Page 224 of Storm over the Caribbean
“Strenuous?” I demanded—and was promptly ignored. Fists clenching even more tightly, I felt rage build inside me.
He dares to ignore me? He goes and breaks his promise, forces a girl I put under my protection to slave away in a factory, and then he dares to ignore me? I’m going to—
“Man for the job?” Mr Ambrose cocked his head at the supervisor. “I never said it would be a man, did I? Here she is.” And he pushed Leah forward. “Your new chief toy tester.”
—strangle the bastard! And then I’m going to rip out his guts and…wait, what?!
“Are you sure, Sir?” The supervisor frowned, pointing at a pile in the corner. “We mostly produce boys’ toys here, and I doubt a young girl would be suitable to—”
“Yay! Fun stuff!”
Abruptly, the supervisor found himself elbowed aside by a tiny female missile. It struck the pile and burrowed into it, resurfacing moments later with a wooden sabre in hand and a model ship in the other. With a delighted laugh, she stabbed the sabre forward.
“Arrr! Die, landlubber!”
“Yes,” Mr Ambrose stated. “I am quite sure she is suitable.”
Moving past his employee, my husband stepped towards the little girl, who was currently trying to arrange the pile of toy boats scattered around her into a formidable fleet. I was only vaguely aware of her or my husband right now, however. My mind was a bit numb, echoing with the words I had just heard.
Chief toy tester?Chief toy tester?
…
Factory work my foot! Oh that conniving, granite-faced son of a…!
“Girl!” Snapping his fingers, Mr Ambrose drew the attention of the mini-pirate.
“Aye aye, Captain?”
“I shall expect you to work diligently, understood?” He gestured at the mountain of toys. “You will be required to work all day long, testing all of these toysextensively!”
“Understood, Sir!”
“And I want reports in triplicate.”
“Aye aye, Captain!”
“And if you start lazing around, you will be keelhauled!”
“Aye aye, Captain!”
Mr Ambrose scrutinised her for a moment before he finally gave her a brisk nod. “Adequate. Carry on, sailor.”
Then he whirled around and stalked back the way he had come, past me and towards the exit of the factory. As for me? I sidled up to him, a shit-eating grin on my face.
“So, Mr Ambrose…” My grin widened even farther, turning from shit-eating to outright dungheap-devouring. “There is no such thing as a free meal in this life? You expect everyone to work hard?”
“Indeed.”
Sliding an arm around his waist, I gave him a squeeze. “And you depositing a little girl in front of a mountain of toys is purely because you want her to work hard.”
“Toy tester is a perfectly normal occupation.”
“Naturally.”
“And I shall pay her no more than the minimum wage for her position.”
“Of course you won’t. Let me ask…is there a home included with the minimum wage?”
