Throughout the hall, people were jogging from one of the many doors to another, carrying pieces of paper, and obviously in a very great hurry to get their business done. The only person who wasn’t moving an inch was a sallow-faced old man behind a plain wood counter at the back of the giant room. He simply sat, bent over a book in which he was busy scribbling notes.
Was he the receptionist? Well, there was only one way to find out.
I approached the counter and cleared my throat timidly. The man didn’t seem to notice and continued writing in his book.
I cleared my throat again, louder this time, and crossed my arms. This fellow was getting my hackles up!
He finally deigned to look up and examined me over the tops of his small, steel-rimmed spectacles. The face he pulled made me think he wasn’t very pleased with what he saw.
‘Yes?’
This was it. Last chance to back out. Last chance to leave this place and never come back.
With great effort, I gathered all my courage and said, loudly and clearly: ‘I’m here to see Mr Ambrose.’
I couldn’t have gotten a more impressive reaction if I had said ‘I’m here to see Father Christmas do a naked tap dance on your desk.’ Everybody within hearing range stopped to turn towards me. One young clerk fell over his own feet and only just managed not to drop the large pile of papers he was carrying.
‘Mr Ambrose?’ asked Sallow-face incredulously. ‘Mr Rikkard Ambrose?’
‘Is there another one here?’
‘Most assuredly not, Miss…?’
‘Linton. Miss Lillian Linton.’
‘Well, Miss Linton,’ said Sallow-face, steepling his long fingers in a manner that I’m sure he meant to be threatening, ‘Mr Ambrose is a very busy man. He does not have time for everybody who wishes to waste it.’ He looked down at his book again. ‘If you have come collecting for charity, try Lord Arlington’s place, or Lady Metcalf's. I am sure they shall be more than happy to oblige you.’
‘I have not come to collect for charity,’ I said. ‘I have an appointment.’
This time, somebody actually did drop his documents. I heard the clatter behind, me, and the hurried noises of someone running after flying bits of paper. Sallow-face had no eyes for the miscreant, however. His full attention was on me once more, sizing me up, and down, and up again.
‘You have an appointment, Miss…?’
‘Linton. Yes.’
‘With whom, if I may ask?’
‘With Mr Ambrose, of course. I already told you I came here to see him. I was told to be here at nine.’
Sallow-face’s eyes bored into me, as if he was trying to see a note with the words 'April fool’s joke' attached to the back of my head, although it was the middle of summer. ‘Told by whom?’ he demanded.
‘By Mr Ambrose.’
For the first time, I could see a tiny little bit of uncertainty replace some of the sallowness. Mixed into it was a spark of fear. ‘By Mr Ambrose himself? Personally?’
‘Yes.’
‘Wait a moment, please.’
I was expecting him to jump up and run off, emulating all the other people hurrying around the entrance hall, but instead he remained sitting where he was and picked up a strange metal horn from his desk, which I hadn’t noticed before. It was connected to the desk by a thick tube that vanished into the wood.
‘Stone? Stone, are you there?’ Sallow-face spoke into the metal horn.
I stared at him, stupefied. Had he lost his marbles? Did he think this metal thing was a stone? And if so, why was he talking to it? As far as I knew, neither stones nor metal objects were very verbose.
The man held the horn to his ear - and a faint, tinny voice came out of it! My mouth dropped open. What was this? I couldn’t hear what the voice said, but it was unquestionably human. He was talking to someone through that thing!
Sallow-face returned the horn from his ear to his mouth and said: ‘Listen, Stone. There is a young… lady here,’ he threw me a look that made it clear he privately had other names for me, ‘who maintains she has an appointment with Mr Ambrose. Can you check that for me please? Go to Simmons and ask, will you.’
A moment of silence. Then the faint tinny voice started talking again.
‘What?’ Sallow-face demanded. ‘Not there? What do you mean not… Oh, quit his job? I see.’
A thrill went through me, and suddenly I forgot all about the strange listening-horn. Quit his job? They had to be talking about the secretary! The secretary who had left. Had they wanted to check whether I really did have an appointment? That must have been it! So they were actually considering letting me up there. For a moment, I wondered whether I should mention that I was the ex-secretary’s replacement. Then I remembered that I was a lady, and ladies didn’t work for a living, and if I claimed such a thing, Sallow-face would throw me out for sure.