Hundreds of people were looking up at me expectantly. The silence stretched.

What am I going to say? What in heaven's name am I going to say?

I opened my mouth.

And I closed it again.

And opened it again.

And closed it again.

I can't do this. I can't speak out against everything I believe in!

Then I heard a gasp from one of the expectant people. Instinctively, I looked in the direction of the noise, and with a nasty shock, saw who it was:  Patsy. And in her eyes I saw what she saw. All the other people might see a small young man with shoulder-long hair standing on the platform, opening and closing his mouth like a suffocating goldfish. But she saw her friend Lilly dressed in trousers and a baggy old tailcoat, standing amongst her worst enemies.

Our eyes met.

And suddenly, I had an Idea. Suddenly, I knew what I was going to say.

Swallowing hard, I raised my chin and stared down the crowd with strength and nobility shining out of my eyes — or at least that's what I hope it looked like.

"I think," I began, my voice not nearly as weak as I had feared it would be, "that it is time for us to overthink our antiquated prejudices. I think it is time that we grant women the rights that have too long been denied them. Political rights are rights of self-expression. Would you deny a woman the right to express her heart and her soul? To aid in the forming of the country which is as much hers as it is any man's? I stand here today to tell you: we need women's suffrage in Great Britain!"

There were cheers and claps from the women among the crowd. There were even a few claps and cheers from those men who were too slow to realize what I had actually been saying.

We need women's suffrage.

Not we don't need women's suffrage.

Out of the corners of my eyes I could see the happy smiles on the faces of Mr Cartwright and his cronies slowly dissolve. I saw Mr Ambrose, too. He, of course, had no happy smile to dissolve in the first place. But I noticed him stiffening, and a certain pallor creep over his features.

"Women and girls of Great Britain!" I shouted. "You are not alone! Even—" I had to work hard to supress smirk, "—among the hardest conservatives such as Mr Ambrose and myself, there are those who have been secretly convinced of the righteousness of your cause, and just too afraid to admit it!"

Turning my head slightly, I gave Mr Ambrose a small, meaningful smile. The eyes of every member of the audience followed the motion, mesmerized. His face... Oh my God, his face!

With difficulty, I managed to tear myself away from the sight and face the audience again.

"Do not give up! Eventually, the resistance shall crumble and the way shall be free to a Britain in which all people, men and women alike, are allowed to express their political opinion freely and without having to fear reprisals. Stand fast, and you will be victorious!"

In the midst of the crowd, I could see Patsy gesturing wildly to Flora and Eve, who had already started to retreat when Mr Ambrose had held his speech, terrified by his unforgiving glare. Now, they had turned around and come back to Patsy, who whispered excitedly to them. She kept pointing up at the podium, up at the speaker.

The two girls looked up at the speaker — and their eyes went wide. I smiled at them, and their mouths dropped open.

Mr Cartwright was now shaking his head in confusion, looking between me and Mr Ambrose. Other members of the assembled anti-suffragist organization had stuck their fingers in their ears and started cleaning them, as if they were sure that what they were hearing would change once they had gotten rid of residual earwax. Only the deaf old duke beside Mr Ambrose was looking just as cheerful as before, probably because he couldn't understand a word I was saying.

"I heard a story the other day from one of my closest acquaintances," I continued, marvelling at the fact that I was holding a speech I had never actually rehearsed. Apparently my acting skills went beyond simple lying. "She had decided to take it upon herself to fight the unfair laws of her country, to rebel, and dress up as a man in order to vote. And can you imagine what happened? When discovered for what she truly was, the poor young lady was dragged off like a criminal and put into prison! Into prison, ladies and gentlemen! And people wonder why there are no female politicians and generals, when the mere attempt to speak your mind can get you thrown in jail?"

My fist slammed down on the lectern.

"And do you know what is the most outrageous? People who allow this dare to call themselves gentlemen, and dare to say that women's suffrage would put an end to chivalry! I say the contrary — men's suffrage puts an end to chivalry, it already has put an end to it for hundreds of years! No true gentlemen would allow a lady to be treated thus!"

There were calls of agreement from the crowd, both ladies and gentlemen. Three ladies in the midst of all were leading the way, clapping and yelling enthusiastically: Patsy, Eve and Flora were all grinning like lunatics on a field trip to the circus. Eve could hardly hold herself upright, she was laughing so hard. Patsy met my eyes again. There was a fiery glow in hers that spread over her entire, broad, apple-cheeked face and in that moment I knew that I was forgiven. Or rather, that there was nothing to forgive at all.

"Women deserve suffrage! So we have no Prime Ministers who are women, nor Generals, or Admirals, or entrepreneurs! What does it matter? For, let us not forget," I said, raising my finger, "let us never forget, that they all rank beyond one individual, one mighty sovereign that eclipses them all in her glory — our queen, Her Majesty, Queen Victoria, a woman! Long live the Queen! Long live suffragism!"

All over the squares shouts of "Long live the Queen!" rose up. Even the sour-faced men behind me started to fall in with the rest of us. You had to. It was practically built into the English national character to want the queen to live long, and to say so at every available opportunity. Never had I heard anybody say "Short live the queen!" or "Gruesomely die the Queen!" My words were the perfect thing to say, at just the right moment. They united my audience. Mixed in with the royal shouts, I could even make out one or two yells of "Long live suffragism!"

I was on a roll! I would have continued bewitching the masses, and no doubt started a revolution in the middle of Hyde Park that very day, but before I could continue my speech, rough, manly hands grabbed me from behind. A few of the anti-suffragists had finally grasped what I was actually saying. They started to drag me backwards, away from my audience. At least I got out a last shout of "Long live suffragism!" before I was toed off the podium. Out of the corner of my eyes I saw my friends whooping and waving their signs in support for the best speaker of the day.

*~*~**~*~*

The door slammed open when he kicked against it. None too gently he pushed me into his office and strode in after me. Staggering backwards, I managed to right myself again just in time to face him as he whirled towards me.

"You!"

Have you ever heard the phrase "chilling contempt" before? Well, you don't know the full meaning of the phrase until you've heard a few words out of the mouth of Mr Rikkard Ambrose when he's really cold under the collar. Burning cold.

"You," he whispered, and his voice sent chills down my back. "You will regret this. You will regret this very much."

I raised my chin defiantly.

"Indeed? What will I regret? Speaking the truth?"

"You will regret making fun of me in public. It is not something I tolerate."

"Making fun?" Now my voice turned cold too. "I couldn't see anything funny about the proceedings at speaker's corner today. I was dead serious."

He raised a threatening finger, and almost against my will, I took a few steps back, retreating until his desk stood between him and me. In the Park, he'd had two other man grab me and drag me to the coach, and back at Empire House. Inside, he had driven me indoors and up the stairs simply by the icy force of his eyes. Only as he had reached the door to his office had he touched me, once, a sign that his walls of cold control were finally starting to crack beneath the strain.

I was afraid. Afraid what might happen if that wall would break down and the creature beyond the facade of the cool businessman would break free. And yet I was also strangely fascinated. There was tension between him and me that made me want to grab that threatening finger he was waving in my face, pull it towards me, pull him towards me and... do what exactly?

I didn't know! But something inside me screamed for some kind of release.

He took another step closer. He was close enough to touch now, although the desk was still between us. Somehow, I felt both safer behind it and wished for it to be gone.

"You made a laughing stock of me in front of the entire city of London," he growled.

"Indeed?" I raised a sceptical eyebrow. "Several million people live in the city of London. I didn't see that many at that silly event."

"You know perfectly well what I mean, Mr Linton! There were reporters there!"

Oops. Actually, I hadn't noticed that. Oh well, I had been busy holding  speech.

"Tomorrow, the entire city will know about this disgraceful charade! Soon, it will on the front page of the Times! Maybe there will even be a semi-humorous image of the episode in the Illustrated London News!"

For a moment, I imagined a comical drawing of the sinister Mr Ambrose being chased around Hyde Park by Patsy swinging her "VOTES FOR WOMEN NOW!"-sign appearing in London's most widely-read illustrated newspaper. The image made me feel warm inside and conjured a smile on my face.

"That sounds good."

"Not good for you!" Raising his arm, he pointed to the door of his office. "Get out! You are dismissed from my service."

The words fell like an axe. I stiffened. My smile was gone as quickly as it had come. "On what grounds?"

"You dare to ask that? You disobeyed a direct order!"

"I did not!"

"You have an hour to pack your things and then I want you go—" His voice cut off. Only now did he seem to register that I had spoken. "What did you say?"

Stubbornly, I repeated: "I did not disobey any direct order."

"But you—"

"When we stood on the podium and you leaned over to whisper into my ear, you told me to go and say something memorable. You didn't specify what exactly it was I should say. And no matter whether or not you liked it, I'm pretty sure what I said was memorable."

I gave him my sweetest smile. "But if you want, we can wait and see what the London Illustrated News has to say on the subject."

He moved so quickly I hardly saw him coming. In a flash he was around the desk and had grabbed me by the arms. An instant later he had pushed me back and up against the wall.

"Do not dare to make fun of me," he hissed, his quiet voice colder than ever, his eyes shards of furious ice. "You would not like the consequences!"

For some insane reason, the smile on my face didn't vanish, but widened into a reckless grin. His fingers were digging hard into my flesh, but I didn't care. I had finally managed to rattle him, to get under that granite skin of his!

"Ah, so you're manhandling me now, Sir? Does that mean you have decided I am enough of a man for you?"

He didn't answer. Instead, his grip tightened and he pressed me harder against the wall, his sea-coloured eyes darkening to the depths of the ocean.

I suddenly realized how tightly his body was pressed against mine. I could feel every muscle in his chest as it heaved in an effort to steady his breathing, could feel the hardness of his lean body as he held me in his arms. His heart hammered against mine, beating out a frantic rhythm. And for a moment, just a moment, I didn't want the same things as a man. In that moment, I didn't want to be as good as man for him. I just wanted to be a woman.

"Miss Lincon, I..."

His voice was rough, his face stonier and more unreadable than ever. I tried to read the emotions behind the granite façade, but to no avail. He was impenetrable.

Only...

Only I imagined that maybe, his eyes weren't quite as cold as they had been a moment ago.

"Y-yes?"

Why was my voice suddenly unsteady? I was in the middle of having an argument with him, for Heaven's sake! I had never been afraid of arguments, or afraid of men. What was the matter with me? Why were my legs feeling so weak all of a sudden?

He called you "Miss" Linton, said a tiny voice in the back of my mind. Not Mister. Miss. Maybe that's why.

"I..." He stared at me, searching for words — then he abruptly let go and stumbled backwards, the momentary fury that had taken hold of him gone, his demeanour back to cool, calm self-possession.

I just leaned against the wall, to weak-kneed to stand on my own.

For a moment or two, there was silence between us. Then he took a deep breath.

"I... am sorry if I acted inappropriately. I should not have touched you."

Part of me wasn't so sure about that. For some strange reason, being touched by him, touched that roughly and demanding, had felt exciting. But I nodded anyway, accepting his words. To get an apology out of Rikkard Ambrose was such a rare opportunity that you simply had to take it.

My mouth felt dry — too dry for speaking. Yet I had to ask a very important question. I wet my lips, not taking my eyes of Mr Ambrose.

"So what about it?" I asked.

"About what?" he shot back.

He had to be joking. Surely he couldn't have forgotten what we were talking about, could he? But he was looking at me so oddly that I almost thought he might. What on earth could he be thinking about instead right now?

"Am I still one of your employees?" I clarified.

That brought him back down to earth. His mouth thinned into a line. "No!"

It was no more than I had expected. But I dug my heels into the ground. I was not prepared to give up yet!

"I told you," I repeated, crossing my arms defiantly in front of me, "I was not disobeying your orders! I did exactly what you told me to do. You cannot dismiss me for that!"

"Don't you play the innocent! You deliberately interpreted my words in such a way as to humiliate me!"

"Oh yes? And you, you didn't try to humiliate me? To hurt me in the worst way you could imagine, by making me speak up against what I believed in?"

I felt scalding hot moisture at the corners of my eyes. Forcing it away by pure force of will, I took a step forward, making my voice strong and steady.

"You tricked me! You made me believe that you had accepted me, only to spring your worst attempt ever on me in your accursed quest to get rid of me! So don't you dare be angry at me now just because I was cleverer than you and came out on top!"

Silence. Well, at least he didn't deny it.

"Why did you do it, anyway?" I asked after a moment, my voice quieter. "Why did you drag me up on that podium? Why are you so desperate to send me packing?"

Silence.

"Tell me! Why? Am I that bad a secretary?"

To my surprise, after a moment, he shook his head.

"No," he told me. "In fact, your work so far has been quite acceptable. For a female, you have an astonishingly unmuddled mind."

"Well, thank you very much for that ringing endorsement! If it's not my work that's the problem, then what is it? Is it..." I hesitated. We were back to the old subject. The old battleground. "Is it that I am a girl?"

He nodded.

"You bastard! I'd like to throw something at your head!" I told him.

"Be my guest," he said, "and you'll be out of here faster than you can say 'assault charges'."

I was seething with fury. But behind his cold words I could sense something — something that wasn't clearly expressed and yet, I felt it, in his eyes, his voice...

He wanted to get rid of me because I was a girl? But he had said that I did my work well enough. So why would he still want to get rid of me? Why did men think women shouldn't work? Because they were a distraction, because it was unbecoming, because they were in too much danger—

My thoughts screeched to a halt.

"It's because of him, isn't it?"

"Who?"

"Him! This mystery-man behind the theft of that all-important file! You said he was dangerous, and that you wouldn't let me be in on the chase, because you couldn't put a lady in harm's way!" I loaded the word "lady" with as much disgust as I could manage. "It is because of him, isn't it?"

Silence. But this time, the silence told me all. Yes. It was because of him.

"Who is he?" I demanded. "What is in the file? Who is this mysterious mastermind that makes even you think twice about taking him on? Tell me!"

Silence. Thickening silence.

"I just don't understand!" I exclaimed, shaking my head. "Who could be that powerful, that evil, that he would give even you pause? He would have to be a king, a ruthless killer or... or..."

It was only a flicker of movement, but I noticed it: Mr Ambrose's head turned, almost imperceptibly, for just a split second to look out of the window, across the street — and at the façade of East India House.

...or a man who owned an entire subcontinent and his own private army.

"No," I whispered. "No. It couldn't be!"

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My Dear Lords, Ladies, & Gentlemen,

Finally! Sparks are starting to fly between Lilly and Mr Ambrose. I hope you enjoyed the chapter and are not quite as ragingly angry at Mr Ambrose anymore ;-)

By the way, I would like to thank each and every who has been alerting me about my stories being stolen and posted on another website. I am truly touched that my noble readers defend me so bravely. Thank you, my Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen.

Yours Truly

Sir Rob