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Now she found herself staring at the back of her own office door as Quinn closed it in her face

Then it flew open again ‘Magenta?’ Quinn rapped ‘My office Now’

You could have heard a pin drop behind her They all anticipated her iuessed She countered that expectation with her sweetest sood—essential—at least until she learned the ropes Walking inside, she shut the door behind her

‘Let’s get one thing clear,’ Quinn said, handing Magenta the hairpiece she had left on his desk ‘You do not usepurposes You do not come in here at all, unless at my express invitation And, if I’m at work early, you are too’

‘And hoould I—?’

‘Hoould you know?’ he interrupted, narrowing his eyes ‘I was co to that Do you have your notebook? No? Carry it with you at all tiive you a memo to alert you to the fact that I will be in here at six in the , I expect you to note it down Why are you late, by the way?’

Magenta opened her mouth and wondered which of the ue would work best in Wonderland ‘I apologise,’ she said, thinking better of ht appreciate a couple of days to become acclimatized’

‘Acclimatised? I’ve co with you liuessed hadn’t been used over froiven limes to counteract scurvy Surely they ay past that?

‘I need you here on tienta,’ Quinn continued to rap ‘You’re er If the job’s too much for you, just let me know’

‘It isn’t—Ijust shy of a salute

This was novel This was annoying and confusing And, alar, with all that dark hair escaping his best atte over his brow And those eyes, steely and fierce—not to mention the body currently concealed beneath some pretty sharply tailored clothes Here at last was aon Had she et all that nonsense about not wanting to add hiladly put Quinn on her ‘must do’ list

‘Please accept ies’ She wanted to keep the job, such as it was, didn’t she? ‘I forgot you intendedsuch an early start And I’ll be sure to remember my, er, “must do” list in future’

‘Be sure you do Just reets you no special favours from me I expect you up to speed by the end of the day And any thoughts youtime off before the holidays, cancel them’

She had to s her pride She’d been doing a lot of that recently, but it would only be until she found her feet down this complicated rabbit-hole—or, better still, until she woke up ‘I’ll get the coffee, shall I?’

‘Yes, you do that,’ Quinn agreed ‘And take that dead rat with you’

‘Of course’ She was only too happy to drop the horrible hairpiece in the first bin she found

The enta set the coffee down in front of Quinn Her teas around the What were the wo? Surely some of them had flair?

She glanced at Quinn as he rubbed a hand across his eyes, as if he had forgotten so Was it too much to hope he had intended to include so?

‘I should have asked for coffee for everyone,’ he apologised—to the lance her way

She wasn’t going to snap back in front of the ht have lost all sense of business protocol by speaking to her so rudely, but she hadn’t ‘No proble out of the roo She would gladly exchange those looks for a return to the casual acceptance of her gender she was used to Thea hole into her back h she was pleasantly surprised when one late arrival rushed to hold the door for her Were her sensibilities changing too?