After the Storm

11. Little confessions

Comment if your mind was in the gutter throughout the song XD. Mine was.

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Enjoy. ;)

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Difficile: Difficult.

Trammel: Hindrance

Asinine: Foolish.

Farthing: Old English coin that was worth 1/4 of a penny. It was 1/960 of a pound. It was the smallest British currency. (There's a phrase "Not worth a farthing" which means that something is pretty much worthless.)

Jounce: Bump and bounce.

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I had asked: "Why? Why did he send a bloody chunk of head fuzz?", but instead of replying my sensible question, Mr Ambrose stuffed the hair back into the envelope, chucked the whole thing into his drawer and locked it.

"Get out."

"But that letter..."

"Is none of your business."

I jabbed a finger in Karim's direction. "You aren't asking him to leave."

"That is because there is no need for him to do so. As for you, Mr Linton, you are not wanted here."

Mr Ambrose gave me that same response the next day, and the next. I hated to admit it, but it sent a painful jab to my chest. It felt like months ago when he still couldn't trust me.

With an abundance of time in the night, I had the opportunity to do some pondering until I spotted the parallelism. Mr Ambrose had once sent a lock of hair to Lord Dalgliesh to signify how Simmons was within his power. It was a silent message that only his enemy understood. Now Lord Dalgliesh was getting one back.

Maybe the black hair belongs to that evil crow who sticks to Mr Ambrose like glue.

Me secretly wishing for her demise was an understatement. If Lord Dalgliesh had truly kidnapped Miss Hamilton and was torturing her, he might just become my next best friend. She deserved to be stabbed with hot rods and subjected to various tortures from different cultures. Yet when I asked Mr Ambrose whether the hair belonged to her, he offered me a cold look that simultaneously bordered on quizzical.
"Mr Linton?"

"Yes?" I poked my head up from behind a mountain of letters and files.

"Mr Ambrose has left early. You may return home now."

"Blast that son of a bachelor!"

Mr Stone's eyes widened. "I-I'll just leave now. Goodbye Mr Linton." The door was shut hastily.

That was again repeated for three days in a row. Each time, I listen out for any sign of Mr Ambrose leaving his office. However, by the time I burst out of my room, he was already gone. That man was as talented at disappearing as he was at keeping his purse shoved up his arse.

Finally, I decided that I had enough. I noted how he always disappeared at approximately a quarter to three in the afternoon, thus with a hell lot of conviction and determination, I stationed myself next to my office door. The moment I heard any semblance of him stepping out, I would try to catch him and extract answers out of his mouth that was permanently nailed shut. I was more than prepared to use force if needed. Not even Karim could stop me.