A LOST TREASURE

I’m sorry for the last chapter’s grammar/spelling, I was using notepad and it doesn’t have spell-check, but now I’m using Microsoft word!

Reviews are appreciated!!!!

Chapter 1 - News

Alinah sat on her large four-poster bed. Fiddling nervously with the deep red linen, she looked up when she heard her name being called.

“Miss Alinah,” a servant asked politely from the doorway, “the doctor says it is alright for you to see the duchess now.”

Alinah only nodded, dismissing the young servant. She knew that she was making him nervous, she usually was very calm and collected and the change had made all of the servants nervous.

She stood and began walking towards the door, suddenly the picture of her mother as she had left her just a half hour ago, came flooding back to her. Her mother had looked as weak as a newborn! She sat again as she began trembling with suppressed emotions. Sweeping her long, soft orange gown from beneath her she lay down on the bed. She took a deep breath, stood up again and strode as confidently as she could towards the door.

The servant standing in front of the door of her mothers chambers nodded to her and opened the door for her.

“Mother?” Alinah asked softly as she made her way past the many doors leading to other parts of the suit.

“Are you Miss Alinah?” a middle aged man with a small black goatee asked her.

Alinah straightened slightly and flicked her long, wavy light-brown hair behind her, “I am,” she said a lot more confidently then she felt.

He nodded in satisfaction and moved aside so that she could see her mother, lying on her large bed, so similar to her own.

“I will leave you alone now, but please try to be quick,” the man, who was obviously the doctor, said awkwardly. He then bowed slightly to the duchess lying in the bed, then left.

Alinah knelt beside the bed.

“Mother, are you alright? You look so weak!” Alinah exclaimed, her brow creased with worry.

Her mother sighed, “No, I am not alright,” she paused, thinking of the best way to continue, “The doctor says I won’t live past tonight.”

Alinah lay her head on the bed covers and cried softly.

“Sh, darling it’s alright,” she tried to comfort her daughter.

“No! It isn’t! What am I going to do without you?”

“You will do a lot of great things, but first I must tell you something extremely important and you must promise not to interrupt me, otherwise I might not have the strength to go on.” She placed a hand on Alinah’s shoulder.

“You are not Alinah, daughter of Duchess Miranda and Duke Enir, sister of Jennifer, your name is Sarah, and you were adopted.”

Alinah gasped, her hazel eyes widened, she gripped the bed tightly to prevent herself from toppling over, but did not interrupt.

“But most importantly, you are Jewish.” Miranda would not meet her once-so-called-daughter’s eyes.

“I-I…” Alinah-or Sarah- stuttered, at a loss for words.

“I am truly sorry to have lied to you all these years, I truly am,” a single tear dripped onto the bed linen.

But Sarah wasn’t listening, her head was buzzing with all of this new information. Jewish? How could she, a duchess’s daughter, be Jewish?! When she had been younger, her, together with her sister Jennifer who was two years younger then her, had teased the Jewish daughter of one of her sister’s maids. Guilt tore at her heart, how could she have been so cruel? To tease a girl because of her religion.

“You-you lied to me for 24 years! How could you do that to me?!” Alinah asked, feeling extremely betrayed.

“I’m terribly sorry darling! But I have not lied to you for 24 years; we adopted you only 23 years ago, when you were 1 year old. Ask your father - I mean - Enir to explain the details; I am too tired to do so now.”

Alinah nodded and stood up to go, her whole body was shaking.

“Please call Jennifer in so that I may talk to her,” Miranda called after her retreating back.