Re: [log: antique store - daniel/claire/louis]
Claire felt a chill run up her spine a split-second before her hair shifted, and instinct screamed for her to stake it. Daniel appeared from peripheral, and she would have reminded him about something called manners if he didn't look like the pale rider was chasing him down. Instead she offered him a knowing nod and an approving smile, silent in comparison to Louis' soft show of gratitude for Daniel venturing out.
She followed them up the stairs, calmer at the lack of items pressed close around her. Louis' apartment was comfortable, and everywhere she looked gave treat of some interesting piece of furniture or careful little detail that kept her eyes flitting around to take it all in.
Tea, as she understood it, was important to those from the United Kingdom. For Claire, or more aptly, Temperance, tea had always been for when a person was sick. That was how it had been used back home. So the varying choice caught her by surprise like deer in headlights. "Oh, uh..." she blinked a few times in thought, thrown off completely by gunpowder. Gunpowder? She was fairly certain she didn't want that. "I don't know," she admitted with a sheepish laugh. "I come from the land of espresso," as though that should explain her lack of knowledge in this area. Her eyes tilted towards Daniel with brows raised, silently asking what of those choices would be, well, regular tea, "Herbal?"
The books on the coffee table did not go unnoticed, gloved fingers running over the spine to read the author's name. "Charles Rollin? Wow. Light research?" And Claire was genuinely impressed, yet she did not open the old books to peruse. Instead she found a seat, perched at the edge of the chair with her jacket slung over the arm. If she was nervous about starting the conversation, she did not show it, simply pulling forth a few pages of folded paper from her pocket as if she had been in this situation thousands of times before.
She hadn't. In the other situations, she would just be sent in to kill. Far easier. Not right. This was the right way. It could wait until they were all sitting and comfortable. And with tea. That was important. Yes, she was stalling before they had to get down to business.