Page 200 of Storm over the Caribbean
“Karim?”
“Kamútar! Unhand me, you fat son of a—err…Sahiba?”
We both froze.
There was a long, long moment of silence.
“Karim? What areyoudoing here?”
“What do you mean, what am I doing here? What areyoudoing here? And why are you pulling my beard?”
“’cause it’s fun?”
He opened his mouth.
“And before you complain,” I added, narrowing my eyes at the towering shadow, “remember you called me the f-word.”
He snapped his mouth shut again. I couldn’t see much of his figure in the dark, but I could swear I saw drops of sweat appearing on his forehead.
Smart man.
I gave him a sweet smile.
“Oh, and since we are on the subject, could you tell me why you were trying to smash my husband’s brains in?”
“I,” Mr Ambrose’s voice came from the floor, “would like to know that as well.”
“I, um, well…” Karim cleared his throat. “That is because, err, I…”
“Yes?” Rising to his feet, Mr Rikkard Ambrose dusted himself off and pinned Karim to the spot with his iciest stare. Suddenly, the massive man didn’t seem quite so big anymore. “Do continue.”
“Well, err, you see,Sahib, after your ship sank I was looking for you and, well, when I didn’t find any sign of you or theSahiba, I decided to go after the pirates because they often frequent uninhabited islands and, um, if you had been shipwrecked there, they would most likely already have takenyou prisoner. So I went searching for pirates all over the place and—”
“—and you thought the best way to find the pirates would be punching my husband in the face repeatedly,” I finished, nodding wisely. “Ah, of course.”
“Yes, exactl—wait, what? No! No, of course not!”
“Oh?” I cocked my head, inwardly congratulating myself for not already rolling around on the ground laughing. The look on his face! It was just too precious! “Then whydidyou punch him in the face repeatedly? I know his face is eminently punchable—”
“Mrs Ambrose…” came a low and icy voice from the direction of a certain business magnate.
“—but you went a little too far. I mean, look at him! Black and blue and purple…he looks like a flag that decided red, white and blue wasn’t interesting enough.”
“Mrs Ambrose!”
“Still…punching him might still be acceptable,” I cheerfully continued, completely ignoring the way Mr Rikkard Ambrose was trying to freeze me with his gaze alone. “But trying to stab him? That goes a little too far, don’t you think?”
“I, um, well, err…”
Dear me, was it fun to watch this man squirm! In fact, it was so much fun it even made me temporarily postpone my urge to hug the big grizzly bear to death. God, how I had missed him! I hadn’t realised just how much. It was just like an appendix. You never realised how much you wanted it to stay put until it suddenly decided it wanted out.
In the end, I simply couldn’t resist anymore.
“Oh, come here you, you big beard! Let me hug you!”
“What are you—unhand me, woman! Unhand me this instant!”
“Aww…thanks! I’m so happy to hear you missed me, too!”
