Hell’s whiskers! Why did I just say that? What if he interpreted something into it that I hadn’t meant? Or worse, what if he interpreted something into it that I had meant? I snatched my hand back before it made contact with his face.
Quickly, I added, trying for a lighter tone: ‘After all, I can’t let you go in there with only him for protection.’ I gestured at Karim. ‘You’ll be dead before you take two steps.’
Though my words had been too low for him to have heard, Karim seemed to have guessed the general message of my gesture. He gritted his teeth, and his massive right paw closed around the hilt of his sabre.
Mr Ambrose took another step forward. We were now standing almost close enough to touch.
‘And what,’ he hissed, ‘makes you think that I will take you along? I could have Warren take you and hold you here until Karim and I have returned. He might be afraid of Dalgliesh, but even he should be capable of restraining someone like you.’
Heat rose to my cheeks. I knew what he meant - someone like me: a girl.
‘Don’t count on it,’ I growled, putting my hands on my hips and returning the cold glare he shot at me with fire in my eyes. ‘I’ll bite the first man who dares to touch me! And I’ll scream bloody murder, too!’
Mr Ambrose, who had just been about to signal Warren, froze.
‘No, you won’t,’ he said in a low, threatening voice. ‘You won’t make a sound, understood?’
Immediately, I saw I had found my perfect weapon. ‘I won’t if you take me with you,’ I offered. ‘Otherwise…’ I let the sentence hang in the air with dark promise.
Mr Ambrose’s hands clenched into fists. His eyes flicked from me, to the exit of the alley and his goal beyond, and back again. I knew exactly what he was thinking. If I screamed, the guards would hear. His precious operation would have to be postponed.
‘If you scream, I will sack you,’ he threatened.
‘You can’t sack me for something I do after hours. I could paint Buckingham Palace in pink, and you wouldn’t be allowed to throw me out. So, what is it to be?’
Silence.
I quirked an eyebrow at him.
‘Well, Sir?’
More silence.
‘Oh well… as you wish.’ Opening my mouth, I took a deep breath.
Before I could utter a single syllable, Mr Ambrose was on me. His hand clamped down over my mouth, his hard arm shot around my waist, pulling me towards him. Suddenly, my back was pressed against a hard wall of sinews and muscle. I struggled, but it was in vain. His arms held me as tightly as iron fetters. Only that iron fetters would probably not have felt quite so interesting. After a few moments, my resistance waned. I became very aware of his fingers on my lips, almost as if I were…
‘You,’ he said in a tone imported straight from Iceland, ‘are an insufferable nuisance.’
His arms tightened even more for a second or two, holding me closer than iron fetters ever could. Besides, iron fetters could never make my heart rate pick up like it did just then.
‘You also,’ he continued grudgingly, ‘have some courage and loyalty. More than I would have expected from a-’
He cut off.
Yet I knew what he had been going to say.
All of a sudden, he released me, and I stumbled away from him, turning as I did so. He was staring at me with his totally unreadable, sea-coloured eyes, the gloom of the alley making them appear even more dark than usual.
‘You can accompany us,’ he said. ‘But if you get us caught, you are dismissed, no discussion! Understood?’
‘Um… I thought if we were caught, we would be shot.’
‘I will dismiss you before we are shot, Mr Linton.’
‘Yes, Sir! I understand, Sir!’
Turning away, he motioned to Karim. Suddenly he was all business again.
‘Show Mr Linton the plans, Karim.’
Karim’s beard bristled in outrage.
‘But Sahib…!’
‘If he does not know where we are going, he is likely to get us caught. Show him the plans of the building, Karim. Now!’
Karim clenched his teeth. His master’s tone brooked no discussion. Reluctantly, he unslung the bag from over his shoulder and pulled out of it a large roll of paper, which he unrolled and held against the side of the coach in a spot where the moonlight shone into the alley and illuminated all in its path. By the cold, blueish light I was just able to make out thin lines on the paper, forming what looked like the intricate plan of a large complex.
‘We got these out of the city records,’ Mr Ambrose explained curtly. ‘They’re decades old, and probably not up-to-date anymore, but Dalgliesh has made sure that any more recent versions have disappeared from the face of the earth.’