Page 111 of New Storm Rising
“That was for calling me a broad! I’ll have you know I’m very slender and elegant.”
“Err, sure.” The boy moved out of reach. “In the dark, anyway. Seen in a distorting mirror.”
“What? You…come back here, you brat!”
“The hottest news! Trial to happen! Brit and his broad about to be sentenced to death! Hottest news…”
The boy’s voice faded into the distance. I was, however, fairly certain that I knew what he was still shouting a few streets away.
A moment of silence passed.
“Mr Ambrose?”
“Yes?”
“Am I fat?”
Silence.
A very, very long silence. A little bittoolong.
Answers, Gallows, and other Deadly Dangers
“Mr Ambrose?”
Silence.
“Dicky darling?”
Silence.
“Answer my question, please.Am. I. Fat?”
More silence. Lots of it.
“This isnotthe kind of question you can avoid answering by keeping quiet!”
“Are you certain?”
“Yes!”
“Then my answer is that…I have seen many a woman in your condition who is much more corpulent than you. In fact, sooner or later, all of them are more corpulent.”
I beamed. “You might make passable husband material yet, Dicky Darling!”
“I am soveryglad to hear it.”
Happily, I nodded—but then frowned, and glanced down at my waist.WasI getting fat? My dresses had been feeling a bit tight, recently. Perhaps…
Nah.
I shook my head. Mr Ambrose had said it himself. I was in excellent shape!
Pushing away those silly thoughts, I focused on the newspaper in my hand and the interesting article on the front page.
“Hm…interesting. Do you know they’ve apparently decided on our sentence before the trial has even started?”
“Very gracious of them. As I understand local customs, in most cases, a trial is dispensed with altogether.”
