Ding!
Dong!
Blast, blast, blast! I'm going to be late! That bloody son of a bachelor is going to freeze me to death with his ice cold stare the minute I walk in and threaten to deduct my wages!
Ding!
Dong!
Determined to keep my pretty paycheck, I redoubled my efforts up the seemingly endless amount of stairs, my lungs feeling as if they were on fire. Perhaps you shouldn't have eaten all those chocolates yesterday... Shut up!
Ding!
Dong!
Ding!
The clock struck 7 just as I made it to the top floor. Thank God!
"Good...morning... Mr...Stone," I panted breathlessly.
"Mr. Linton! Good morning. Here are today's letters. Oh, and Mr. Ambrose says you should go straight to your office today," Mr. Stone said with a sympathetic smile on his face. How in the name of Queen Victoria is that man smiling this early in the morning?
"Thank you, Mr Stone," I said, grinning at him. I whistled as I made my way into my office, plopping the stack of letters onto my desk and taking a seat. I swung my feet up onto the wooden bureau, leaning back in my chair.
Ah, how good it felt to rest one's legs after walking up all those blasted stairs... if only there was an invention that could take you from the first floor all the way to the top at the push of a button!
Plink!
Jumping at the sound and nearly knocking myself over in the process, I turned to see a small slip of paper on my desk.
Mr. Linton,
Slide today's letters under the door once you have sorted them.
Rikkard Ambrose
I huffed at the note. So he's back to the good old pneumatic tube, is he?
"Good morning to you too, Sir!" I shouted. No reply. Hmph!
After sorting out all the charity letters and a certain pink scented envelope, I got up from my desk to slide the letters under the door. As I crouched near the door, I heard something strange.
It sounded like... coughing? Followed by a muffled sneeze. Strange. Mr. Ambrose never wastes time on useless bodily functions.
Shrugging, I pushed the letters under the door and went back to my desk. Opening the drawer that contained my secret stash of chocolates, I sat back and awaited my next instructions.
***********************
The bloody bastard had me running back and forth around the office all day! I was fetching different files left and right and rushing to slide them under the door. All the while, I had kept pestering my dear employer to explain why the door connecting our offices remained shut.
"Sir," I said in the most sugary sweet fairy-godmother voice possible. "I would like to inquire as to why the bloody hell your door is locked?"
Plink!
I rushed over to my desk to retrieve the slip of paper.
Mr. Linton,
Do not disturb me. I am busy.
Rikkard Ambrose
Hmph! Busy my arse! What could he possibly be doing? Maybe he was torturing someone, or haggling a tradesman. What a chauvinist! Just because I'm a woman, he thinks I'm too weak to handle "men's work". I'll show him!
The man was up to something, and I was going to get to the bottom of it!
*********************
As the day wore on, Mr. Ambrose demanded less and less files of me until the office was dead silent. This isn't right. Did he leave early? No... I didn't hear his door open. Plus, he would never waste time being inefficient by not working. For all I know, he probably calculates spreadsheets in his sleep!
"Mr. Ambrose? Are you there?" I called out.
Silence. But this time, not the kind of silence that I was used to. This was an empty silence, rather than Mr. Ambrose choosing not to waste his breath. What the heck?
I came to a decision.
I was going to break into his office. He wouldn't mind, would he? Since he hasn't ordained to answer any of my calls, I earned the bloody right to see what he was up to!
I dug through my pockets, tossing empty chocolate wrappers to the floor as I searched for my keys. Aha! I fumbled through the massive onset of keys, trying to figure out which one led to Mr. Ambrose's office.
"Nope, not this one, bloody hell... ah, here we go!" I found the old, rusty-looking master key and shoved it into the lock.
As I slowly pushed the door open, I gasped, taken aback at what I was seeing. It was something I had never seen before, nor I thought I would ever bear witness...
YOU ARE READING
Turning Tides
FanfictionRikkard Ambrose's first rule of thumb: trust no one. He learned this the hard way when he was forced out of his home and kicked out onto the streets when he was young. But now, he's in need of help. Is he willing to put aside his uptight ways and tr...
