Stormy Hearts

Chapter 3

My eyes widened and my poor jaw dropped to the floor with a thud. My head started buzzing with his voice.

Marry me, Miss Linton

Marry me, Miss Linton

Marry me, Miss Linton

What did he just say? Did he really say what I heard? Did he really ask me to marry him. But he never asked anything, he always ordered. Was it also one of his orders?

No! No! Lilly. What are you thinking? He couldn't possibly utter the m-word. You must have heard wrong.

"I beg your pardon, Sir"

"You should know, Miss Linton. I don't like to repeat myself. I said" His voice didn't seem like his usual voice. There was a small hint of hesitation in his voice, just a very small hint which could go unnoticed by everyone but me.

"Marry me, Miss Linton."

I had hardly managed to place my jaw in its right place, when it dropped open again. "What?"

"You heard me, Miss Linton. Now don't expect me to repeat myself again. Because I won't."

That moment I realized that I hadn't heard wrong, nor had I been dreaming. Mr. Ambrose had really uttered the m- word. And he hadn't just uttered the word casually, he had really asked me to marry him.

Oh come on! Lilly. This can't be possible. This is impossible. Your stone faced and frozen hearted employer couldn't ask you to marry him. He has to be joking. He must have been joking.

I let out a laugh. Well, it wasn't my usual carefree laugh, I laughed out of nervousness. I tried my best to laugh at his horrible joke.

"Mr. Linton, why are you laughing? Have you lost your mind, eventually?"

"Sir, I never knew that you are capable of joking."

Mr. Ambrose slightly narrowed his eyes at that. "I'm capable of everything, Mr. Linton. But I assure you that I never waste my time doing superficial things like joking."

"You mean to say, that when you asked me to marry you, you weren't joking. This is really enough, Sir. Admit it, that you have fallen into a habit of joking."

"Do I look like I'm joking, Mr. Linton. When I asked you to marry me. I was extremely serious."

I looked up at my employer's hard, stony, blank face. How could I think that he was joking. No one could probably joke with that kind of serious face. Above all, it was Mr. Ambrose I was talking about. Mr. Rikkard Ambrose, who believes knowledge is power is time is money. I should have already known that Mr. Ambrose would never waste his precious time joking with me or anyone else.

"Really, Sir."

"Yes. really, Mr. Linton. If you don't marry me, I will challenge Dalgliesh to a duel."

He said it like, he already knew that I was going to refuse and was threatening me that I better said yes otherwise he would challenge Lord Dalgliesh to a duel.

How dare he think that he could trap me into this! Just because I cared about his well being, didn't mean that I would put up with this and do whatever he said. He was wrong if he thought, in this situation, when I needed his help, he could take advantage of my helplessness and force me to marry him.

But, why would he want to marry me? As far as I know Mr. Ambrose, if he wanted something most in his life then that is money. It's clear marrying me wouldn't bring him money.