Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Jacinta House: Book One in the Silver-Armed King Series
    Jacinta House: Book One in the Silver-Armed King Series
    Jacinta House: Book One in the Silver-Armed King Series
    Ebook128 pages2 hours

    Jacinta House: Book One in the Silver-Armed King Series

    By Russell Bowman

    3/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    The story begins in Greater Manchester. Mike Willis is an ordinary young man who works in a café, but one day he is approached by a strange old woman named Iris, who claims to know him. She gives him a small golden ornament in the shape of a pyramid, claiming it once belonged to his grandfather, Jeremy Willis. Returning home to his flat, Mike is contacted by a solicitor, who informs him that his grandfather has recently passed away from lung cancer. At the funeral a few days later, a woman named Suzanne Noble gives Mike a copy of Jeremy’s last will and testament, which details Mike’s inheritance: twenty-five per cent shares in Jeremy’s business, a bed and breakfast hotel in the Lake District named ‘Jacinta House’.
    The will requests that Mike is to stay in Jacinta House for one week before officially claiming the shares, so a few weeks after the funeral he travels up to the Lake District with his two friends: Charlie Straczinski, his lazy and vulgar flatmate, and Raquel Peterson, Charlie’s ditzy and self-obsessed girlfriend.
    Once they arrive at Jacinta House, Mike and his friends meet the staff: shrewd landlady Suzanne Noble, bumbling chef Joe Thompson, and overly-optimistic housekeeper Victor Maathai. The stay starts off uneventful, but one day while walking his dog in the woods outside the house, Charlie finds a strange, bat-like creature, which runs off deep into the woods. That evening, during dinner, Mike and Charlie discover the creature in the house’s patio garden, only this time accompanied by dozens more of its kind. The horde barges in and attacks the house, and while Joe and Victor fend them off Suzanne explains to Mike and his friends that the vicious little monsters are called ‘kobolds’. A kobold finds its way into the house and severely wounds Mike, but without warning Suzanne transforms into a panther-like creature and defends him from the kobold.
    The next morning, waking up after falling unconscious, Mike is greeted by Victor, who gives him a healing potion and reveals he is in fact a sorcerer. He explains fantastical beasts and beings from myth and legend really do exist, and Suzanne is a werecat, but kobolds are not native to the Lake District and this type of attack has never happened before. Feeling a responsibility for Jacinta House and its staff, Mike agrees to stay and help investigate where the kobolds came from, but requests Charlie and Raquel be taken home. Later that day, Victor sets off with Charlie and Raquel back to Manchester, but along the way they are ambushed and abducted by more monsters, a clan of demonic ‘oni’. They are held hostage by a shadowy, nefarious figure named Dr McAllister, who controls the actions of both the oni and kobolds and is driven by hatred towards Jeremy Willis. As Mike and Suzanne plan to leave for a safer location, Dr McAllister leads the monsters in an assault on Jacinta House. Despite Mike and the staff’s best efforts to defend themselves, McAllister succeeds in setting the house on fire with Mike, Charlie and Raquel trapped inside. However, they are saved at the last second by Iris’ little golden pyramid, which expands into an almost indestructible suit of golden armour with a mind of its own. Encasing Mike within it, the armour fends off McAllister and the monsters with strong light magic. Once the danger is averted, a team from the Norman Price Foundation, a secret organisation which handles sorcery and mythical beasts, arrives to aid Mike, his friends and the Jacinta House staff.
    The next day, Mike and his friends are taken back to Manchester by a Norman Price member named Abby Halloran, who reveals she has been assigned to be their temporary bodyguard, to protect them from any potential monster attacks in the future. On the drive back, Mike finds a tiny piece of the armour in his pocket, which expands into a gauntlet over his hand.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRussell Bowman
    Release dateAug 3, 2014
    Jacinta House: Book One in the Silver-Armed King Series

    Related to Jacinta House

    Related ebooks

    Fantasy For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Sisters and DAUGHTERS

      Jan 23, 2024

      Sisters and DAUGHTERS
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Inheritance

      Nov 4, 2021

      The Inheritance
      6 min read

    • Article

      Decisions, Decisions

      Aug 27, 2020

      Decisions, Decisions
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Scarlet PEBBLE

      Feb 28, 2024

      The Scarlet PEBBLE
      9 min read

    • Article

      LOVE Is The Word

      Jan 3, 2023

      LOVE Is The Word
      6 min read

    • Article

      Life After Death

      May 27, 2022

      Life After Death
      14 min read

    • Article

      The plot THICKENS

      Aug 3, 2022

      The plot THICKENS
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Fortune Teller

      Jul 10, 2021

      My head has a liquid feel to it as I stumble down the street. The bottle of red wine in my belly making it seem like my limbs have become balloons, and at any moment they might float away. Next to me, Michael has a stupid whiskey grin stretched acros

      18 min read

    • Article

      All Of Us Here

      Jun 4, 2020

      All Of Us Here
      6 min read

    • Article

      Sisters and DAUGHTERS

      May 5, 2021

      Sisters and DAUGHTERS
      6 min read

    • Article

      Deadly DAVID

      Feb 23, 2022

      Deadly DAVID
      3 min read

    • Article

      Getaway Driver

      Feb 10, 2022

      Getaway Driver
      11 min read

    • Article

      The Book Lover

      Jun 29, 2021

      The Book Lover
      6 min read

    • Article

      Last Love

      Dec 8, 2023

      Last Love
      13 min read

    • Article

      Secrets and LIES

      Mar 17, 2021

      Secrets and LIES
      6 min read

    • Article

      Little House

      Jun 5, 2023

      On Monday nights our mother made popcorn and served it to us in mugs with milk poured over. My younger sister and I carried our mugs into the family room and ate the popcorn with spoons, like cereal. We were five and seven. Until we were allowed to s

      21 min read

    • Article

      The Leather Coat

      Apr 4, 2024

      The Leather Coat
      6 min read

    • Article

      Lockdown

      Aug 31, 2020

      You keep a secret safe, wrapped up in the back of a drawer in your mind, all tied up in metaphorical ribbon and string, for 14 years. And in the space of three days, it unravels. How did that happen? I’ll tell you how. I was up a ladder, that’s how.

      5 min read

    • Article

      Six Dart Out

      Sep 10, 2023

      Marc figured the girl was a vegan. Her puke had overflowed the sink and run onto the floor—tomatoes and rice marinated in microbrew lager. He’d told Vegan Girl to slow down, but her friends had won the turning-21-peer-pressure battle. Admittedly, Mar

      9 min read

    • Article

      Everything MUST GO

      Apr 17, 2024

      Everything MUST GO
      6 min read

    • Article

      Funny Foto

      May 20, 2020

      Funny Foto
      3 min read

    • Article

      BLOWN IN With The Wind

      Dec 29, 2021

      BLOWN IN With The Wind
      3 min read

    • Article

      Writing Family History

      Dec 15, 2021

      Writing Family History
      5 min read

    • Article

      Happy Endings

      Sep 1, 2023

      Happy Endings
      5 min read

    • Article

      POISON ON Pink Paper

      Jan 2, 2020

      POISON ON Pink Paper
      8 min read

    • Article

      Best Of The Best

      Oct 29, 2022

      Best Of The Best
      8 min read

    • Article

      How To Defend Against Vikings

      Aug 5, 2021

      How To Defend Against Vikings
      7 min read

    • Article

      Just The Way YOU ARE

      Feb 7, 2023

      Just The Way YOU ARE
      9 min read

    • Article

      The Shortest Day

      Oct 13, 2017

      The Shortest Day
      10 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Jacinta House

    3/5

    1 rating0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Jacinta House - Russell Bowman

      Jacinta House – Book one in the Silver-Armed King Series

      Russell Bowman

      Smashwords Edition

      Copyright Russell Bowman 2014

      All characters and events in this book are purely fictitious, and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

      This book is dedicated to the Whitehaven Writers; Gill, Ruth, Dorothy, Mike, Pam, Doreen, and especially Susan, for all their support, encouragement and advice.

      Table of Contents

      Chapter One

      Chapter Two

      Chapter Three

      Chapter Four

      Chapter Five

      Chapter Six

      Chapter Seven

      Chapter Eight

      Chapter Nine

      Chapter Ten

      Chapter Eleven

      Chapter Twelve

      Chapter Thirteen

      Chapter Fourteen

      Chapter Fifteen

      Chapter Sixteen

      Chapter Seventeen

      Chapter Eighteen

      Chapter One

      ‘Let’s see…a nine-letter word for ‘fight back’…includes R, T, I and E…. I’d just say fight back. That has nine letters…’

      Mike never quite understood where his love of crossword puzzles came from; he knew he wasn’t really good at them, and most of the time he left them unfinished, but for some reason he found them relaxing, and they helped kill time on long days when few people came into the café where he worked.

      It was mid-afternoon and Mike was due to finish his shift in just under an hour. There were only two customers in the café, a woman reading a magazine while sipping her cappuccino, and a man in a high-visibility jacket eating a bacon roll. The scent of chip fat from the fryer lingered in the air and the music playing on the stereo almost drowned out the voices of Cheryl and Becky, who were by the back door on a cigarette break. Much to Mike’s delight, everything was quiet and peaceful.

      The bell above the front door made a light jingle. Mike looked up and saw an old woman in a thick green coat approaching the counter, supporting herself on a walking stick. He shoved his newspaper under the counter and stood up to greet her.

      ‘Yes dear?’ he asked with the welcoming smile he’d been practising for months.

      ‘Pot of Earl Grey please,’ the woman answered, laying a crumpled five-pound note on the counter. Mike put the transaction through the till and put a metal tea pot under the nozzle of the hot water dispenser. ‘Won’t be long,’ he smiled.

      ‘Also,’ the woman said, ‘if you don’t mind me asking, by any chance is your name Mike Willis?’

      At first Mike was surprised that this person knew his name; so he stood back and gave her an uncertain look. ‘Yeah, that’s right,’ he said.

      ‘I thought I recognised you,’ she replied, ‘you’re Jeremy’s grandson. The last time I saw you, you were only about seven or eight. My name’s Iris, do you remember me?’

      ‘Err, no not really, sorry,’ Mike answered, shaking his head. His memories of his grandfather were rather limited, he hadn’t seen or heard from him in nearly fifteen years, and he certainly had no memory whatsoever of this woman.

      ‘I want to give you something,’ Iris continued, reaching into her coat pocket. She presented a shiny golden ornament in the shape of a pyramid and about the size of a hen’s egg.

      ‘It was your granddad’s,’ she explained, ‘it’s not real gold but you can have it for good luck.’

      While Mike was cautious, he thought it best not to decline in case Iris took offence, so he said ‘Okay then,’ and placed the pyramid next to the till. Turning on the hot water dispenser, which hissed and let out a cloud of steam, he continued, ‘If you sit down I’ll bring your tea over to your table.’

      Satisfied, Iris said, ‘Thank you very much,’ and turning to a nearby table found a seat.

      Mike spent most of the bus ride home examining the little pyramid, trying to decide if it had any possible value. It certainly looked expensive; there were no scratches or imperfections and he could see his reflection clearly in it.

      ‘I suppose I could get a fair bit for it on Ebay,’ he thought, ‘but granddad might come looking for it one day, so I should probably hold on to it. I wonder if those cash for gold places take things like this? I’d have to find out what kind of metal it’s made of first, if it even is metal.’

      The bus jostled back and forth, grumbling and whirring as it lumbered along its route, with a screaming baby in a pram and a group of loud teenagers adding to the noise. It usually took between twenty minutes to half an hour for it to reach the street Mike lived on, often a lot longer due to the heavy Manchester traffic. When the bus eventually reached his stop, Mike hurried to the exit, edging his way past a pram and saying ‘Cheers mate’ to the driver as he jumped off. He walked swiftly the entrance of his flat block, being careful not to bump into any passers-by. A young woman with red hair stood by the block’s entrance holding a blue plastic bucket with the words ‘NORMAN PRICE FOUNDATION’ and the image of a gorilla printed on it.

      ‘Gorillas in the Congo,’ she said in a thick Northern Irish accent, sounding rather disinterested. Mike put a fifty pence coin in the bucket without speaking.

      ‘God bless fella,’ she said, ‘watch out for fomorians.’ Not understanding what this meant, he took no notice.

      A six-storey ride in the lift later, Mike was back at his flat, and as he opened the door he was greeted with the scent of stale lager and day-old beef vindaloo. A mound of letters lay on the floor, all of which were probably either bills or junk mail, so rather than look at any of them he carelessly kicked them out of his way. Taking a quick look in the kitchen, he found a huge pile of dirty dishes in the sink and plates of half-eaten leftovers on the worktop. Charlie – his flatmate – had once again left all the washing up for him to do.

      The first thing he saw as he entered the lounge was Charlie and his girlfriend Raquel, both dressed in nothing but their underwear, sleeping stretched out on the sofa in the midst of several crushed cans of lager, dirty dishes and clothes littering the floor. This wouldn’t have bothered Mike if it wasn’t exactly how he had left them at a quarter to ten that morning. It didn’t even bother him that Charlie and Raquel were both half-naked, it was nothing he hadn’t seen before. It was typical of Charlie to sleep during the day, then get drunk and lounge around in the evening.

      ‘Charlie!’ Mike shouted. They stirred, and Raquel let out a long yawn.

      ‘What the hell, Mike?’ Charlie asked groggily, stretching out one of his arms.

      ‘How long have you been asleep?’ Mike asked, despite having a good idea as to what the answer may be.

      ‘Err, I don’t know, since about twelve. I got up at half one to…’

      ‘Well it’s twenty to six in the afternoon now,’ Mike interrupted, and this seemed to surprise Charlie so much that he fell off the sofa and hit his head on the coffee table.

      ‘Shit!’ he shouted.

      ‘You okay babes?’ Raquel asked with no clear hint of concern in her voice. Charlie didn’t answer, instead scrambling to his feet, clutching his head and sitting down on one of the armchairs.

      ‘I’ll take that as a yes,’ she muttered, sitting up and covering herself with a dressing gown that hung over the sofa. ‘I could murder a cuppa.’

      ‘Then make it yourself,’ Mike replied, kicking off his shoes, slumping down on the other armchair and putting his feet up on the coffee table. ‘I’ve made twenty-odd cups of tea and coffee today.’

      ‘Fair enough’, Raquel shrugged as she got up from the sofa and went into the kitchen, brushing back her long, strawberry blonde hair. ‘I’ll do these dishes as well while I’m here,’ she shouted through, ‘There’s a bloody pile of them, looks like they haven’t been done in weeks!’

      Mike opened his newspaper and returned to the puzzle page. ‘Dare I ask where the dog is?’ he asked Charlie, ‘because I’m guessing you haven’t walked her like I told you to.’

      ‘Fat Steve’s got her,’ Charlie answered, picking up an uncrushed can of Fosters from the floor and taking a sip from it. ‘That’s why I got up at half one, she was scampering about the place so I rang Steve and asked him to take her out for the day.’

      ‘Which you could’ve easily done yourself. We were lucky to find a landlord who allows pets Charlie, so what’s the point in you having a dog if you won’t look after her properly? And besides, you’re entrusting Fat Steve with our dog after what he did to that cow?’

      ‘Christ, you’re in a mood today.’

      Suddenly, the phone rang. ‘That’ll be Steve now,’ Charlie said. Mike went to the phone and answered, ‘Hello?’

      A shrewd, upper-class-sounding voice responded, ‘Good afternoon, is it possible to speak with Mr Michael Willis?’

      ‘Yes, speaking,’ Mike said, expecting the caller to attempt to sell him payment protection insurance or ask for his bank account details.

      ‘My name is Edward Clark from Olstrom and Son’s Solicitors,’ the voice answered. ‘Regrettably, I’m calling to inform you, if you weren’t already aware of it, that your grandfather Dr Jeremy Willis passed away yesterday evening. I am deeply sorry.’

      Mike gasped quietly, then said, ‘Oh err, I didn’t really know him that well. How did he die?’

      ‘Sadly your grandfather suffered from lung cancer and was in ill health

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1