Denial (Storm and Silence fanfiction)

A New Ally

Inexplicably relieved, I twirled around to face my favourite ice berg -- I mean, Mr. Ambrose, twisting my arm out of Lord Dalgliesh' tight grip in the process, but before an automatic 'Good evening, Mr. Ambrose, Sir!' could leave my mouth, Lord Dalgliesh spoke.

"The one where Miss Linton explains to me how the two of you are... connected."

Connected? Connected?! Was he... Was he insinuating what I thought he was?

Ha! Preposterous! As if Mr. Ambrose would even occupy himself with something as frivolous as a secretive affair -- especially with a gentry girl such as myself, who couldn't offer him any connections in return. I would have expected Lord Dalgliesh to know Mr. Ambrose better, what with their long-lasting animosity.

Mr. Ambrose' expression was, as always, set in stone. "Connected? I'm not sure I understand what you mean."

As Lord Dalgliesh moved around me to get in Mr. Ambrose' face, I decided to take my leave and hurried across the room towards a rather large door, which I'd spotted a servant coming out of earlier. I couldn't help a self-satisfied grin at feeling the cold gaze of my favourite iceberg freezing a hole in my skull.

Alright, so I knew he'd get the slips of his tailcoat in a knot over me leaving him, but he deserved it, didn't he?

Shouldn't have taken him so damn long to show up! I'd spent almost half an hour here on my own, and I'd come to help him! So what if he didn't actually ask me to do any helping? If he wasn't fully expecting me to show up here, that would make me seriously question his intelligence.

My dress swished against the corner I was rounding -- curse these hoop skirts! I kept forgetting how much space they took up. No, I much prefered my suits.

I lifted some of the fabric so it wouldn't bother me as much as I scaled the stairs to the first floor.

Of course, I knew that I was not supposed to be here, and it wasn't fine etiquette to go snooping around a more-or-less strange Lord's mansion, even I could figure as much out. I didn't even need Aunt Brank to tell me! Still, I wasn't about to let this chance slip. Who knew what I could find here?

Perhaps something I could blackmail Lord Dalgliesh with, or, even better, something I could impress Mr. Ambrose with!

Wait, what? I didn't want to impress Mr. Ambrose. Nope. I just... wanted to prove to him that I was useful to him so he wouldn't forget about me -- I mean -- so he'd definitely rehire me when this year was over and done with.

I'd gotten so caught up in my inner ramblings, I'd made my way to the far right end of the mansion, and now found myself in front of a pair of heavy, oak doors with gilded handles.

Raising my eyebrows, I gave the door a gentle, probing push. I felt it slightly give way, but it immediately fell closed again. With a little more strength, I pushed open the doors and squeezed myself through the gap.

Perhaps you should stop eating so much solid chocolate, Lily, my inner voice snarked.

I scoffed. It wasn't my behind at all! It was the dress! The impunity of my inner voice surprised even myself, and it was a part of me!

Slightly shaking my head, I took in the giant office. It was luxuriously decorated, with an enormous desk standing smack-dab in the middle with 2 comfortable-looking arm chairs in front of it and a nice, almost throne-like chair behind it. I smirked to myself thinking about dear Rikky's office, which didn't even have chairs for the visitors he barely got.

I walked over to the giant bookshelves covering one wall. Of course, Lord Daniel Dalgliesh didn't read any awesome adventure stories about brave heroines and far travels, I only saw books about economics, trade, and huge stacks of recent newspapers stacked neatly in between sections. I reached up to a red-bound book on the highest shelf I could reach, when someone pushed my hand away.