A Strange Likeness Read Online Free PDF Page B

office fell silent at the sound.
    â€˜What is this man’s name?’ asked Alan.
    He still had the inkwell in his hand and he leisurely began to pour the remains of the ink on to the clerk’s head. The clerk let out another strangled yelp and looked reproachfully through the black rain, first at Alan and then at the subservient Johnstone.
    â€˜Phipps,’ Johnstone said. ‘Nathaniel Phipps.’
    â€˜Phipps,’ said Alan thoughtfully. ‘Dirty, isn’t he?’ He critically surveyed the ruined ledger and the ink dripping down Phipps’s face.
    â€˜Yes, sir,’ agreed Johnstone nervously.
    â€˜You did it,’ squealed Phipps at Alan. ‘He did it, Mr Johnstone. Not I.’
    â€œâ€˜You did it, sir ,” is the correct usage,’ said Alan, putting down the empty inkwell. ‘Say it after me, please.’
    â€˜Mr Johnstone, sir,’ roared Phipps desperately. ‘Please stop this madman.’
    â€˜Madman? Tut-tut,’ said Alan. ‘And if I am mad you’ve driven me into that condition, what with making me wait over two hours in a dam’d uncomfortable chair and enduring your insolence while I did so. I’ve a short fuse, which anyone who works for me soon finds out.’
    This was a lie, but Phipps was too agitated to care.
    â€˜Works for you! I don’t work for you! I work for Mr Johnstone.’
    â€˜And he works for me,’ said Alan gently. He picked up the clerk’s quill pen, and with the whole office and Johnstone watching him silently, breath drawn in, he rolled it in the ink and negligently wrote his initials on Phipps’s forehead.
    â€˜Yes, he works for me, and so do you now. You’re mine, Phipps. Alan Dilhorne’s property so long as you’re in this room. Unless, of course, you care to resign.’
    The silence in the room grew more deathly, broken only by the clerk’s whimpering while he scrubbed at his face with his handkerchief. ‘This can’t be true, Mr Johnstone.’
    â€˜Oh, but it is,’ said Alan. ‘Now clean up your disgusting person and your disgraceful work and do it again: properly this time.’
    â€˜It’s not fair,’ said Phipps tearfully. ‘You should have told me who you were.’
    Alan’s face was suddenly like stone. ‘Ah, but you see, I needed to know how you would treat someone whom you didn’t know was your employer’s son, and I found out, didn’t I. Didn’t I, Phipps? And if you can’t see what was wrong with what you’ve just said, then we shall never get Dilhorne and Sons’ London branch straight again, shall we?’
    He swung round and addressed his staring staff. ‘The rest of you can get down to it immediately, and do an honest day’s work for once. You’re none of you fit to work in my Sydney office. Mr Johnstone will tell you what I expect of you by tomorrow, and God help you all if it’s not ready by ten.’
    He walked to the door before turning and delivering his parting shot.
    â€˜Oh, and by the by, mid-morning porter is out, from today!’

Chapter Two
    T hat afternoon Eleanor left the schoolroom, where she had been working with Charles and young Mr Dudley, and decided that, four-thirty being almost upon her, she would not trouble to change her clothes in order to meet Ned’s Australian friend. She was still wearing her deep blue walking dress and that would have to do.
    She had reached the last step of the graceful staircase which spiralled to the top of the house when she met Staines, the butler. He bowed and said ‘Mr Ned is in the drawing room, Miss Eleanor, awaiting his friend, and asks you to join him there.’
    Somehow Eleanor gained the impression that he was enjoying a small private joke. She immediately dismissed this notion as fanciful and walked across the stone-flagged hall to the drawing room door.
    She should have trusted to her instincts. Ned