Silence is Golden

27. Fishy Business

'You? For now, you just follow my lead. I'll show you, and with a bit of practice, you'll be able to do it alone just as well.'

Somehow, I highly doubt that.

'All right.' I dragged in a ragged breath. 'Let's fish.'

When I returned to the camp about an hour later, I had caught three fish – two with Mr Ambrose's help, one on my own. I had also torn up, incinerated and discarded my firm resolution to stay away from Mr Ambrose. All right, so I couldn't let myself go all the way with him. Who cared? I had never been planning to go that far in the first place, right? It was just some fun. The church might frown on it as sin, and members of polite society would faint at the very idea, but in my opinion, polite society could stick its judgements where the sun didn't shine. I was an educated, independent girl! If I wanted to do something, I would not let any stuffy old social norms that I had had no say in keep me from doing it!

And I wanted Mr Ambrose. Badly.

So...what to do?

Sliding the first of my roasted fish from the stake, I bit down, smiling. Well...it had been really hot, recently. Maybe it was time to lose another little piece of clothing.

*~*~**~*~*

I made my first move after half a day of marching. Really, I was a bit surprised I hadn't had the idea earlier. You would think, having to hike miles through the jungle, this abominable thing would be the first thing to remove. But I had been so used to it that I never thought of it until now. We had just set out again after our noon meal, when I stretched, and announced to the jungle at large: 'You know...I'm feeling quite hot today.'

In front of me, Karim stopped abruptly in his tracks. 'Oh no. No, no, nononono!'

'Besides,' I continued, 'this thing is really uncomfortable. I think I'll loosen it a bit.'

'No!' With a cry of anguish, Karim darted off into the forest. It was really amazing how seriously he took his scouting duty.

Reaching behind me, I lazily brushed a few raindrops off my sweaty skin, and in the process, just happened to loosen one of the laces of my corset. With a soft noise, it slid open.

From behind me, out of Mr Ambrose's throat, came another noise – one that definitely wasn't soft.

'Ah.' I sighed. 'Much better.'

Then I walked on without looking back.

It wasn't until half an hour later that I reached back and, with tentative fingers, loosened another lace. This time, the growl from behind me seemed to shake the trees all around.

Golly, this is fun! Maybe I should do this at home, in the office, too.

Or maybe not – if I valued my life. But out here he couldn't strangle me. I was the one who had the manuscript. I was the only one who knew where the treasure was.

So, with that cheerful thought in mind, I reached back again and loosened another lace.

'Mr Linton?'

The voice from behind me was as cold as ice and as hard as tempered steel.

'Yes, Sir?'

'Cease this immediately!'

My lips curved up into a smile. 'Cease what, Sir?'

Come on! Say it out loud!

There was a pause. 'These...these things you are doing.'

My oh my...Was Mr Rikkard Ambrose shy?

I opened another lace, just to find out. The noise he made didn't sound shy at all. It did, however, sound rather strangled.