Kisses and hugs for Royalwoods441 for helping me out whenever I was stuck and being such an awesome friend in general. Thanks!
And now, here's the chapter!
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"Lilly! Come on, get up! Aunt is calling you for breakfast. She seems to be...a bit angry today."

A pair of hands pried away my blanket from my eyes and I groaned as the sunlight fell on my eyes, putting an end to my wonderful dream.

"Ella! Please, five minutes! You go, I'll come down soon!" I mumbled against my pillow as I pulled it on top of my head to escape the onslaught of the bright sun.

"But, Lil, it is already late today! Look at the time; it's thirty five minutes past seven already!"

"Yes, yes, five minutes-what?! 7:35?! And you're telling this now?!" I was late, late, late! I jerked out of bed, throwing aside the blanket and looking for my dress, which I would have to remove and put on men's clothes anyways! Blast!

Oh God, if I was to reach work on time, then I would have to skip breakfast! Not that I liked to stuff myself with only boiled potatoes and dry bread everyday, but still, food is food! It atleast kept me going until the miserable tyrant allowed me to take a lunch break!

"Ella, some help with the corset please?" Squashing myself into this infernal device made to torture women was more than getting on my nerves nowadays! Once I would establish feminism, the first thing would be to ban these bloody corsets!

My dearest, best sister skillfully tied up the laces as I squeezed myself into the dress and cursed Aunt, Captain Carter and Mr. Ambrose for making me oversleep today!

Last night I could not go to sleep even after the lecture from my aunt who had been eagerly waiting for me to know whether Captain Carter had proposed to me and I internally winced. Trust my aunt to know when a man is going to propose a woman!

Even though I had denied it vehemently, she didn't seem so convinced, and I had to applaud her 'get rid of my nieces as fast as possible' instincts to know when there was a chance for the worst one of them to get married. Thankfully, I had been let of with only a warning to be more 'ladylike and not mess up my chances with him'.

I had made my decision yesterday night after thinking it over; I was ready to wait for the idiot to accept his feelings than marry the Captain. Even though Captain Carter was perfect husband material, he wasn't mine. I just didn't feel that way towards him.

And Rick is perfect husband material, you say? Thinking about marrying him already, are we?

No! I mean...not like that..

Then how exactly did you mean it?

Will you shut up?! I'm already late without having time to argue with you!

"Thanks Ella! Bye!" I dashed down the stairs ignoring my aunt's screeching threats for her beloved niece, yours truly, to stop shouting; it was no ladylike behaviour. How ironic. How did she not notice that she was shouting at me to not shout in the house, was a mystery for me.

Tripping my way towards the shed, I changed my clothes at such a speed that I think I just made a new world record of changing out of a dress and a corset and into a tailcoat and trousers. Not that I was going to have much competition about it in the first place. Most women would not think it a talent to change from a dress into a tailcoat. Most, not me.

Applauding myself for my uniquely wonderful talent, I silently sneaked out of the creaky old gate which has not been oiled since, well ever since I came here.

Mingling in the scarce stream of pedestrians, I quickly thought about the two options I had, while running and bumping into the occassional slow person. Ignoring his complains, I contemplated over my decision. I could either take my usual route and risk losing my paycheck, which I was going to have to wrestle out of the miser anyways, or take the shorter route through back alleys and have atleast one chance to reach on time.

Still running, I pulled out my pocket watch and made my decision. 7:48. The back alleys it was then. No way would I be able to make the 20 minute route in almost ten minutes. I was definitely not going to be late today, especially after his taunt yesterday night.

Lengthening my strides, I took a left turn and entered a narrow alleyway which would lead to the back alleys. The back sides of the houses on both sides rushed past me in a blur as I complemented the improvement in my running skills. You usually tend to learn to run fast when you have the Brazilian army as well as a rebel army on your heels in the sweltering heat of the Amazonian jungle. Or not survive at all.

Only your running skills? Not skills of a certain nocturnal activity?

My steps faltered and my cheeks burned. I tried to convince myself that it was only because I was running so fast, but it was proved otherwise by images of a certain granite statue's soft and smooth lips devouring mine, hands wandering and exploring dangerous, uncharted territories, his intense gaze burning with a cold fire, and stroking a similar one in me...

Okay, you got the picture.

Speaking of nocturnal activities, my hand came to rest upon my waist, on the outline of hard, cold steel pressing into my side, and I was extremely glad that I had spent many productive nights working on my shooting skills too.

Even though I was not afraid of that Dalgliesh scum, his threats were clearly not to be taken lightly, and it was always better to be armed in case I ever saw him out of the public eye. That would be one chauvinist bastard less to deal with.

The deserted alleyways were becoming narrower and narrower, before turning back onto Leadenhall street, three buildings away from Empire House and realm of the tyrannical stone cold employer of mine.

I was about to reach the bend in the road when a few low voices whispering caught my attention, and I skidded to a stop. My hand instictively reached for my gun as I surveyed my surroundings and in the direction of the voices.

The two houses on either sides looked deserted except for the occassional bark of a dog and a call of a bird. There was hardly any human activity around, which gave me an uncomfortable feeling in my gut, even in stark daylight.

"Who's there?"

Absolute silence.

I carefully took a step in the direction of the voices and slipped out my gun out of my tailcoat, keeping it low. The cool steel glinted in the sunlight as I called out.

A glint on metal caught my attention in the corner of my eye and I whirled around to see someone move stealthily in the shadows of the house and the tree.

"Come on, out with it! I'm getting bloody late here, and if that miser will not give my paycheck just because I was late, you can start digging your own grave then!"

Ignoring my heart thudding so loudly that it would have been audible for atleast a mile, I slipped off the safety, clutching the gun tightly in my hands. If this was some idiotic mugger, then by Jove, he was going to get robbed by me! He had definitely picked the wrong girl, um, man to rob!

What happened next was so fast that my brain hardly caught what happened, let alone its who's and why's and how's. I felt the presence of someone behind me in the shadows move towards me and before I could even raise my arm having the gun, two gunshots rang out in the silence, shattering it, and the scrawny looking man collapsed in his place. There was a look of utter surprise on his face, which was frozen in death, and I stared at him lying on the ground, a pool of red expanding around his head and torso, trying to comprehend just what the bloody hell was going on here.

My head was beggining to feel like it would burst from the sudden onslaught of questions I had, when the familiar voice of Karim shouted a command from beneath the tree.

"No guns!"

Command? For whom? Sweet little me? There was no one else around, except for me and the surprised chap lying there dead. Quite a surprise of his life he must have got.

The next thing I knew, there were quite a number of figures slipping in and out of the shadows moving towards me and I aimed at the nearest bigger one, ready to shoot, until his turban and beard became visible in the sunlight.

"Ifrit! Stay back!"

Ha, as if he could order me about. I shifted my aim to the next man as Karim tackled another with his sabre. But I missed by a hairwidth as he ducked at the last moment. Blast!

Aiming once again, I pressed the trigger and the bullet went through his shoulder as he was getting some cloth out of his pocket. Dropping the cloth, he clutched his shoulder, his face crumpling in pain as he leaned on the nearby wall.

Yay! One down, um, some more to go! Go, Lilly, go! Aiming at my next unfortunate target, I was more than surprised when a familiar pair of hands plucked the gun right out of my hands and I cried out in protest. "Karim! That is my gun!"

"And he is Warren Sahib's man. Stay behind or else he can't use his gun." Spiffing. Not that I would ever admit it to anyone, but I felt extremely stupid about it, and if not for Karim, I would have probably shot the man and then felt guilty about it. Ugh! Why couldn't he just announce 'I am not going to shoot you, so don't shoot me'?! It could have easily prevented me from putting a hole in him in the first place!

"Fine, I won't shoot him. Now give my gun." I reached for my gun from Karim's hand, who held it out of my reach and joined Warren's three men who were expertly and permanently putting holes in the men trying to sneak towards our group. Which was now surrounded by a slightly larger group consisting of one very surprised and dead chap and other not so surprised but injured or unconscious men.

It was a very spiffing fight held up by Karim and Warren's men, but let me tell you this: being in a gunfight without your gun or any weapon is not spiffing. At all. All I could do was try to reach for Karim's sabre and my gun, which he used while holding it out of my reach! That big bearded oaf! I was itching to get my hands on him and my gun!

Keeping my eye another man sneaking upon him, I rushed to Karim to pull him out of the fight with a burly man, when a pair of hands pulled me back by my collar and I gave a shout of protest. "Hey!"

Lashing out instinctively at the torso attached to arms around me, I elbowed the attacker in the ribs and called out to Karim, who was trying to get out of a headlock as he wrestled the two men simultaneously. His sabre had been flung across and he was struggling to reach my gun in his shoe.

"Karim!"

His head shot up and unadulterated anger sparked in the eyes of my favourite turbaned bodyguard when he glared icily at the man trying to restrain wild little me, all the time struggling to escape from the three men trying to constrain him.

I clamped down my teeth hard on my attackers hand when it came within biting distance, and I twisted my hand out of his grip as he let out a startled yelp.

"You spineless coward! Kool khara!" Lunging for Karim's sabre, I let out a painful cry when my hand was twisted and pulled behind my back, effectively keeping me from scrambling for the weapon.

"Ifrit!"

Another pair of hands pulled my head up as I looked at Karim desperately trying to get out of the grip of the men who were hardly able to hold him back. Warren's two men had already been put out of the fight and one was trying his best to fight two armed men at once, with his bare hands. Not fair!

Another hand holding a cloth ventured into biting distance again and I snapped my teeth at it. How nice. I knew that as a proud femenist I had never been exactly welcoming for men of any kind, but these attackers just brought out the best in me.

The next I knew my arm was twisted so painfully that I could not bite back a scream, and black spots floated in my vision as a sweet smelling cloth was pressed on my face, before I completely gave in to the darkness.

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Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

I know I suck at writing action scenes, so please please tell me any corrections, suggestion or tips for improving my writing!

On the other hand, the real action has just started, and I am telling you, it's going to be one hell of a crazy ride, so hang on!

Anybody wanting to join Lilly's rescue take out your ifrit banners and ready your weapons!

All who think Lilly shall never require rescuing, take out your suffragist posters!

And last, but not the least, all those who want our knight in ten year old mint conditioned suit to rescue her, take out the Lambrose banners and get onto the field!

Let the battle begin!

Yours truly,
@Ifrit5789

(Published 29 Jan)