He was mocking her, she thought as she strode past him out of the ruined tavern into the night that had not yet faced such a fate. Mocking or perhaps trying to play nice? She wasn’t certain and cast a look over her shoulder at him, feeling confused and unsettled by the white flash of his grin in the night. She felt unsettled. She was not one who relished uncertainty and the feeling made her skin crawl. Yet she was very cognizant of her position and did not wish to seem weak or uncertain so she turned back towards where she walked and held her honeyed tongue until he brought up his finger and his need for it in his work. 

She looked at him again and nodded sagely as the cobbled streets turned into the wood of the docks as they approached where the Dusk Skated waited for them, the unlucky men who drew watch attentive along her railings. She lifted a hand in greeting and received a call in kind.

“Hands are invaluable and irreplaceable. They are one of the things that elevate us above animals.” Her voice made the lecturing words slippery and sweet. “The things we have done with these hands are astonishing, breathtaking.” She held up her own hands, once polished and pampered and now rougher with life and work but still graceful in their every line. Doctor’s hands. Hands that healed and hurt as needed. 

“That is why it is foolish that you thought to hide it from me. What do you think I am here for if not to keep the handpicked crew of the Skate in working order?” She strode up the gangplank with furious strides. Her night had not gone as she’d wished and she was feeling more than a little peeved about it and there was yet cards to be tortured with. That she was about to bring an irreverent man with an unsettling grin into her cabin did not please her. Especially not with how she had flushed when he asked to hear her say his name and requested such liberties as he name. She could not do so, would not do so but she had no quick answer for him and so just scowled, the expression would have been fearsome on a face less made for sunshine and warmth. 

“Please have a seat.” She said instead making no promises or comments about the name but letting it roll around in her head, Jax. What kind of name was that? Was there a story behind it? Was it real or an affectation? 

Her room was tiny as all ships cabins were, but it was her own. Which was one of the reasons she’d risen so high in the ranks. She needed her space, needed a door to keep the nightmare contained when they came. It was neat though with shelves high on the walls with netting rigged about them to keep their load of books put when the seas took to rocking the ship about. The latest read, a study in the native flora and fauna in the Americas was laying on the pillow of her perfectly made bed. She gestured towards a chair and moved to light the lamp that hung over the table and once lit, took a seat and gestured imperiously for his hand. 

“Let me see it.” Monsieur Jax, she added mentally.