OOM sorta -- Outside, a late-night chance encounter

[ikissdhimbck]

It's dark by the time Kate finishes with her evening chores in the stables. The 'time of year' -- or however time works here -- plus a cloud cover that threatens snow above, nudges the darkness deeper despite the fairly early hour.

She coos her goodbyes to Beaut, and then leaves the stables, stuffing her hands into the pockets of her long coat and hunkering against the cold. She makes her way up along the path, boots crunching in uncovered gravel and days-old snow.

The atmosphere tonight strikes her as strange, and frankly she's just ready to get back inside where it's light and warm and crowded.

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Comments

[vojvode]

It is one thing to meet a woman on a busy street in London, and find a way to insinuate yourself into her company. It is quite another to insinuate yourself into the company of a woman on a quiet path in the winter woods. It takes genuine skill to make such a meeting seem a chance of fate.

The shadows shift and curl around her and when she lifts a hand from her pocket to brush a strand of hair from her eyes, he acquires just what he needs.

"Mademoiselle? Excuse me, I'm sorry. Did you -- drop these?"

The man in the grey suit and tophat has knelt in the muddy path and is holding her gloves.