And he knew that. He had found the one crack in my armour I had not been able to patch up: keeping my work secret from my family. I couldn’t disappear without explanation again - not if I wanted to have a home to return to. And if I tried to tell them why I had to go? That I was planning to go on a trip to Africa, dressed up as a man, to earn a living for myself? Ha! My aunt wouldn’t just throw me out of the house - she’d throw me into a loony bin!
I glared at Rikkard Ambrose’s cool, composed, stone face, suspicion burning in my gaze.
Does he have to go to Egypt at all? Or is it all just a trick to get rid of me?
Did it really matter? Either way, I was trapped.
Taking his pocket watch out of his tailcoat, Mr Ambrose let it snap open.
‘Ten pm,’ he announced. ‘Apparently, it is time for you to get yourself home, Mr Linton. Your work is over for today.’ Snapping it shut again, he stashed the watch away. ‘In fact, your work here is over, period.’
‘You… you…’ I tried to think of something bad enough to scream at him, but I wasn’t sufficiently well-versed in profanity. So I just glared up at his cool, chiselled, damnably perfect features.
‘I shall expect your resignation on my desk tomorrow, or by the latest when I return from Egypt,’ he told me, turning away and settling down at his desk again. Without even glancing at me, he resumed his paperwork. ‘You may go, Mr Linton. Goodbye. I expect we shall not see each other again.’
Without a word, I whirled around and marched out of his office.
Well, I thought grimly to myself, we’ll just see about that, won’t we?
The Nice Ocean
He was standing near the water at St Katherine’s Docks, looking out over the River Thames. The wind that was blowing grey, stormy clouds across the sky also gripped his black tailcoat and made it flutter around him like bat’s wings. With his arms folded, glaring at the wide water as if he meant to conquer the river and all the oceans beyond, he looked like a darker version of Admiral Nelson, just before his triumph at Trafalgar.
It almost seemed a shame to ruin such a pretty pose. Almost.
I tapped him on the shoulder.
‘Good afternoon, Sir.’
Mr Ambrose whirled around so fast he nearly knocked me over. His dark eyes were wide and, for once, I had the sublime satisfaction of seeing his mouth open with surprise. He had pretty nice teeth, incidentally. He should open his mouth more often.
‘You… you…’
‘Me.’ I nodded and gave my best imitation of a salute. ‘Mr Linton reporting for duty, Sir! Packed and ready to depart!’
‘You can’t be here!’
‘Actually, I can. As far as I know, my presence at this particular spot does not violate any laws of physics or any moral standards. Besides, you told me to be here, didn’t you?’
Slowly, his mouth slid shut until his teeth were hidden again, and his lips pressed into the usual thin line. To judge from the noises he was making, those nice teeth were being gritted. Poor darlings.
‘Yes,’ he informed me, keeping a tight leash on his voice. ‘That does not mean, however, that I actually expected you to make an appearance.’
One of my eyebrows rose. ‘What? You expected me to disobey you? Whyever would you think I would do something like that?’
More grinding noises. Dear, dear, those poor teeth…
‘I thought, Mr Linton, that you mentioned th
ere would be some slight difficulties regarding your accompanying me on this trip. Difficulties in respect to your family, if I remember correctly.’
‘Oh, you mean my aunt?’ I waved a dismissive hand. ‘That was easy to take care of, once I gave it a little thought. I just told her that I would be visiting my grandmother in Northumberland to go man-hunting among the Northerners. The prospect of having me more than a hundred miles away combined with the possibility of my coming back with a husband or not coming back at all, soon won her over to the idea.’
His dark eyes sparkled, raking over me, then sweeping from left to right - looking for a solution, no doubt. A way out of this.
‘And what will your grandmother in Northumberland say when you do not arrive?’
‘Nothing. She doesn’t know I’m supposed to visit her.’