Regal Tale of Ratnagiri

16. Laal Ishq ❤️

"Rutu!"

An unknown call. Captain couldn't see anyone in the endless sea, he kept counting the waves.

"Rutu! Get up! Please..."

A good five minutes the muffled call continued until captain came out from drowsiness. He thought his ears wrong; who will call him with nickname in this jail ? But it's real... Someone is calling from the darkness, nothing is visible but he realised that the voice is coming from the door.

"Who ?"

"Me... merchant.... Devon Conway!"

No thinking, this time captain accepted that he's hallucinating. He's gonna be fired after a couple of hours and now... in this secured royal prison... The merchant is calling by his name! He burst out of laughter.

"Hahaha!!! I've really fallen in love with you bloody merchant! That you're coming in my dreams before mah d...death...hahaha"

"Oh...well, then consider your dream true and get up for god sake!"

While brushing hairs with finger, Captain heard something smashing with the lock. Soon he felt the door has been opened and someone sat beside him. A warm touch on cheeks made him shiver.

"We don't have much time Rutu...come on. Stand up"

"Merchant! You.... really here ?"

For the first time, captain held Conway's hand softly, for the first time he didn't find his touch irritating. Instead a flame of hope and faith lightened on his eyes.

"Yeah, to take you from here. Come! Quick!"

"But....how did you break the security ?"

The merchant showed him a revolver and few more instruments which he used to shoot the guards and break the lock just now. "I told you why do I keep these things. No let's go, my ship is tied in Godavari"

"Ship ? Are you going back to your country ?"

"Yes. They have already suspected me for providing you guns. We have to go as soon as possible"

"We ? No no... I can't go there! Just take me away from this jail"

Captain shook his head like a child. Conway cupped his face, "Rutu please... Try to understand, Ratnagiri isn't safe for us anymore. You can't go far so early and they're about to know that prison's security has been broken. More, if I left you outside they'll track you and shoot..... So please don't waste time"

"Conway!" Rutu's eyes started watering after a long time, a pile of insecurity seized his voice - "it's impossible! This Ratnagiri is my motherland... If I have to die, I wanna die here! All the Ratnagiri people are my family... They come to me instead of going Maharaja whenever they fall in trouble... My gang members... They will be perplexed without me! And my brother... The grown up kid... No no...I won't go anywhere"

"Hey relax... You have a cool mind right ? See, your life matters more right now. And your brother isn't a kid, you treat him like a kid. He's adult and let him tackle his own problems"

"You don't know... He's a child! Can't even chop a tree, how can he tackle life problems ?"

Conway almost started dragging Ruturaj while saying — "trust me, he will. He's also carrying your father's gene. And...and when the air will be cold, you will come back to Ratnagiri... To your own people. But now you have no choice..."

Through the dark tiny passways Conway dragged him out, ignoring all of his blabbering and appeals to leave him with his gang.

The foreigner never thought the brutal robber can weep like a child. He fell on the deck covering face when Conway finally succeeded to put him in the ship.