"Send for the headmaster of the city watch! I need to speak with him this instant!" Kinsley roars to a servant, who quickly nods and rushes out of Kinsley's crowded office space, glad to be able to leave the household for a few hours.
Kinsley walks fervently back to his desk, leaning overtop of it and looking for his ink and quill so he can resume the letter he was halfway through writing. Much to his profound frustration, neither item was to be found. It always baffles him how these things went missing at the most crucial of moments.
The door to Kinsley's office creaks open, prompting him to snap up and face the door with a sour indignation. The opening of his office door is always prefaced by a light knock to ask permission of the entrant. To simply hear the door opening without his express consent is maddening.
"NOT NOW, DAMMIT!!!" Kinsley fumes.
Kinsley's white-hot rage is suddenly extinguished, wisps of silent dread coming from him as Darion Wilcox lets himself into the room.
"Sorry for the intrusion." Wilcox says coldly, not at all apologizing for the incursion.
"Ah, no...I mean- pardon me Sir." Kinsley stands up straight, rebuilding his calm, polite persona from the shambles it had fallen into over the past several minutes. "I wasn't expecting you."
"Yes, that was the intention." Wilcox walks up to Kinsley, who stands in place with a nervous rigidity.
"Sorry, but I'm in no position to host you at the moment." Kinsley says pensively, shifting about to put his urgency somewhere. "The Archman eluded us last night and his whereabouts are currently unknown-"
"Yes, yes, I've heard about everything." Wilcox interjects dismissively. There is clearly a pre-existing discontentment that he is harboring towards Kinsley, much to Kinsley's growing wariness. "Regardless, I have good news and bad news for you."
"Oh, is that so?" Kinsley says with a forced contentment.
"The good news is that you won't need to worry about dealing with the Archman anymore."
"...and the bad news?"
Wilcox reaches into a coat pocket and hands two sealed envelopes to Kinsley, who takes them with a reticent curiosity.
"What are these?" Kinsley asks restlessly.
Wilcox points to one of the envelopes. "That one is the court summons for your charge of forgery." He points to the other envelope. "And this one is your dishonorable discharge from the Royal Navy."
Kinsley's eyes widen with a stunned dismay. He can hardly grasp what is happening at this moment.
"I'll have someone come by to collect your badges within the hour. Good day." Wilcox turns and leaves with the same merciless sternness. "I'll see you at the hearing."
He closes the door behind him with a light but decisive slam, leaving Kinsley standing silently in his office, holding the two most devastating pieces of paper that he'd ever come across.
He couldn't believe what was happening. It felt like everything that he'd spent his entire life accruing was dissolving around him, leaving him completely bare and utterly devastated.
~
The midday sun reaches its zenith in the sky, obstructed only by the occasional cloud drifting overhead.
There is a constant bustling of human activity at the docks of the Pryce estate, as Fiona and Jacob's crew unload dozens of bags, crates, and other assorted containment devices from Adrulac's ship, handing them off to the Pryce family's servant staff. Each receptacle is filled with several pounds of solid gold, a few miscellaneous items of jewelry dispersed throughout the gilded contents.
YOU ARE READING
The Archman
عاطفيةWhile departing for London to meet with her fiancé, Eira Pryce finds herself taken captive by a living legend, the fabled pirate known only as the Archman. As it turns out, the fables may not have been so accurate in their portrayal of this mythic f...
