‘I don’t know.’ Please don’t let it be what I think it is. Please! ‘Here.’ Reaching for a carafe of water on the nightstand, I brought it to her lips.
‘But it would just come up again!’
‘Trust me. If my suspicions are correct, you’ll need it. And if they aren’t…well, then at least the flowers will have been watered.’
‘Has anyone ever told you have a wonderful bedside manner?’
‘Why, thank you. Now, down the hatch, little sister.’
Obediently, she drank. About five minutes later, the flowers were getting a shower. Thus, it went on for most of the night. When, finally, Ella sank into an uneasy slumber, I was about ready to drop. Hardly able to move my limbs, I slunk over to my cot and sank onto the wonderfully, wonderfully soft mattress I would have been complaining about only a few hours earlier. My head had hardly touched the pillow when my eyes started to slide shut and sweet dreams began to enf—
Plink!
—bloody hell! What now?
Plink! Plink!
The window. Some numbskull son of a nitwit was throwing stones at the window in the middle of the night and robbing me of my last few hours of sleep! With steam clouds of rage practically coming from my ears, I marched over to the window. Oh, the tortures I would inflict upon the silly little brat who thought he’d try to amuse himself by playing a practical joke on me! I’d dunk him in fondue and roast him over an open fire! I’d drag him to the nearest boat and ship him to a desert island! I’d…I’d…well, I didn’t exactly know yet what I was going to do, but it was going to be something fabulously nasty!
Reaching the window, I wrenched it up and stuck my head outside. The cool night air only fanned the flames of my rage. Below, I saw something shift in the darkness.
‘You there!’ I hissed. ‘Yes, you, you miserable little pipsqueak! Have you got any idea what time it is, you little pest? Just you wait until I’m down there! I’ll give your backside a tanning so you won’t be able to sit down for a month!’
‘It would be interesting to see you try,’ came a cool, familiar voice from below.
I closed my mouth.
Oh.
Um.
‘Mr…Ambrose?’
‘Indeed. And my backside is currently unavailable.’
Heat rose to my face.
Heck, wait just a minute! Why was I feeling embarrassed? It was him that had some explaining to do.
‘What are you doing at my window? This is your bloody hotel! Don’t you know where the front door is?’
‘My knowle
dge of hotel-door placement is impeccable. However, since my introduction to your family has been postponed for the present time, I thought it prudent to use more circuitous methods of communication. How is she?’
I was tired. I was ready to drop. But in that moment, I forgot all my anger. He came to me, he woke me up, and the first thing he did was ask after my little sister. I could have kissed him.
‘I’m coming!’
‘Wait, Miss Linton! There’s a d—’
Thud!
‘Ouch! Grx!’
‘—itch under the window.’
Pushing myself into a sitting position, I groaned. ‘Thrice blasted architect!’