Page 222 of Storm over the Caribbean
Smiling, I leaned over and snuggled up against him. “Oh…just a wild guess. So, wherearewe going?”
All I got in response was…
You guessed it. Silence.
Hm…so, he wants to keep secrets? From his dear wife of all people?
Fine. Let him be all secretive for now. I could have fun imagining what kind of home he had picked out for Leah. Maybe a childless, wealthy merchant who owed him a favour had offered to adopt her? Or a noble lady too old to have children of her own? Ah, this was going to be good! I loved surprises!
Or at least that was what I thought until the carriage turned around a corner, and the smell of smoke drifted in through a gap in the window.
Not wood smoke from a chimney fire warming a nice house during the chilly autumn. No. Factory smoke.
What. The. Heck.
No. No, surely, I was mistaken. Surely, not even Mr Rikkard Ambrose would send a child to a—
“Chop, chop, you lazy brats!” I heard a rough voice from outside the carriage. “Work faster!”
Scratch that. He apparently would.
Slowly, very, very slowly, I turned to stare at Mr Rikkard Ambrose. I opened my mouth—then spotted Leah on his lap, still with a happy smile on her face.
Calm, Lilly. Calm. Don’t explode. At least until all innocents are out of the blast radius.
“Mr Ambrose?” I asked,verycalmly, politely, and hopefully low enough for Leah not to hear.
“Yes, Mrs Ambrose?”
“I thought we were here because of Leah?”
“We are.”
“Then, pray, why are we driving into the industrial district?”
Cold eyes met mine. His answer came swift and ruthlessly. “Because we are heading to a factory.”
Child Labour?
“Because we are heading to a factory.”
I ground my teeth.
He doesn’t even bother to deny it, the goddamn son of a bachelor…!
“Let me rephrase, then.” I dragged in a deep breath. “Whyare we heading to a factory?”
Swivelling his head towards me, Britain’s richest business mogul sent me a stare as cold as the heart of an iceberg. “You asked me to find an appropriate place for the girl, did you not?”
I felt my heart plunge into a dark hole.
No.
No. This couldn’t really be the man I married, right?
A sudden chill went down my spine, and dizziness started to overcome me. By the time it subsided, the carriage had stopped in front of a tall brick building with several towering smokestacks spewing black fumes into the air.
“Where are we? Where are we?” Leah eagerly demanded, jumping up and down in Mr Ambrose’s lap.
