The Man With The Umbrella

- 60 -

Merlin took Amelia's steadying pregnancy into consideration whilst undergoing training and in result he took a few obstacles and courses out as a precaution.

For example; the room Amelia slept in was not a casing in itself to be flooded with water where she either chose to use the shower heads tubing to supply oxygen down a toilet bowl or where the fixed mirror in the room was easily breakable when punched correctly.

Instead Merlin being Amelia's mentor and bodyguard decided to do the basic training in fight as well as brushing up her skills to handle a varieties selection of guns and ammunition.

***

Amelia walked into the training padded room in comfortably fitted sports clothes and hands neatly tucked into her sides.

Merlin marched across towards her to place a metal tray of equipment down in between the pair. Amelia analysed what was on the tray and knew in absolute that it was a simple handgun broke apart.

"First rule for any Kingsman agent is that they have to be quick when disassembling and assembling any brand of weapon provided on or to them." Merlin spoke with a hint of grazed Scotland accent shinning through.

"I'm not an agent, Merlin." Amelia digressed. "No you're not but I'm giving you the basic training of one." He managed to speak with a humanly smile.

Stroking her fringe behind her ear, Amelia clapped her hands before rubbing the together. "Alright, what's the time to beat?"

Merlin pulled a stopwatch out of his trouser pocket. "Ideally an agent should assemble a small form of gun in ten seconds, bigger items such as a shotgun, fifteen seconds. Twenty at a push. The record to beat is five point three seconds."

Nodding her head, she corrected her stance and waited for Merlin to give her the nod to begin. She blew out a nervous breath as she assembled the gun. As she clicked the handle in, Merlin stopped the time. "Six point one seconds... Not bad." He praised whilst marking it down.

***

That was easy for Amelia and Merlin knew it. Taking things up a notch, Merlin began teaching Amelia a better way to defend herself. It's started with hand-work until Amelia decided that she enjoyed how her body and mind worked as one when doing karate.

Over the course of two months: Merlin, Allison and Robert made Amelia practically untouchable.

Whilst Merlin taught combat, Allison taught Amelia the importance of being a Kingsman Lady. It was everything in genre from the art of wielding a hand-fan to correcting her clothing wear in certain areas for better appeasement.

Amelia enjoyed wholeheartedly her time spent with Robert when learning new things. Everything from history to understanding Eurus' head a little better when it came to the noble reprogramming she has acquired to do ever since she was young...

***

Amelia was now six months pregnant and she was shaping out gracefully with her unborn little boy or as she often thought about it... Baby Holmes.

Wearing a blue three-piece suit starkly in contrast to her Kingsman coat of arms ring and pocket watch underneath her black raincoat; Amelia wielded her umbrella close to her form which she recently upgraded by adding a thickened glass at the end-top which when broken released a toxin and she made her way to the sleek jaguar with Allison and Merlin in tow.

The ride to West Sussex from Cornwall was four hours and twenty-three minutes. At least that's what Amelia timed it to be.

During that time, Allison contacted a close accomplice, Anthea, in order to station a handful of MI figured agents to secure Musgrave Hall in time for when they arrived.