Truth and Beauty 2-4

First Post|Previous Post|Next Post

With one yank Jack pulled the man up to a standing position. “Let me help you- oops,” he bent over to pick up the man’s bags and stumbled, falling down onto the platform. “Ha ha,” he said,” now I am on the ground and you are standing! We could be a circus act! But come,” he said, standing up again, “twice I have knocked you over now, may I buy you a drink, or something to eat?”

Stephen took his time gathering his parcels. Pride has its places, he eventually told himself, but perhaps this is not one of them. “I have rather a full schedule this evening,” he heard himself say, “but perhaps I have a few minutes.”

“Excellent!” said Jack. “My inn is just around the corner.”

At Jack’s inn they checked Stephen’s parcels. “Congratulations on your promotion, Lieutenant,” said the porter, a retired navy man who recognized Jack’s new epaulettes at once. “The swabs look good on you. But there’s a gentleman been asking for you, sir, another lieutenant. He said he’d wait in the bar. And this express came for you.”

“Excellent!” said Jack, taking the envelope, which could only contain his orders, and discharging a silver coin into the porter’s hand. “We are bound for the bar ourselves, bound for the bar to wet the swabs. Come, sir,” he said to Stephen, “right this way.”

In the bar they immediately ran into Jevons. “Jack!” said Jevons, “I’ve been trying to call you. Did you get my texts? I’ve been superseded, moved over to the Fury, who needs a jobbing captain.”

“Have you, by God!” said Jack, pulling out a chair at a free table. “Well that puts you back in the Navy. Jevons, this is - I’m afraid I don’t know your name, sir,” he said to Stephen.

First Post|Previous Post|Next Post