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‘Oh. That kind of nose-powdering?’
‘Yes, Sir.’
‘Fine!’ he snapped. Motioning with his hand to the door of his private bathroom, he gave me a curt nod. ‘Go. But be quick about it!’
‘I shall do my very best, Sir,’ I answered sardonically.
The rest of the day continued pretty much the same. About mid-day, when he had sent me into the file section to retrieve a box, I devoured a sandwich I had brought with me for lunch. It wasn’t much, but it kept me going until the sun finally began to sink and the moment was approaching when I could finally stop this torture and go home
The moment arrived and went away. Mr Ambrose gave no indication of wanting to stop. I heard Mr Stone outside in the hall pack up and leave, but Mr Ambrose stayed behind his desk, shooting orders at me in rapid succession.
The storm clouds of my temper rumbled dangerously. He had no right to do this! I had worked the whole day, in fact three hours longer than I was supposed to, and he was still making me work overtime for no reason.
Well, that wasn’t exactly true. He had a reason: wanting to get rid of me. It just wasn’t a very nice one.
Finally, when, over an hour after Mr Stone had left, he still showed no sign of wanting to leave, I snapped. Marching up to his desk, I dumped the last box of files onto it with an earth-shattering thump.
‘This isn’t going to work, you know!’ I announced, glaring at him in defiance. ‘No matter how much work you heap on me, you can’t make me quit!’
He looked up, regarding my angry face over the top of the box.
‘Yes, I can see that.’
‘So are you going to give up?’ I demanded.
His eyes glittered dangerously. Rising from his armchair, he slowly leant forward until our faces were only inches apart, and his dark, sea-coloured eyes became pools beckoning me to drown myself in them.
‘Give up?’ he breathed. ‘Hardly. I shall simply have to find another method to… persuade you.’
*~*~**~*~*
When I finally left the office, I still had goose bumps all over my body.
Another method to persuade me… to persuade me to leave… I wondered what that might be. Whatever he was thinking of, I wasn’t looking forward to it - not after he said it in that tone of voice.
Really? You little liar!
I told myself most firmly to shut the hell up! At the moment I was just too tired to think much about it or anything else for that matter. I only wanted a nice, soft bed after a long day at work. Still, I had to go through the cumbersome process of changing clothes before I could approach the front of the house. Sighing, I finally stepped through the front door, wishing I were already upstairs.
‘Lilly!’
My head whipped around to see my aunt standing right beside me. She had to have been waiting there, behind the door, ready to pounce on me the moment I came in.
‘Where were you?’ she demanded, her eyes glittering dangerously. ‘You’ve been gone the whole day!’
Ah, so she had finally caught on to my frequent day-long absences, had she? Amazing what caring surrogate parent she was: it had only taken her a couple of weeks.
Lucky for me, I had a plan ready.
I winked. ‘You remember the gentleman from the ball the other day?’
Her frown lifted a bit. ‘You mean…’
‘I won’t name names of course,’ I said, hoping fervently she wouldn’t make me, because I didn’t have any. ‘But you know… I’ve been seeing a little more of him recently.’
‘Oh.’ Her eyes went wide. ‘Oh, if that’s the case…’
She smiled. She actually smiled. ‘Good girl! Now, off to bed with you!’
