‘Much less expensive than the hospital bill for running headlong into a stone wall in the dark, I assure you.’
He sounded as if he had made the experiment. We were still standing at the door. Neither of us seemed to know what to do, where to go next, now that we had reached our destination.
Suddenly, the floor gave a lurch and threw me to the side. I knew it! I knew that the floor out in the hallway would have been much nicer to me than the evil floor in here! The floor in here seemed to have it in for me, personally. It didn’t stop, but kept quaking underneath my feet, while Mr Ambrose seemed to have no problems whatsoever remaining upright. Quickly, he was at my side and had an arm around my waist. I could feel
his strong muscles brushing against me, pulling me close -
Then he stiffened.
‘Excuse me.’ His voice was oddly strained. ‘I shouldn’t be touching you like this. I only meant to… well, I’ll let go soon. Only let me help you to a chair.’
‘Don’t let go,’ I muttered, groggily. ‘Feels nice…’
And it did feel nice, having his arm around me. It wasn’t like we were the only ones doing it, either. Two yellow piggies on the other side of the room had their arms (or were those legs?) around each other.
‘Mister Linton… I…’
‘You can call me Lilly, if you want,’ I offered, not managing to keep a grin off my face. Funny. I didn’t usually smile this much. ‘But if you did, you’d admit I’m a girl, which you don't want. So maybe Victor? No, I have it!’ A giggle escaped me. ‘Call me Ifrit!’
I heard a strange noise. A noise I would have never expected to hear in this place. Was it really…? Was that a chuckle? From him? Had Mr Ambrose, Mr Rikkard Don’t-waste-time-with-idle-frivolities Ambrose actually laughed? Or had it been one of the yellow piggies?
‘My little Ifrit,’ he murmured almost inaudibly, tightening his grip around me. I could feel the reverberations of the chuckle through my whole body. It felt really nice, being held by him like this. I felt safe and warm and, for once, not at war with the rest of the world.
‘Yes, I’m an Ifrit,’ I confessed to him in a whisper. ‘You were quite right. I didn’t really believe you in the beginning, but now, well… you can see for yourself.’
‘See what?’ For some reason, he sounded confused.
‘Why, my huge fiery wings of course! Aren’t they beautiful? So sparkly and pretty.’
I pointed up to where my wings almost brushed the ceiling. They were a marvel to behold. It was nearly incomprehensible that I hadn’t noticed them before tonight. Maybe it was because I had never much been interested in how I looked before. But tonight, alone in this room with him, I was suddenly glad there was something undeniably beautiful about me, even if I remembered vaguely that a pair of huge fiery wings wasn’t exactly a traditional sign of female beauty.
‘Don’t you think they’re pretty, Sir?’ I sighed.
‘Um, well… yes, of course. Very pretty.’
He thought my wings were pretty! He actually thought my wings were pretty!
‘I should jump off the roof to see if I can fly with them,’ I suggested eagerly. ‘Wouldn’t you like to see me fly?’
Abruptly, his grip around my waist became tight as a vice.
‘Err… maybe not right now. You’re surely tired from being up the entire night. How about tomorrow, if you still feel like jumping off the roof then?’
I pouted. ‘But I want to do it now! It'll be fun!’
‘Personally, I’m not quite sure about that. Would you sleep on it? Please?’
There was that word again… that word that Mr Ambrose never used.
‘All right.’ Sighing contentedly, I wrapped my arms and also my huge fiery wings around him. The little piggies in the corner had started to dance tango. ‘I’ll do anything for you.’
‘Ehem… I am gratified to hear it. Now… how about sitting down?’
‘If you want…’
He led me to the middle of the room, to where the visitor chair stood in front of the desk. As I moved closer to the desk, the light of the lamp fell on me, and Mr Ambrose’s eyes widened.
‘Wait just a minute,’ he exclaimed. ‘Don’t sit down just yet. Your coat…’