Sir Arthur

• Thirty-one

"It's been hours," Gerald frowned staring at the wall clock again. He had been home for almost two hours and there was no sign of his dear sister. Now that he checked the time accurately, three hours had now passed by.

He must have been distracted by Lily who had his mind occupied from the time he got home. He had seen the girls briefly in town yesterday and surprisingly Kimberly wasn't with them making him frown. They were too immersed in checking out some gowns that they hadn't spotted him.

"Faye?" He called out once he became anxious enough. He was actually supposed to be in the palace and had decided to briefly pass by.

"Where is Kimberly?" He asked sternly not buying the lies the girls had fed him alternating from the fact that she was sleeping to being unwell. Gerald questionably raised his eyes wanting the truth.

Lily and just left and when he could have easily coaxed her into replying, Faye was not one to lie. "She -" Faye shuffled her feet uneasily her voice in almost a whisper then continued, "I don't know," it was a matter of fact.

Ever since yesterday evening when Faye saw her rushing up to her room and locking herself in afterwards, she hadn't seen her afterwards. She had attempted severally with Lily to coax her out but it seemed as though she was determined on ignoring them.

At least she took the bowls of food that were left outside her room for the evening meal. Lily had gone to her room at the crack of dawn and to her surprise it was open but there was no one in there.

The bed was unmade meaning Kim had been there but everything else remained untouched. This alarmed her and after asking around the manor among the servants, one of them had revealed that they had seen her leave earlier.

Lily frowned at his words and decided to leave and find out why she was acting weird after last night. Unfortunately Gerald dropped by and despite the fact that she would have wanted to stay, she excused herself in going home leaving Faye to handle him.

Well, the situation was about to take a different course. "What?" Gerald asked back rising up from the couch. "Wasn't she here last night?" It was only mid-morning.

Faye opened her mouth to speak but Gerald continued, "Is it because of that man?" His eyes glinted as he turned around to divert his anger from a shaking Faye.

He had recently heard from a few scholars about a man who had been seen constantly with his sister though his identity wasn't clear.

If infuriated him that there were still men hovering around her when he'd made it clear he wanted none of them close to Kimberly. This man was testing his limits now.

"Name?" Faye tensed at his questioning wondering how he had found out. Though she had last seen Kim leave with Sir Arthur yesterday, it was highly unlikely that he was the one who had put her in such a sulky mood.

Kim tended to isolate herself when she felt frustrated with something. Faye had been peeking through the window with Lily last evening when the two came back and they'd been squealing at how close the two had gotten not until Kim came up the stairs with a teary face.

"Uh- Sir Arthur," Faye mumbled a reply to him. One thing she was sure was that he couldn't have hurt Kimberly. She clearly saw the concern he had for her. He was too modest for that.

"Which family is he from? I heard he's a knight." He ran his hand over his messy hair his thoughts spiralling all over. He had to hunt down this man and put sense into his head.

The doorbell rang and he checked the time. It was half past ten and they were needed back in the palace before noon. That had to be Sir Collins.

Faye rushed to answer not wanting to reveal any more details about Sir Arthur. Kim would have to deal with him later. She put on a friendly face as she pushed the door open.