Unwanted Competition.
The address, of course, had been easy to come by. Martin Bletchley already knew far more than he would like about Sophronia Ainsworth--including the fact that she knew far more than he would like about him.
It was a problem.
So the invitation goes off to her apartment, a very polite invitation, to dinner, at one of the nicer restaurants in Veilgarden--on neutral ground, where neither of them (so far as he knew) had too many friends. Because of course their friends were the issue at hand. Not that Martin objected to anyone having friends. Martin wished all the friends in the world to everyone in the world. But when the same individual kept turning up as a friend-of-a-friend across an unnervingly broad swath of Neath society, well--
Well, it wasn't difficult to conclude that Miss Ainsworth was in the business of having friends. Which was not a business that much allowed...competition without coordination.
He arrives early, takes a table, and orders a good wine. This was, after all, a business meeting.
It was a problem.
So the invitation goes off to her apartment, a very polite invitation, to dinner, at one of the nicer restaurants in Veilgarden--on neutral ground, where neither of them (so far as he knew) had too many friends. Because of course their friends were the issue at hand. Not that Martin objected to anyone having friends. Martin wished all the friends in the world to everyone in the world. But when the same individual kept turning up as a friend-of-a-friend across an unnervingly broad swath of Neath society, well--
Well, it wasn't difficult to conclude that Miss Ainsworth was in the business of having friends. Which was not a business that much allowed...competition without coordination.
He arrives early, takes a table, and orders a good wine. This was, after all, a business meeting.