Blast! Damn these stairs! I-can't-breathe!

   I stepped on the landing of, fortunately, the last floor, putting my hands on my knees and catching my breath. I looked up at Mr. Stone, who had considerably paled for some unfathomable reason, and gave him a smile, or whatever semblance of a smile I could manage while panting like a dog who had been chasing a squirrel around the park.

  "Good morning, Mr. Stone." I approached the now visibly sweating employee as soon as my legs decided that they were no longer on strike. Great.

   "Er, good morning, Mr. Linton."

   I gave him a look and he furthur paled until he could have easily been mistaken for a part of the white painted wall behind him and a frown appeared on my face.

  Snapping my fingers in front his face, I cautiously called out to him. Was he having a...fit or something?

"Mister Stone...? Hellooo? Can you hear me?"

"Uh, yes, Mr. Linton."

He flinched and I looked at him, irritated. What the hell was he doing, sitting there like an imbecile while I was getting late here by the second?

"The correspondance, Mr. Stone. I'm getting late!" I held out my hand impatiently.

"About that..um...Mr. Linton...uh..."

"What is it?" I nearly snapped at him, unable to see any problem there. What the bloody hell was wrong with him?

He gulped and pulled out a single letter from under the stacks of papers on his desk. "Mr. Ambrose told me to give it to you, in case you were running late."

Snatching the letter out of his hand, I tore open the envelope and started reading it. Halfway through it, to say that I was feeling murderous would have been easily the understatement of the year.

Taking deep breaths, I closed my eyes and tried to calm down myself. One. Two. Thre-

I slammed down the letter on Mr. Stone's desk and ignored him nearly falling out of his chair, giving him my best murderous glare.

"Where the hell is that bastard?!"

He almost choked on his own spit and pointed in the direction of his office, his eyes wide and I stomped over to the door. What the hell he thought he was?! Just because he had employed me and paid me a salary at the end of every month didn't mean that I was going to bear any of his nonsense! Absolutely not!

"Mr. Ambrose! Open the goddamned do-

"Um, Mr. Linton, he has requested not to be disturbed since he needs to leave urgently for-

"-or! I know you're bloody in there!" I rapped my knuckles on the door loudly, absolutely enraged! How dare he dismiss me, just because I happened to be late! Everyday?! I was not late everyday! Today I wasn't even that late! Only by one minute!

And thirty seven seconds...

Shut up!

"Mr. Ambrose-"

"Mr. Linton, stop speaking at an unneccessary volume and leave. I shall not be requiring your tardy services for the next two months, so cease wasting everybody's time here."

"Why you- you-" I glanced at Mr. Stone who was making weird squeaky noises from his mouth and decided to spare him a heart attack just this time. "-ungrateful man! You better open this door right now, or else-"

"Or else what Mr. Linton?" The cool and collected voice of my employer infuriated me even more.

"Or else...or else I'll tell everyone about the you-know-what!"

The door opened to reveal the great, the most disrespected king of all misers and chauvinists of Britain and Ireland, Mr. Rikkard Ambrose, who had his artic level freezing glare fixed on yours truly and a violent storm brewing in his sea coloured eyes.

"Mr. Stone, get to work." He shifted his glare on Mr. Stone and it resulted in the immediate sounds of papers hurriedly being turned and shuffled, or more like the sound of another poor employee of the tyrant that Mr. Ambrose was, trying to keep his job safe.

"Yes, Sir!"

Before I could even open my mouth to show Mr. Ambrose what I exactly thought about his bloody "Notice for termination of services", he had pulled me inside his office and settled himself in his creaky old chair behind his desk, his hands folded in front of him.

"And what may be this 'object' which you put it as 'you-know-what', which you were attempting to threaten me with, not to mention in front of my employee, and undermine my authority?"

I ignored his words, marching up to his desk and gave him a fiery glare instead of throttling him like I very much wanted to.

"What. Was. That?" I crossed my hands in front of my chest, narrowing my eyes at him and the temperature in the room dropped by a few degrees due the glare that was reciprocated.

"Elaborate yourself, Mr. Linton. I do not possess any ability to read minds."

I gave him a death glare, but the ice statue seemed ro remain unaffected by it. "What. Was. That. Bloody. Letter?"

"That, Mr. Linton, was your termination letter, which means that you are no longer occupying the post of my private secretary, in case your female brain was unable to comprehend a simple fact like that."

He got up abruptly from his chair, pulling out his hat and cane from where they had been stuffed in his desk, because obviously the cost of a hat stand might lead to his bankruptcy, speaking as he walked up to the door.

"Come and collect your final paycheque after two days from Mr. Pearson. You can now evacuate the premises before I am compelled to use force, Mr. Linton. Goodbye." Before he could open the door and leave, I had already slid myself between the door and him, one hand on its lock and the other resting on his oh-so-precious-tailcoat, pressing myself against the door in case he decided to open it with me stuck on it nevertheless.

"No." The temperature in the room abruptly dropped to arctic freezing levels and Mr. Ambrose narrowed his eyes by 0.00027 inches, taking another long step ahead and trapping me between the door and him.

"Get out of my way, Mr. Linton. Now."

"Absolutely not! I have worked, more like slaved for you over a year! And you gave ne your word! You can't just dismiss me like that! And just because I was late for a minute?! That's-that's ridiculous! And-

"I don't care which expletives you are going to use for the reason of your dismissal, Mr. Linton. What concerns me currently is I have got many important places to be right now and you are blocking my way and consequently wasting my time. So, move." His glare only intensified furthur when I refused to budge even an inch, returning his glare with double the force. "Now."

"I am not obligated to obey your orders anymore since I am not your employee any longer, Mister Rikkard Ambrose." I looked up at him with a sly smirk on my face. "However, if you are willing to give me back my position, I can think about letting you pass, Sir."

He made an indistinct noise at the back of his throat and his eyes narrowed furthur by 0.0021 inches as he tried to indimidate your truly out of his way, but me being the ifrit I was, I simply stood there, wondering where was he going. A meeting...No, I would have written it in the diary...hmm...then a-

"Sahib, the luggage has been loaded in the ship and the chaise is ready. We should probably leave before," Karim's loud voice dropped down by a few decibels,"it arrives."

Excuse me? It?! And where were they going to go, planning to leave before I arrived?! What about my brilliant plan I had told him yesterday then?

"I'm not a thing, my dear friend Karim." My voice dripped with a lethal amount of sarcasm as I turned to the frozen statue in front of me, ignoring the loud curse of Mr. Ambrose's loyal bodyguard just outside the door and the incessant flutter of my cardiovascular organ, which was totally not due to Mr. Ambrose's close proximity-

Concentrate Lilly!

I narrowed my eyes accusingly at Mr. Ambrose as I noticed his little finger twitch out of the corner of my eye.

"You were planning to leave me here!"

"Indeed. It would be adequate if you would be so considerate as to remove yourself out of the way immediately and cease any furthur waste of time, Mr. Linton."

"Where the hell are you going? And why can't I come? And the plan-Wait! Did the plan work?" My lips widened into a grin, the anger about my dismissal pushed to the back of my mind for the moment. I looked back into the stormy cold eyes of my employer, excited to know that my brilliant plan had worked! Hell, I knew it would have worked sooner or later, but this soon! Dalgliesh must be getting bloody desperate then!

"It did work! Blimey! Did you get the bloody traitor? That vile, devious, two faced bastard! Hopefully he'll rot in hell forever! Did he tell you where the other file is th-"

"As you have pointed out truly, Mr. Linton, you are no longer under my employment. Therefore I am not obliged to share any kind of information about my business activities anymore." He gave me a cold, smug and superior look, not even moving a muscle in his goddamned perfect face.

The anger returned in a flash. "Why you bloody ungrateful son of a goat! I was the one who came up with this plan and you are trying to leave me out of it! Absolutely not! I'm very much coming with you, whether you are going to employ me or n-"

A pair of soft, cool lips cut me off in the middle of my sentence and before I could even think of admonishing their owner, my eyes had closed without my permission and I was kissing him back, heat creeping up to my face and spreading throughout me until the tips of my fingers seemed to be tingling with it. Our lips clashed like waves in a storm, raging, pushing and devouring each other until you wouldn't be able to tell one from the other and his hands pulled me closer to him, crushing me against his hard chest, but I didn't mind. What I did mind very much was the presence of a certain someone right outside the door when he chose to speak.

"Sahib? Is everything alright?"

   Oh, I did mind him very much. At the sound of his voice, Mr. Ambrose abruptly broke off the kiss, taking two steps away from me and I immediately missed the warmth his comfortable arms provided me with. I opened my eyes to look at Mr. Ambrose standing in front of me with his hands in his pockets and his jaw clenched as if it was literally under strain.

   Why was he clenching his jaw-Oh. Blast! That wretched, sly, manipulating son of a bastard! I was going to kill him!

  "You-!"

  "Don't try to follow me, Mr. Linton." He spoke through gritted teeth and pushing me out of the way quite easily, he slammed the door behind him.

  Excuse me?! The nerve of the man! First of all he cut me off in the middle of my sentence, kissed me without my permission, made me kiss him back and tben glared at him like I had kissed him?

  Scrambling towards the door, I gripped the handle with both hands and tried to pull it open, but it remained stubbornly closed. Argh!

  "Mr. Ambrose! You just wait and watch!"

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  ....sixty nine, seventy, seventy one.
Seventy one pounds and 3 shillings exactly.

  Well, well, this much money would be enough for my trip, I thought, stuffing everything quickly again in the small purse I kept my money in and turned to pull out the extra pair of men's clothes from under the only two dresses I had in the cupboard. Putting everything in a small briefcase, I was about to shut it when the door was opened and my dearest sister Ella stepped in. I was about to sigh in relief that it wasn't my aunt when a shrill scream rang in my ears.

  "Lill-aaaaargh! Burglar! Lilly! Aunt-"

  Well, crap, I forgot I was Mr. Victor Linton, still in my trousers and hat! Blast! Before she could scream once again or faint in her position, I dashed towards her, putting my hand over her mouth and ripped off the hat from my head so that my hair tumbled down to my shoulders.

  "Shhh! It's me, Lilly!" Her already wide eyes widened even more with every second that passed and her face paled until I started worrying whether she had was about to faint or have a fit right there.

  "Lilly?" She looked at me, her eyes bigger than saucers, her lips faintly parted and her skin still pale. "Wha-why are you wearing trousers? From where did you get them? Did you-" Her voice dropped and her eyes widened even more as I admired the widening capacity of her visual organs. Fantastic. "-steal them?"

  She gasped, putting her hand over her mouth. "Oh dear Lilly! I-"

  "Of course not! How can you think like that about me! I bought them, with full payment in cash!" I admonished her. Just because I had been to jail once in my twenty years didn't mean I was some petty criminal who had to steal clothes! Not that I told her that, I liked her very much conscious and smiling daintily like always, not fainting on me.

  "Oh." Her cheeks bloomed red aith embarassment."I'm so sorry, Lilly, I-I just thought...But why are you wearing men's clothes? Are you, er, going to one of your feminist rallies with Patsy, Eve and Flora?"

  "Uh-" Should I tell her? But if Aunt would interrogate her...She managed a small smile at me and I sighed.

  "Don't worry, I'll-I'll tell her you are at the park looking for suitors..." She ddin't look quite sure about it though, however...

  Blimey! What had I done! My innocent little Ella! Now she was going to try to lie to Aunt! For me!

  I pulled her in a hug, patting her back reassuringly.

  "I, Ella, I'm going on, um, a small trip of sorts, you can say..."

  "Really? Where? And with whom? Did you tell Aunt about it?" She looked at me nonplussed, her bright blue eyes shining with a innocence that could have put the sun to shame and I decided to take the risk.

  "No...but don't say a word about it to anyone, will you?"

   "Why, Lill! Are you- are you running away with that secret lover of yours? Who is that," She seemed to be struggling for a word bad enough for him in her limited curse words vocabulary as I tried to not choke myself to death in the middle of the conversation,"that bad man who has misguided you on the wrong way?"

  Her chin trembled as she hugged me tightly, as if she would be ready to brave any dangers that I had involved myself into, all for me, and you ask me why do I love this girl so much?

  "Tell me if I can help you in any way," Her eyes started watering,"but, please, please, change your mind." A sob burst out of her and I patted her back, trying to calm her down."Please don't run away with him!"

  "Shhh, I'm not running away with anyone, Ell. Stop crying now, will you?" She nodded, pulling back from me. "Then where-"

  "Ella! Lillian! Come down here this instant, or I'm coming there!" Aunt Brank's shrill screech resonated in the room and I winced. Blast! If that devil of a woman would come here, I would never be able to leave!

  I quickly pulled Ella in another tight hug. "I'm sorry, Ella, I have to go now. I'll tell you everything when I return. Make sure Aunt Brank doesn't get you married to some nincompoop until I return, will you?"

  She tightened her arms around me for another moment, nodding silently and let go of me, her blue eyes shining with tears. Oh dear... 

  Picking up my hat and briefcase in one hand, I made a dash for the window where the ladder waited for me when Ella's soft voice stopped me on the third rung. In a moment, her golden blonde hair appeared out of the window as she waved to me once and I gave her a smile.

  "Stay out of trouble and come back safely, Lill, will you? And, enjoy your trip."

  This time I nodded to her silently as I descended down the creaky old ladder, reminding myself that it had simply rained upon my face and I had not noticed it somehow. Yes, that must be it.

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  Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

  Another delayed update. I think I should have an award for the most procrastinating author ever, shouldn't I?

  How many of you agree that there is something certainly wrong with our favourite chauvinistic bastard? And what could have been Lilly's plan? And where is Rikkard going? And why did he fire Lilly?

So many questions, and no answers! Don't worry, you'll get all of them very soon.

  Thoughts about the chapter here please! Do let me know if it was good, boring, average, horrible, terrible, anything! Any suggestions, corrections, curses, everything is welcome!

  And, how many of you liked the 'a-bit-more-sensible-than-usual-version' of Ella?

  Don't forget to vote, comment and enjoy!

  Yours truly,
  Ifrit5789.

P. S. There's a surprise for you in the next update, scroll down now!