Page 69 of Storm of Bells
Mr Stone cleared his throat. ‘I’m afraidnot.’
‘What? Why not?’
‘Ibelieve his exact words were, “Tell that stingy bastard, Ambrose,if he tries to get free consultations out of me one more time, I’llprescribe him syrup of ipecac!”.’[19]
‘Oh.’
‘Exactly.’
‘Then what should we do?’ My legs startedmoving by themselves, carrying me up and down the corridor. Backand forth, I went, back and forth. Wringing my hands, I threw adesperate glance at Mr Stone. ‘We have to do something!’
‘Are you quite sure the situation is reallyas drastic as you fear?’ He hesitated. ‘I mean, as I understand, MrAmbrose is getting married soon and starting a new chapter in hislife. Many men change a little when they reach a certain stage inlife.’
I was just about to reply, when I heard asoftplinkout of my office. Rushing inside, I grabbed thecapsule and tore it open.
P.S: While you’re getting the sugar, run over to theflorist and get a nice potted plant, will you? I think I’ll needsomething to make my office more homely permanently.
XOXO
Rick
‘Mr Linton?’
Turning, I saw Mr Stone standing at the doorto my office. Raising an eyebrow, he pointed at the message.Wordlessly stepping towards him, I handed him the piece of paper.He glanced at it, and gulped.
I cocked my head.
‘What were you saying about the situation notbeing drastic?’
Ploys andPlans
Please let him be allright again. Please let him be all right again!
That was all that filled my mind when I wentto work next morning. I had heard of cases where, after themarriage, a woman suddenly found that her husband had been puttingup a front all the time, and only now was revealing his true,sinister self. There were some truly horrible tales. I triedimagining sitting at tea with those ladies in a few weeks, sharingmy sad story:
‘Oh, you poor darling! Your man finallyshowed his real face, did he?’
‘Yes, he did, the blaggard!’
‘What did he do? Threaten you? Hurtyou?’
‘No. He suddenly startedsmilingatme.’
‘Shocking!’
‘And he wanted to…oh, I can hardly bringmyself to say it!’
‘What, dear?’
‘He wanted todrink a cup oftea!’
‘Goodness gracious!’
‘And on the wall, he hung pictures, andcheery quotes!’
‘Heavens! Men are such bastards!’
And the worst thing was—we weren’t evenofficially married yet! If this was how he was going to changebefore the wedding night, how bad would it be after?
