moment that the words left his lips that his scant explanation, er, excuse, would not be good enough for the historian, whose disapproving glare had deepened into a bitter scowl, and he glanced around the decrepit mansion’s parlor for something to help him out of this awkward situation, but of course, the house didn’t care about him, and had no solution to offer. At least she wasn’t a different burglar (or a finder’s keeper, as he liked to think of himself with his rule about not taking things from anyone living) who would deliberately harm his person for competition’s sake, but a royal historian who was sent by the king to discover secrets about the past, and therefore not much of a physical threat, but still dangerous if she decided to send the king’s guards to arrest him.

He put the lace doily back down, and fished around in his sack for some of the silver spoons to return to the display case as well, hoping that might buy him some grace in her eyes, but she instead still shook her head in disgust, and said, “Acting like you weren’t caught won’t change the simple fact that you have no respect for the past, or the story of the people who lived here.”

“So, can I take some of the spoons in that case?” Zayn asked a little too hopefully, while he wondered if he could pull on her heartstrings with some sad story about desperately needing the money to feed a family of hungry children, or that his home had been burned down and he’d lost everything.

“No!” she yelled, rolling her eyes, and stomping forward to grab the sack out of his hands, spilling the contents onto the ground, and looking through the items with fingers that shook with barely controlled rage while muttering under her breath, then holding up a silver candelabra with surprise, saying, “So they didn’t take these with them after all?”

Zayn thought that while she was sorting through all of his nearly acquired treasures that he might slip out quietly and find someplace far away to hide before she could send the guards after him, but she grabbed him by his cloak before he could leave the room, pulled him to face her, and stated solemnly, “You are going to tell me where you plucked each of these items from, and help me figure out what happened in this house, and why the owners left so suddenly and quietly, unless you wish to have the royal guards put you on trial and lock you up for a very, very long time.”

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This story is continued here.

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I challenged myself to include several prompts as I continued this story, including:

Pensitivity101’s Take Seven with the words: dangerous, item, wish, trial, person, solemn, and scant

Word of the Day Challenge with the prompt word simple.

Ragtag Daily Prompt with the prompt word burn.

I also limited myself to telling this next part of the story in just six sentences, since the first part of this story was inspired by GirlieOnTheEdge’s Six Sentence Story challenge with the prompt word remnant.