JETHRO’S ACE OF HEARTS

a thirteen-part story, EXCLUSIVE to Trapped By Monsters

story (c) Sam Enthoven / illustrations (c) David Melling, 2009. All rights reserved.

(Click here for previous slices: First ; Second ; Third)

Fourth Slice

Mr Theophilus’ horse-drawn carriage was waiting some two hundred yards past the next corner, within sight of the all-night chemists. Perhaps Jethro just didn’t believe it was really there until the door was opened for him, but as he climbed into the soft red of the interior, and sank back into the velvet seats, one can assume he was quite impressed. Mr Theophilus touched the switch set into the wall below where I was sitting, and Jethro heard a hiss of compressed air.

‘Home, Sam,’ said Mr Theophilus into the speaking-trumpet, ‘and don’t spare the horses.’ Then he sank into the seat opposite our guest, smiling broadly.

Jethro seemed unable to hold his host’s gaze for long, so he looked out of the window. Past the heavy tassels on the curtains, which twitched lazily over each bump in the road, Jethro watched the passers-by for a reaction to the carriage.

Naturally, none came. Jethro must have noticed that no one ever seemed to be looking in the right direction: he clearly felt disappointed by this, for he raised a chubby hand and was on the point of waving to a passing group of girls, to see if this would elicit the proper appreciation for his mode of transport, when he heard a soft cough. Mr Theophilus was looking at him with eyebrows raised. Jethro let his hand drop back into his lap, and began to fidget. Presently, the carriage swung hard to the left, and the orange of the streetlamp-lit evening outside was abruptly swallowed.

‘Ah!’ said Mr Theophilus. ‘I believe we’ve arrived.’

-Click here for Slice Five-