The Storm in His Silence

Reunited

Dedicated to RobThier

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Ambrose POV

'Hello, darling...' If I was not a gentleman I would have surely told Miss Fotheringay her fortune by now. She was rather persistent and shamefully witless. The more I ignored her the more she seemed to want to engage with me.

'How are we this evening? Do we feel a little better?'

I could not stand to look this thing in the face. Nevermind waste time replying to her incessant idle chatter. To make matters more distasteful she kept saying 'we' or 'us'. I had absolutely no desire to tie myself up with this abominable creature.

It had been exactly 0 minutes and 28 Seconds before she said something of remote interest to me. Someone was here to see me. Do not get me wrong, I was still utterly bored, just infinitesimally less bored. Perhaps Karim finally had the sense to track me down. I needed to escape this house of horrors. Knowledge is power is time is money of course. No, wait, she had said it was a young woman who came to see me. Miss Fotheringay seemed reluctant to let the person see me. Looking at her for the first time that day I sent her an icy glare in affirmation of my disapproval of her.

A few moments later I heard her say, 'He wants to see you.' as she hurridly and defeatedly exited the room. Hah! That should get rid of her for some time.

I looked to the wall once more. It had a ghastly flowered wallpaper plastered to it. I could feel a light presence enter the room. It failed to address me first. 'Whoever you are,' I said still staring at the wall, I had no intentions of wasting time looking at an unimportant stanger, 'get on with what you've come here for and get out. I have no patience for time-wasters.'

"It's you!"

I felt a chill vibrate all the way down my spine. That voice. That beautifully angelic voice. It cannot be! I had not heard that voice since the ship wreckage. I dared not move an inch. Never in my life have I cared to fear anything but at that moment, I feared that my ears were playing tricks on me. I feared that reality as it stood would cease to exist. That she would cease to exist.

'Mr Ambrose, Sir?'

There it was again, hesitant but urgent this time. Enticing me.

Get ahold of yourself, you are the powerful Rikkard Ambrose.

I quickly moved my head in the direction of the source of sound. I made sure not to stir any other part of my rigid body. My eyes deceived me though and widened at the sight of her. At the door, in all her glory, stood the lovely Miss Lillian Linton.

No, Mr Linton. This was merely a man under my employ.

Nevertheless, I could not deny that here Mr Linton stood, in a dress no less. The
femininity radiating off her like no other lady could posess. I was reminded of our last encounter on the ship. I did not want to regard her as a man, in fact, the very idea had me boiling with rage and laced with fear for her life. I needed her to act and appear as any young and respectable lady normally would. Her life depended on it. She was at an advantage and I was never one to let a perfectly good advantage go unused and thoroughly taken advantage of. The fact that in such a moment I could not imagine a world without her in it, was highly irrelevant of course.

However, my body seemed to not be in sync with my thoughts as it no longer regarded the pain shooting down my leg or the doctor's orders that I should relax. It only craved to be close to her, close to Lillian.

I sat up as straight as a rod in the bed. I swung my legs over the side of the bed and then stood up as rigid as humanly possible. The human body, much to my dismay, had it's limitations. Straightening out my 10 year mint condition tailcoat I advanced towards her. She flinched slightly at the abruptness of my movements, clearly surprised by the mere notion of my actions. I too was surprised by my actions, it was very unlike me.