Wondrous Master | boyxboy | (alternate happy ending)

IV - As Ordered by the Young Master

Two days later, Broderick was prepared to meet with Cordon Hynes. He'd just had his afternoon meal with Neville, and was to share words with Sir Hynes over a glass of wine. Everything was set in the gathering room for the meeting, and after a couple minutes, the Young Master welcomed Cordon Hynes into his home. He was a tall and skinny man with short greasy brown hair. He was dressed in a tailored dark blue suit with a checkered ascot, and wasn't too pleasant looking with his unnaturally coarse, light tanned skin and beady black eyes. "Sir Hynes," Broderick greeted, sitting down before the man could offer his hand. "Please, come sit."

"You are Stanley's middle born, yes?" Cordon said, taking a seat on a chair across the octagon table. "When I got the letter of summoning from Stanley's son, I was honestly expecting your elder brother."

"Well, it is not my brother. Shall we get started?"

"Is there a problem you wanted to discuss? I can assure you that I have done no wrong to your family."

Luna entered the gathering room with a bottle of white wine, and filled two tall glasses on the table before them. When she was done, the woman stood beside the Young Master to oversee the conversation. "It may be so that you have no quarrels with my family, Sir Hynes," Broderick started, "but I have discovered that you and my father have made an arrangement that has upset someone of high status." Flipping over the paper contract on the table, Broderick slid it towards the man, and took a swig of his wine. "You nor my father are under legal approval from Ronald Lancechester to use his land as you so please. The preparations you've made to begin whatever it is you wanted to use this land for, I suggest you bring them to a complete halt. This secret arrangement is over."

Cordon sat back, turning the wine glass in his hand after tasting the fineness of it. He was incredulous at the tone this boy of just sixteen was taking with him. "I'm sorry to say, boy, you do not have a say in what your father does with his signature. If it is the payment you wish to have on behalf of my usage, then I will gladly hand it over earlier than I was intending to. Other than that, I'm not terminating anything."

Broderick stood from his chair and took the contract into his hands. Crossing the room, he moved toward a lit candle burning a pleasant scent into the air. Raising the paper over the orange flame, Broderick let the paper catch, watching as the flames climbed until they nearly reached his fingers. When the heat warmed his hand, he dropped the crinkling wad to the floor and stepped on it. "How is that for a proper termination? I will be sending authorities to the plot in two days to make certain you are nowhere in sight and the given land is clear. If you continue any further, I can assure that you will be arrested, and Ronald Lancechester will handle you accordingly."

Sir Hynes stood angrily from his chair, "You cannot do this!"

"I clearly just did..."

The man turned red in the face, "I will be having a talk with your father when he returns. I'll have to tell him his son needs some strict discipline when it comes to his elders."

Broderick stared heatedly into Cordon and took a step forward. "Was that a threat, Sir Hynes?" He stomped forward and grabbed at the man's ascot, pulling him down to his level. "You may be my elder, but I am the one with the power to destroy you and everything you live for. So I will give you one last suggestion before you leave. If you want to keep your head on top of this body, you will not cross me or the Lancechester's ever again." The Young Master released the man with a forceful shove, making him trip over his feet and fall to his bottom. Then he scurried away.

It was almost like a repeat of the same scene when Ross Timber joined Broderick an hour later. The arguments, the insults on behalf of his age, but ultimately the result was just the same. The man's contract was terminated and he was escorted from the manor.