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Instantly, the man’s fingers flew to the buttons of his shirt. ‘I’mdoingitI’mdoingitpleasedon’tshoot!’
‘Stop!’
The ice voice from behind me said just one word. One word. But it was a commandment chiselled in stone. Mr Ambrose stepped up beside me, and the man’s hands froze.
‘I order you, don’t move another inch. Don’t take any more clothes off!’
The unspoken words not in front of her hovered in the air. I suppressed the urge to grin.
‘Err…’ The poor soldier’s eyes flicked between me and Mr Ambrose. ‘Not to offend you, Sir, whoever you are, but that one over there has the gun. I think I’ll do what he says.’
Forget about fighting the urge. This was definitely worth a grin!
‘Are you certain?’ Taking another step forward, Mr Ambrose captured the gaze of the soldier, focusing the full force of his arctic eyes on the man. ‘If I were you, I’d consider my answer very carefully.’
‘Err…um…I…well…’
‘You do know that our whole reason for coming here was to obtain a set of clothes, don’t you?’ I asked my employer in a conversational tone.
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‘Irrelevant, Mr Linton! He is not stripping in front of you.’
‘Oh dear…is someone jealous?’
His little left finger twitched. ‘Feelings do not enter into the matter. It is a question of decorum.’
‘Decorum my arse! And speaking of arses, you there, soldier boy, get yours out of the rest of your clothes!’
At a jerk of my gun, the man instantly obeyed—that is, until Mr Ambrose pulled out his own revolver. The click of the hammer sliding in place echoed audibly in the backyard.
‘Don’t. Move.’
I threw him a look. ‘This is getting ridiculous!’
‘I agree. Turn around, and we can proceed.’
‘I’m not turning around!’
‘Why? Do you want to see this man naked?’ Icy eyes found mine, burning with such fierce cold that it made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck.
‘What I want is for you to stop behaving like a chauvinistic son of a bachelor and start treating me—’
Thud!
The sound of the dull impact of wood on skull cut me off mid-rant. Glancing to where the sound had come from, I saw Karim standing over the prone body of the guard, the butt of his sabre held high. He noticed me staring and gave a dismissive wave. ‘You go on arguing. I shall take care of this.’
I put my hands on my hips. ‘Oh, so you have no problems stripping a man? It’s just not possible for a manly man like you when the clothes are hanging nice and handy on a washing line?’
Ignoring, me, he bent and went to work on the unconscious soldier. Ha! Men!
I had to hand it to him, Karim was pretty quick at stripping men. Since I figured I had given him enough reasons in one day to bite my head off, however, I didn’t point out that little fact. Instead I kept watch with Mr Ambrose, making sure no one else discovered our hiding place behind the bushes while Karim worked. When the bodyguard was finished, he tapped Mr Ambrose on the shoulder and showed him the rolled-up bundle of cloth in his hand.
I jerked my thumb towards the unconscious guard. ‘What are we going to do about him?’
Karim, eyes glittering, started to draw his sabre.
‘Oh no!’ Quickly, I stepped in front of him. ‘No killing!’
