A Secret Ambition

III

"I know that somehow, every step I took since the moment I could walk was a step towards finding you." Nicholas Sparks, Message in a Bottle

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III.

Lily was taken to Brunswick Street, just as her uncle had arranged. Just as soon as the carriage had disappeared around the corner, Lily proceeded to make the journey that she had only ever before done in her imagination as she had studied a map of London.

While she prayed that she appeared calm and demure to the everyday Londoners she passed, she was certain that her rapid heartbeat could be heard by all. As she walked, Lily was certain that one of the men or women that she passed would suddenly tap her on the shoulder and tell her that she ought to go home to her father's house.

Or worse, Lily feared that she would bump into her father. She inspected every face that she walked past, and not at all inconspicuously. Lily received several odd glances as she checked the passing gentlemen for her father's features.

But as she approached the office of Callan McCarthy, Lily saw no such man. No matter how many strange glances she received, nobody stopped to tell her that she did not belong there.

There was no mistaking her new employer's office. The same seal that had been on the letter he had sent her was stamped onto the glass of his front door. Lily's hand shook as she raised her hand to knock, knowing that the minute she did, there was no turning back.

If she left now, Lily Bennett would simply be a memory for her, and a mystery for Mr McCarthy. She could actually find a harp tutor and learn the instrument for a few months. But Lily shook her head and swallowed her nerves.

Something deep down inside of her was telling her that she would always regret not taking this chance.

Lily tapped her knuckles against the glass pane of the door, and it rattled against her hand. The sound nearly made her jump as she quickly pulled her hand down to her side as she waited for the door to be answered.

At least two minutes passed without the door being answered, and so, Lily knocked again, a little more forcefully this time.

A sudden sound came from above her as she heard a window being raised open. A voice then shouted out into the street from inside. "Are you a bit thick, Fionn? Or have you forgotten how to use a bleedin' doorhandle?"

Lily's eyes widened as she heard the mocking tone from the man above her. He also spoke with a thick accent, and she could only assume that it meant the man was Irish. She had assumed by his name that Mr McCarthy hailed from Ireland, but it was another thing entirely to hear his voice. If that even was his voice.

Either way, Lily realised she was being called thick, and before she had even met her new employer. She recalled explicitly Mr McCarthy's intolerance for idiots and Lily anxiously opened the door before she even realised what she was doing.

Once inside, Lily quickly took in her surroundings. She immediately found herself in a front office space, one that reminded her much of her father's study at Ashwood, except it was far more disorganised. There was a desk that was littered with stacks of papers and documents, as well as plenty of empty teacups and dishes covered in crumbs.

There was a small dining table near a hearth that was littered in much the same way. A wall divided the room in two, though it was half glass, giving her a clear look as to what was beyond it. Another office sat behind the glass, and this one was just as untidy. Bookshelves were overflowing, and large maps hung on the wall.

Lily did not know where to look as a certain level of shock overcame her.

"Bring the scones upstairs, would you, Fionn? I'm starving!" called the man Lily presumed to be Mr McCarthy.