@multamusa, for hazel from raine
The pub isn’t crowded, for this time of night, but when the meeting of the workers’ society lets out across the way, it’ll flood--all the hotheads and agitators will come pouring in, and how can a body hope to sidle up to another body in all that crowd? Not to mention be heard, when making one’s persuasions? Raine relishes a chance to persuade, and she doesn’t want to shout above two dozen rowdy radicals to do it. She won’t hesitate, then. She buys the lady a drink.
“I only thought,” she says, when she does her sidling, and there are two gins on the bar in front of them, her offering, “that you might have a mind for a little friendly company. And if there’s two of us--” a smile starts at the corner of her mouth--”it keeps the men off.” Her eyes flicker over the other woman, drawing back up to her face, a gaze close and assessing, belying her casual stance. “Unless that’s the sort of company you're looking for?”
