Arthur was asleep when the banging started.
He registered it as noise first, the kind that the sleeping mind tried to fold into a dream and could not. He turned over. The banging continued. He pulled the pillow over his head.
However, it did not stop.
He sat up, genuinely annoyed.
The clock on his wall said twenty minutes before five in the morning.
He stared at it.
The banging again, hard and persistent, and then his butler's voice through the door saying his name with the specific urgency of someone who had already knocked many times and was now past courtesy.
Arthur got up.
He crossed to the door and pulled it open.
"How dare you wake me at this hour?" he said. "How should I deal with this discourtesy?"
