Have you ever got soaked in freezing, stormy rain at night and then had a cold, toe dropping arctic cold shower? No?

Well don't even try it! I was-

"Achooo!"

-going to strangle that useless miserly, son of a bastard-

"Achoooo!"

-who had his purse shoved up his behind, as soon as I could get my hands on him!

"Achooooo!"

Or rather I was going to dunk him in that freezing water himself and freeze him permanently into a statue!

Putting my arms in the sleeves of the shirt he had given me, I realised that I would have to fold them quite a long way up for my hands to come out of the long sleeves and opened my mouth to curse that tall chauvinist with so long arms, but all that came out was another sneeze. "Achoooo!"

Buttoning the shirt with shivering, numb fingers, I plotted the numerous ways to kill him and held up the trousers before realising the problem. Spiffing!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I opened the door silently and peeked in to see him pour some...soup? He knew how to make real, edible soup? Give me one thing that man can't do. Yeah, keep on thinking, you can answer me anytime in the next decade.

Pouring it into a wooden bowl, he pulled out a spoon. Still turning around, he spoke,"What were you doing in there for-

The rest of his sentence was lost in a strange grunting noise at the back of his throat as he took in what I was wearing. Or in this case, not wearing.

Walking up to him with my most innocent, demure smile, I turned to the soup, tasting it carefully just in case he was not such an 'adequate' cook as I had assumed. Thankfully, he was, and I had gulped down two hot spoonfuls, ignoring the burning sensation on my tongue when he finally had composed himself enough to speak.

"Why, in Mammon's name, are you not wearing the trousers I had provided you with?"

I turned to him with another spoonful in my hand, blowing on it as I took in his slightly red cheeks and bit back a grin. "It is too big for me. And anyways, its not as if you've not seen me like this before." I gave a small shrug and slurped the soup noisily, ignoring the heat spreading all over my face at the memories of the Amazonian forest.

"If you haven't noticed, we aren't in the middle of the Amazonian forest, but in the middle of civilization." The red in his cheeks darkened slightly and I had the urge to pinch his cheeks. Mr. Rikkard Ambrose was actually blushing!

"Indeed, Mr. Ambrose?" I raised my eyebrows at him and his little finger gave a twitch. Dear me! He was getting certainly riled up nicely.

"Yes, indeed, Mr. Linton." His intense gaze lingered heavily on me, his eyes turning a shade darker. I opened my mouth to remind him about my clearly visible gender, and sneezed. Very hard. So much so, I was wondering how I had not sneezed out my lungs.

"And you'll get a cold." He held out his handkerchief and I took it, blowing my nose very unladylike. Well, standing in only a shirt and underclothes in front of my employer was not at all ladylike, so I'll be thorough with it.

Narrowing my eyes at him, I put away the handkerchief in the only pocket the shirt had. "Too late for that, I can assure you, Ms. Ambrose."

His finger gave another twitch as he tried to freeze me with another of his icy cold glares, and I promptly returned it. Well, I had been practising it. Better make use of it.

Our glaring competition was put to an end by my stomach growling for more soup, followed by another sneeze.

"Better don't glare at the soup." I spoke picking up the bowl and setting it down between us, because why would he bother to buy another bowl? "I like my soup hot and unfrozen."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
  "Ouch! Ouchouchouch! Bloody hell! Can't you do it a bit slowly?!" I muttered curses under my breath, something I had been doing a lot tonight. I had run out of even new curses a long time ago. I squirmed as he held my face tightly with his long fingers, using his other hand to clean the wound on my head with alcohol.

"Stay still, Mr. Linton." His voice had seemed a bit hoarse than usual after my bath, but I ignored it as a symptom of an oncoming cold.

"That's Miss Linton for you-damn! Blast this! Ouch!"

Now that I didn't feel so dirty and grimy all over and the zoo parade in my stomach had ceased after having two bowls of soup,(No, I am not greedy, I just happened to not have some food in the past twenty four hours. Plus it tasted a lot better than boiled potatoes.) I was feeling the earlier exhaustion return along with the headache.

I would have gladly dropped off to sleep if it had not been for my stubborn employer who had threatened to pour cold water on me if I slept without cleaning my wounds. How kind of him.

Applying some kind of itching medicine on it, to my great dismay, he finally, finally let me sleep. Great difference it made. I was already almost sleeping, lying down or seated.

  But when I did take the pillow and a spare blanket I found in the drawer and settled myself on the cool tiles just beside the somehow similar representation of what should be a bed while he went to take a shower, sleep refused to come. Oh, I was tired to the bone and should have probably slept for a hours, but that was not the problem. The problem here was the file. That same blasted, bloody file which had ended up putting everyone in trouble. I tossed and turned, but my wild imaginative theories of what might be in the file continued to torment me.

  When I had convinced myself about my latest theory of the file having proof of the Queen's illegitimate affair, Mr. Ambrose's voice broke the still silence of the night and I nearly jumped a feet in the air.

   "Get up and sleep on the bed."

  Putting a hand on my racing heart,I turned to him.

  "Bloody hell! Don't sneak up on me like that!"

  "Do I need to repeat myself?"

  "No. What is the time, Mr. Ambrose?"

  He stared at me like I had grown two extra heads, before taking out his pocketwatch and replied in his usual curt voice,"One hour thirty seven minutes and eight seconds after midnight."

  Snapping it shut, he slipped his pocketwatch into his shirt's pocket as my gaze lingered on the now familiar yet unknown crest on it's lid. Shaking my mind out of the thoughts of his mysterious family, I focused on the matter on hand. The file.

  "You told me more than two hours ago that you will show me the file tomorrow, right?"

  He stiffened, easily guessing where was I going with this and gave me a warning glare instead of answering, to which I replied with a grin.

  "Yes, or no?"I pressed when he refused to give in after a few moments, and he had to pry open his lips to answer me. "Not now."

  "Mr. Ambrose-"

  "Not now. Get up."

  "No. I'm not sleeping until you show me the file." Because I can't sleep until I know what is in it!

  Sitting up and crossing my arms in front of me, I glared at him and he promptly returned it.

  "Get up." His little finger gave another twitch as he glared at me icily, but I ignored it, determined to know what was the bloody so important file I had risked my life today for.

  "No."

  One second I was sitting on the cold tiles, freezing off my behind with only a flimsy blanket for warmth and arguing with my dear employer, and the other second, strong, muscled hands pulled me up and against a hard chest and I protested-

  "Hey! Put me down-"

  -and he dropped me on the bed.

  "You bloody-! When I said put me down, I didn't mean drop me down!"

"Indeed?"

"Don't indeed me!" Untangling myself from the blanket, I tried to stand up, but his hands on my shoulders kept me in place tighter than iron shackles. Plus these felt nice and warm...

  Lilly! The file!

 "I'm asking you for the last time, are you going to show me the file?" Crossing my hands against my front, I narrowed my eyes at him, my hands pressed under my armpits to get some warmth into my freezing, numb fingers. His sharp gaze took in my glare, a carefully blank expression on his face, before he finally deemed my question worth a reply.

  "Do you really expect me to concede to your demand?" His eyebrow threatened to rise, but his expression did not waver. I ignored the disappointment and hurt that threatened to leak into my voice and retorted,"Do you really expect me to give in then?"

  Was he really going to go back on his word?

  He took a breath, one deeper than the last and I idly wondered whether it was the Ambrosian equivalent of a sigh. Who knows? Might be.

  "Fine." What surprised me was when he agreed! Gave in to my demand?! Without any argument? Was he ill? Perhaps he had a fever...Or perhaps I was ill....

"What?" I actually thought that the cold had affected my hearing, until he confirmed that I had indeed heard what I had thought I had heard.

  "I said, fine. What do you want to know about the file?"

  "Oh." I looked at him incredulously, my mind still wondering whether the cold water had seeped into his brain, or my ears, until I registered what he had actually said.

"Oh! What is in the files?" Information about another canal, or a gold mine or another extract from the Queen's diary perhaps, or about his family, maybe the granite statue did actually care for them...But he had not met them in eleven years! Eleven stinking lonely years!

  The last year may not have been  so lonely, after all he had yo-

  "The secret to Dalgliesh's downfall."

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Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

  I have promised myself no drama here*sniffs*...so I'll simply say that I'm gonna miss you and I love you. Please don't remove this book from your library.

  *blows nose* Sorry for that, please don't forget to vote, comment and enjoy. *wails and curses exams loudly*

Yours truly,
Ifrit5789.

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  (I'm shameless, Ikr)

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Dear ladies and gentlemen,

This chapter has been squeezed out from me during severe writer's block and exams and family problems, so do expect major editing here. I would absolutely love to have some tips and suggestions about how to improve this chapter and get over my writer's block, because this method of writing it out seems to work only partially :(

  Anyways, what do you think is the 'secret to Dalgliesh's downfall'? Do tell me your guesses! I would love to hear them!

  Don't forget to vote and comment!

  Yours truly,
Ifrit5789.

  P. S. I am going to merge this chapter with the previous part after one day.

Published: 14 Feb