Dangerous Silence

Chapter 3

Dedicated to brokenbeauty133

Plink!

Plink!

Plink!

I shot another deathly glare at the hole of the pneumatic tube, but instead of shrivelling up on itself, it looked back at me defiantly, reminding me of another similar stone face of a miser, which I would have loved to bash in at that very moment!

Bloody hell! I swear, when this blasted man was going to open the door, that day would be his last! He had not let me sit down all day, not even for a second! Since the moment I had entered this room, I was continuously running in a circle, or to be precise, a triangle, from my desk , to the cabinet and to the blasted, locked door to push the file underneath it! That son of a bastard! I was almost feeling dizzy from the movement!

The number of glares and profanities I had thrown towards the door had only increased the rate at which he was demanding files, instead of creating a hole in the wood! The rate at which he was going, he must be sitting near the door to pick up the files from the floor, to make space for me to push in another ones! And did I mention he had locked the door to prevent me from barging in his office and asking about the contents of the file?

Perhaps he had thought that making me run around in this dizzying motion would prevent me from asking about the missing file, then he was wrong, very wrong! I had not given up, not yet! I had already decided that I would demand answers from him as soon as he stopped this devilish slavery. Or, as I realised a few minutes later, after I had taken a well deserved rest, perhaps...

Oh, to hell with his files! If he needs so many of them, that too at once, then he can darn very well walk to the cabinet and take them himself! After all, his very tired private slave/ secretary was taking a break, whether he liked it or not!Even my stiff wooden chair looked so comfortable and cosy, that I soon collapsed upon it, ignoring the continuous plink sounds coming from the tube and the growing heap of messages on the table. Truly, ignorance was bliss!

It was in these times of exhaustion, when I longed the most for my secret stash of chocolates, but it did not help the fact that I stayed up all last night watching my dearest sister and the neighbour repeatedly proclaim their love for each other with gooey eyes and a near permanant smile plastered on their faces, and gone through my remaining chocolates. Speaking of solid chocolate, how I would have loved to have one piece right now...

"Mr. Linton!"

"Mr. Linton!"

Sighing, I opened my eyes slowly to adjust to the brightness as they fell on the familiar shape of my granite headed employee, leaning down towards my figure sprawled on the chair and desk. A smile played on my lips at the mental image of me running after Mr. Ambrose, who was holding the last bit of my precious solid chocolate, in the most delicious, chocolatiest dream of mine.

"What?" I snapped at the cold miser, while I imagined a small, rather, the tiniest bit of concern in his eyes, which was replaced by the familiar cold look at my rather annoyed reply. What, didn't a respectable lady like me, dressed in a man's clothing and worked to death by her employer deserve to have the last piece of solid chocolate to herself, without having to run after her quite tall and bloody fast employer to get it?

"Respect, Mr. Linton."

"Fine, what do you want, sir?" This was getting too old now. Couldn't he go away now and return in, say, another century? I wanted to sleep.

"I do not pay you for sleeping during working hours, Mr. Linton. The time you have wasted taking a nap will be deducted from your wages. And why were you not answering any of my messages?" He gave me another of his choicest glares, and I suppressed a huge yawn of mine. Men! Do I need to add anything else?

"It could definitely not be so because I was taking a small nap, could it now? I think it considerably improves the working effeciency of tired employees, Mr. Ambrose. You should try it out sometime."

His little finger twitched at my response and my lips involuntary gave way to a small smile. Annoying him was certainly a very reliable, as well as rewarding hobby of mine, after all.

"I would never waste time in such useless activities. I also do not pay you for your impudent and impertinant responses, so pick up yourself from the desk and get me those files. Now." He ordered me in his usual ice cold voice, his eyes flashing with promises of brutal punishments, and perhaps a trip to the riverbeds of the Thames. He had turned and almost reached the door connecting his office to mine, when I remembered.

"Wait!"

The file! Of course! I had almost forgotten! I rubbed the remaining sleep out of my eyes and caught up to the frozen figure at the door.

"You never told me what was in that missing file of yours. Did you find it?"

Silence. Deathly cold silence.

"Well? What is in it?"

More of silence. Even more frigid than the previous one. What a surprise. Really.

"Mr.Ambrose, do not simply stand there and waste time, instead of answering me! After all, time is money is knowledge is power." He gave me a furious look which could have easily frozen solid an entire volcano. I swallowed the lump in my throat and added a small "Sir." to it, but to no avail.

What happened next was a replay of this morning's action, only at nearly twice the speed, and adding a buttload of arctic silence and deathly glares. Needless to say, the infuriatingly blasted, silent iceberg of my employer had, quite effectively, hammered into my mind that the idea of taking a small, healthy nap at work, was absolutely horrendous and would be dealt with absolutely torturous measures if caught.

That night I went to bed, sore and aching all over and with the thoughts of the contents of a blasted file, afternoon naps and a certain hard headed employer of mine, tossing and turning in my bed, till exhaustion took over.

The next day, the invitation for Lord Dalgliesh's ball came.