From one moment to the next, the temperature on the street plummeted. And, considering it was a chilly late autumn morning, that was saying something. Suddenly, it felt like an arctic storm was about to sweep down on London. A storm centred on Mr Rikkard Ambrose.
"Mrs Ambrose..."
"Yes?"
"Did you just say 'India'?"
"Yes."
"The man my sister is heading for was sent to India."
"Yes."
"As in the country where I have just lit the spark for a bloody rebellion."
"Yes, Sir."
Without another word, my husband whirled around and stalked off down the street at a pace faster than most carriages.
"Oy!" Dashing forward, I tried to catch up to him—but he was too fast, and there was no sign of him stopping. "Where are you going?"
"To the harbour," was his curt reply. "We're heading to India. Now."
"But we can't!"
"Watch me."
"No, I mean we don't know where to go, remember? We know the captain was shipped to Bombay, but that's just the harbour where he arrived! We have no idea where he was stationed after that. What if Adaira knows where he is now and is heading straight there? We'll never catch up to her."
He slowed down. Marginally. That was a good sign.
"India is a big place," I continued. "Do you just want to head to Bombay and then comb the subcontinent for your sister? If so, you'll still be searching for Adaira in ten years. Never mind little details like the looming war and Dalgliesh's henchmen scattered all over the country."
This time, he stopped. When I came to a halt beside him, he reached out and pulled me into a fierce embrace. My ears flushed.
What's the matter with you, Lilly? You've done far more scandalous things than being hugged by your husband in public!
True. Nonetheless, the gesture felt strangely intimate. Especially when he closed his eyes and leaned forward, pressing his forehead against mine.
"Sometimes you make far too much sense, you know that?"
One corner of my mouth curled up. "I'm a good secretary, Mr Ambrose, Sir."
For a moment, he was silent. Then...
"And an even better wife. Thank you."
A featherlight kiss brushed against my forehead.
"So," I murmured after a moment of enjoying his closeness, "what now?"
Instantly, he straightened. I met his eyes and saw that once more, the loving husband that only I knew had receded and Mr Rikkard Ambrose, ruthless billionaire businessman, was back in the driving seat.
"There is only one thing we can do: find out what route Adaira took and follow."
"But we have no idea how Adaira plans to reach India."
"True." He nodded grimly. "Even disregarding that none of our investigations have borne any fruit, what fool of a captain would let an unmarried young noblewoman aboard his ship without a chaperone?"
"Let alone taking her halfway across the world into what is about to be an active warzone," I agreed. "Yet she obviously had some plan to leave England in mind when departing from Battlewood. So, the question now is...how does she plan to do it?"
"Any suggestions, Karim?" Mr Ambrose demanded, glancing towards his bodyguard.
A grim shake of the head was the answer. "No, Sahib."
"I don't have any either." My shoulders slumped. "There's no way she'd be able to pull it off. Of course, if I had to find a way, I'd be able to, but that's only because I'd—"
Abruptly, my voice cut off, and my eyes flicked up to meet those of Mr Rikkard Ambrose. "Oh heck! You don't think she'd actually do that, do you?"
Mr Rikkard Ambrose leaned over, his icy eyes darkening. "Do what, pray, Mrs Ambrose?"
"I, um..." Desperately, I glanced from side to side, trying to find a way to escape. Mr Ambrose was already quite displeased that his baby sister had run off to elope with his former rival. If now he found out that Adaira had most likely copied the method of her escape from sweet little me, he would probably eat me alive.
Which, if done right, would be a rather pleasant prospect, wouldn't it?
Shut up, stupid inner voice!
"Err...wait here for a moment, will you? I have to check something!" Not waiting for him to reply, I whirled around and dashed towards the carriage that had been following us, with Berty and some staff and guards inside. "Stop the coach! Stop the coach now!"
The coachman on the box quickly complied. Pulling on the reins, he directed the vehicle to the side of the street and let it roll to a stop. Before it had even fully halted, I jumped up, snatched my suitcase from the roof, ran around the coach, pulled open the carriage door, slammed the suitcase onto one of the seats and flipped open the lid. Berty was watching the whole procedure with interest, but right now, I didn't really care.
Why?
Because there, right in front of me, in my suitcase, were various sets of my clothes. And, more importantly, there was a missing set of clothes. Missing male clothes.
"Oh dear." A nervous chuckle rose from my throat. "Oh dear me."
"What, Mrs Ambrose?" came a familiar, arctic voice from approximately three inches behind me.
"Um, well..." It took considerable courage to turn around to face him. It took even more courage to try and smile at him. Twisting my fingers into knots, I did my best to look anywhere but at his eyes, think of any excuse—then suddenly, the words burst out of me. "Oneofmytailcoatsismissing."
He stiffened. "What did you say?"
"M-my tailcoats. One of them is missing. And one of my trousers. And a bow-tie. And—"
Abruptly, I was interrupted by the enraged growl that erupted from Mr Ambrose's throat.
"N-now, calm down." Carefully, I patted his shoulder. "Adaira is a smart girl. There's no way she would do something like what you're thinking."
"No, of course she wouldn't," he agreed, his icy gaze boring into me. "I mean, from whom could she possibly have gotten the idea?"
Oh crap.
***
Adaira tugged at the unfamiliar clothing she was wearing and looked at herself in the mirror. Resisting the urge to curtsy instead, she dropped into an unfamiliar bow and gave the mirror a fake smile. "Why, hello there. My name is George Adair. I am a macho man and notorious swashbuckler heading for a new adventure in faraway lands. A pleasure to make your acquaintance."
Frowning, she shook her head and, lowering her voice several octaves, tried again. "Hello there. My name is...cough, cough! Agh! Goddammit, this pretending-to-be-male thing is harder than Lilly makes it look. Maybe I should have asked her for a few tips? Hm...better not. That probably wouldn't have gone over well with Rick."
With a sigh, she tugged at her tailcoat again. Stupid brother. Why couldn't he understand that she needed to walk her own path? The fact that said path would lead her to India, where she would have a torrid affair with a handsome man, was totally beside the point!
Well, I'll just have to do it without my dear brother getting in the way.
Not that it would be easy. Adaira knew her brother and knew what he was capable of. The man had eyes and ears (and probably noses) in every corner of the British Empire. And she did mean in every corner. Why else was it that she, when she had once written to a luxury shop in London to enquire after the price of an imported silk dress, had received the following answer:
Too expensive for your budget.
R.A.
Yes, her brother was not easy to deal with. And neither was Lilly, who had more than a few years of experience on her in the running-around-as-a-man department.
Which was why she had come up with her special plan.
***
"Bloody hell!"
The door of the shipping company slammed shut behind me as I stalked out onto the street. On the other side of the street, Mr Ambrose, who had just come out of a similar company's offices, must have seen the gloomy expression on my face and, immediately, his jaw tightened.
"Nothing?"
"Nothing whatsoever." I shook my head. "No male of Adaira's description booked passage here."
"Pardon, Sahiba, but couldn't she have disguised herself?" Karim approached from where he had waited beside the coach. "With a wig or something similar?"
I cocked an eyebrow at Karim. "She took one of my favourite vests, decorated in bright crimson peacocks. Do you think a wig would help disguise that?"
Judging by the expression on his face, he did not think so.
"So," Mr Ambrose concluded, "we just continue on. With such a distinctive appearance, eventually we will find Adaira's trail."
"We should probably split up," I suggested. "That way, we can cover more ground."
"Agreed." Mr Ambrose inclined his head towards one end of the street. "I will cover that side of the docks, and you two will cover the other side." His icy gaze bored into his bodyguard. "You will ensure the safety of my wife and child."
Karim placed one hand on the hilt of his sabre. "Yes, Sahib."
Mr Ambrose gave a curt nod and, whirling around, stalked off down the street. Or at least started to. He had only gone two or three steps when he stopped, turned again and marched back towards me.
"Huh? Was there anything we've forgo—mmmph!"
That was all I managed to say because his lips came swooping down and silenced me. For a moment—Or was it an eternity?—I was pulled into a torrent of emotions, feeling only hot lips, seeing only those ice cold eyes of his. His arms came around me like a vice, and it felt like we were about to commit some of the same when, suddenly...
I blinked, stunned by the abrupt emptiness of my arms. When I came out of my dazed state, Mr Ambrose was already halfway down the street, his broad back disappearing among the crowd.
"Ehem..." Clearing my throat, I very purposefully did not look at Karim. "Well. Let's go, shall we?"
"Yes, Sahiba."
"Only...let's take the coach this time. For some reason, my legs feel a little wobbly."
"As you wish, Sahiba."
His beard twitched. Did he just...did he actually dare to smirk? At me, his dignified employer's wife?
This calls for revenge. Bloody, merciless revenge.
Karim, who clearly didn't know what he was in for, bowed and started towards the carriage box—at least until I grabbed hold of him and stopped him in his tracks.
"None of that, now. We already have a coachman. You're coming with me."
"Wha—? But, Sahiba, I—"
"No argument." And without another word, I started to drag him towards the carriage. Not that it would have worked if the massive man hadn't cooperated. But he was apparently so startled that he didn't think to resist.
Bad choice.
In one swift move, I pulled open the carriage door, climbed inside and dragged him in after me.
"Err...Sahiba, why—"
"Isn't it obvious?" Flopping down in the seat, I snatched Berty from the surprised servant's grasp and plopped him into Karim's arms. "It's time to get to know your new employer. After all, he'll be paying your wages in the future, so you'd better make a good impression."
The sight of the big man holding the tiny baby in his arms as if it were a bomb that might go off any minute was hilarious. Enough to put a smile on my face, even. That smile, however, quickly disappeared as we continued our tour of local shipping companies. Not a single one had seen hide nor hair of Mr Male Adaira. Not. A. Single. One.
"I just don't understand!" I growled, marching out of the very last company's building. Out of the corner of my eye, I threw a baleful glare at a nearby team of soldiers in bright red uniforms, who were just boarding a ship. "We've looked everywhere! I mean, if you want to go to India to look for someone in the army, what can you do other than book passage?"
"Um...Sahiba?" Karim's voice came from beside me. For some reason, he sounded rather urgent, and his gaze was fixed on the soldiers boarding the ship with a strange intensity.
"I mean, even dressed as a man, it's not like she can just board a ship and get to India for free, right? Nobody would be stupid enough to allow that!"
"Sahiba, I think—"
"And sneaking onto a cargo ship wouldn't work either. Most of the cargo ships in this harbour belong to her brother. She'd know that, and she would also know that, if found out, she would be returned to Britain immediately."
"Sahiba!"
"What?!" I demanded, whirling to face the big man. "I'm thinking!"
"That!" He pointed ahead. I followed his outstretched finger with my gaze, but saw nothing except for the fresh army recruits boarding the ship on the way for their new deployment, probably somewhere in the Indian subconti—
Oh.
Oh my.
I swallowed. "You...you don't think that she...?"
"I think we should go find the Sahib," was Karim's diplomatic answer. "Right now."
***
Adaira stared up at the red-golden flag of the crown atop the lion atop the crown that hung above the building's entrance. Maybe she stood there just a little too long, but she was definitely not stalling. No, most definitely not!
Taking a deep breath, she marched forward, adjusted her fake moustache one final time, pushed open the door and stuck her head into the building.
"Pardon me. Is this the recruitment office of the British Army?"
-----------------------------------------------
My dear Readers
GREAT NEWS! Storm and Silene 7, aka "New Storm Rising", is now finally available for preorder as an ebook on Smashwords and Amazon. The paperback preorder as well as ebook preorders on other platforms (such as Apple, Barnes & Noble, etc) will follow soon.
As an apology for the long wait, this time I have included SIX EXTRA CHAPTERS from MR AMBROSE'S POV! I hope you enjoy them :-)
The official publication date is December 5, 2023!
On another note - Adaira is taking a leaf out of Lilly's book, apparently. But if you think that means thinks will go the same way for her as they did for Lilly, I have a surprise in stall for you next week... ;-)
Yours Truly
Sir Rob