She was quiet a long moment. Collecting her thoughts was a charitable way to frame what she was really doing which was scrambling for some shred of control or insight in this matter. Thank goodness her mask was firmly in place and the medicine she’d taken to combat the hangover she richly deserved had worked as effectively as it had. Because she was lost, completely lost in the moment. She hadn’t expected this and wasn’t certain how to reply to this strange woman. She did not like being without footing, not in the least. But with the eyes all on them, even without looking up from the bag that was offered her, she could feel the gaze of nearly the entire crew. She swallowed and knew that she must act of her very silence would be part of the spectacle that she was trying to avoid. 

With a shaking hand she reached for the box and enclosed it in her fingers but did not take it from Antonia. Her thumb ran over the velvet of the bag in a speculative stroke. The motion bought her but a moment before the silence would swell into spectacle again. She did not like this moment, she did not like that she did not know her place or how best to reply. 

If you do not like the footing, best change the playing field. 

She looked around, noting what she’d seen before she’d been startled from above, that things were well in hand. Well enough in hand that so many of the crew had paused to watch. As her eyes swept over them all she let them see that she noted who paused and who worked. The savvy ones snapped back to work. 

“Come.” She said softly to the waiting woman. “This conversation would be best held elsewhere.” 

She let go of the bag then, a gentle unfolding of her fingers from the velvet that was not a rejection in the least. She turned and walked towards her cabin in a stiff gait that still managed to roll with the swell of the deck. She did not wait for an agreement, no matter what the woman and the Captain had between them she was first mate, she had to act the part. She had to, lest the sharks who watched and circled rip her to pieces at the first sign of blood in the water. The Captain’s encounter with Cooper had demonstrated to her so clearly that even here on this well-disciplined ship, no one was safe and no one was to be truly trusted. Even if she wanted to.