(Untitled)

[gabriel_tam]

Regan is at a meeting, and thus the New Mayfair house is quiet when he arrives home-- early, for once.

On impulse, Gabriel sorts though the evening news before selecting the Finance Journal and the Londinium Times. With both in hand, he focuses and steps through the doorway into Milliways

Comments

[a_horne]

Not too far away: a young lady, standing by the window. Eventually her hand falls, and her head comes up, and both her feet are firmly on the ground.

Audrey Horne has a good understanding and a firm foundation. So the saying goes.

She turns, slowly, leading with her hips (it's a night to feel things, to disturb guests with racket, to move simply, sinuously, neatly, to the music of the spheres that nobody else wants to hear) --

And stops when she sees Gabriel, startled.

[gabriel_tam]

He turns a page of the paper-- and as he does, Gabriel catches sight of the young woman staring at him.

He offers her a cordial smile, of the sort that is perfectly correct for use in a variety of business and political settings.

"Nĭ hăo."

[a_horne]

Walls up.

"I'm sorry," Audrey says politely, "I didn't quite catch that."

She did, of course. Josie Packard. Josie Packard, and Benjamin Horne, and living at the Great Northern. Plenty of businessmen in and out from the East, on the West Coast.

[gabriel_tam]

"Hello," he repeats, switching languages smoothly. "It's Mandarin. Don't be concerned, miss; not all that many do here, I've found."

[call_me_shane]

Hard boots beat a solemn rhythm across the wood floor as a man in hard-worn jeans and a button-down gingam shirt strolls in from the back, beating rainwater from his hat, a wet full-length duster over one arm.

He certainly doesn't move like a cattleman, even after all these months out of practice.

[gabriel_tam]

No. He doesn't.

Gabriel glances up abruptly at the sound of booted footsteps, and his expression is guarded and wary.

After a moment's observation, he nods a greeting to the other man.

[call_me_shane]

After a moment, the lean man nods back, though if anything his own body language becomes equally guarded. He's been marked - how many times has he gotten such looks in various towns? Still, there is no immediate outcry, so he continues on to the Bar and orders a single malt whiskey.

He is still very careful to keep his back to the Bar, a habit he won't ever be able to lose.

[gabriel_tam]

He's still holding the paper in both hands as he watches this. The man moves like one of those xī niú gunslingers, but from his angle he can't see if there's a weapon slung at his hip or not.