For the very first time since he'd seen her, she smiled -- in embarrassment, but it was bright embarrassment, nearly comical in its wideness. "Fainted?" she repeated softly. She couldn't ever recall a time when she'd done something so terribly... terribly... silly. Her sisters suffered terribly from vapors, especially around well-dressed could-be suitors who could catch them. Beauty never had. She'd been a coltish, slightly awkward young girl, in Paris. She'd hid her smile behind her hands when her sisters simply folded up shop and called it a minute or two.
But the smile faded when she caught sight of what was clearly pain on the man's face. Despite everything, despite her fear of him, despite her uncertainty of his presence here, she leaned forward, her eyes filling with sympathy for whatever it was that broke the sternness of his face.
He had a face like Errol did -- still and deep and filled with secrets heavily penned in behind the trauma that Hannibal had pinpointed for her. She couldn't press this one -- certainly not! -- but neither could she let him believe he had to suffer here now.
"I'll make us some tea," she offered, standing as he asked a question of his own.
Cleric Partridge. Errol had told her of the elite hunters -- Grammaton Clerics. She glanced over at the jacket that looked like Errol's, and remembered her guest's comment regarding serial numbers. "You're one, too," she said. "A Grammaton Cleric." And then it hit her. The wounds that Errol carried from those days, this man surely did as well. "Oh," she said softly. "Oh, I'm very sorry, Monsieur Preston."
When she moved, it was very slowly; she knew enough not to reach too quickly. But nevertheless, she did reach, and set her fingertips very gently on the top of his shoulder. The man was still someone to be feared, but her sympathy was stronger. "It's better here," she promised.
And then there was tea to be made. She headed into the kitchen, letting her fingertips fall away as she went. Earl Grey seemed right, with its strong aroma and assertive bergamot flavor. Honey worked well with it. She set the kettle on, and went about preparing the tea set for them.