(123-02-29) Just A Drop Of Advice
Just A Drop Of Advice
Summary: Violet's on her way out when Esme stops her to dispense those two invaluable quantities, free advice and free booze. (OOC Note: This fades out due to being a casualty of RL!)
Date: 03/03/2016
Related: Not really.
Players:
Esme..Violet..

The red and yellow grocery shop on the corner of Oldtown Square and the Shambles is closed and shuttered when Violet arrives; at the door of the butcher's shop Mistress Esme is positively poised to go out, with a covered basket waiting on the counter and an air of haste in her greeting.

About an hour later the girl finds herself alone for the first time in the butchery. At this time of the evening it's a very quiet and soap-smelling and well-scrubbed place, tenanted chiefly by cleavers. She has time enough to feel the silence, perhaps to wonder whether she oughtn't to go back upstairs, or just let herself out and wait to be paid on Friday, or goodness knows what, before Mistress Esme's key turns in the lock and she bustles in again with her basket on her arm and strands of grey coming loose from her headscarf and a preoccupied air. "Oh, there you are, dearie," she declares, almost as though it hadn't struck her that Violet would be; and she pats the girl's arm on her way to put down the basket where it was before.

Caught off guard, Violet greets Esme with a small wave. "Mistress Esme," she says, straightening her hair. "Did you, um, have an enjoyable evening?"

The basket is on the counter again. Esme turns to look over her shoulder; "Aye, I did," she grants cheerfully, her expression suggesting amiable surprise at being asked. "And I'm sorry I was held up a little getting back; I hope I didn't leave you waitin' too long." She extracts an unmarked glass bottle of some deep amber-hued liquor from beneath the cover of her basket and asks, unexpectedly: "Will you stay and have a drop of this with me, dearie? You're always in and out so fast, I never have the chance to say hello." She says it so nonchalantly, too, without any hint of… you know, anything.

Violet blinks. "I… I suppose I could, yes." She smiles a little. "Sorry I'm so quick. Places to be and somesuch, you know how it is." She leans on a counter, pulling over a stool with her foot and sitting down.

"I know," agrees Esme, meeting Violet's eyes and nodding kindly. "I won't be a minute fetching cups, don't run away." She steps through into the grocery shop rather than going upstairs; the bell over the connecting door tinkles once as she opens it and then again as she shuts it, and another door opens and shuts too, in between, as she ducks in and out of her tiny back room.

She comes back with two wooden cups held in her left hand, which it's possible Violet will notice she's favouring this evening. It's her left hand that extracts the cork from the bottle, though her right hand lifts it to pour. "How are you gettin' on generally?" she inquires. "Settling in well in the city, and finding your feet, and— all those sorts of things nosy old people like to ask about?" She offers Violet the first cup (left hand), which now contains an inch of smokily fragrant something-or-another, and lifts her own (right hand) in a silent toast to goodness knows what.

"It's been interesting," Violet says tactfully, taking the cup and raising it in response before taking a sip. She gestures toward Esme's hand with her head. "Everything all right there?" The young woman looks tired, but mostly all right.

The drink is very strong and very smooth — and then, as an afterthought, bites.

Again Esme presents an air of mild surprise. "There? — Oh, yes, of course," she explains, and deliberately sips a second time from her cup, as though to prove it. "I gave my shoulder a bit of a wrench yesterday morning," she confides, leaning nearer, "movin' a barrel a wee bit big for me, because I couldn't be bothered waitin' for someone else to do it." She rolls her eyes in the universal signal for 'should have known better'. "It'll be right as rain in a day or two, I'm sure." She nods. "And I'm glad to hear you're gettin' on, though I daresay 'interesting' could go either way, couldn't it."

"There's good 'n' bad, I s'pose. Not dying out there, largely thanks to you," Violet admits, tapping her cup against the counter. "Be careful," she chides gently. "Don't want you hurting."

"Oh, I've learned my lesson for a while," Esme promises, "don't you worry." She doesn't sit, but leans her forearms on the end of the counter, regarding Violet contemplatively over the corner of it. "I'm glad to have been of help to you," she says in her habitual sincere way. "I think it was downright enterprisin' of you to set off for the big city as you did, and that's the kind of spirit I like to see in a young woman. Good things don't just fall in your lap, do they. You have to go out and look for 'em. D’you want another drop?” she inquires; and she continues dispensing sound and encouraging advice, and drink to go with it, until the latter begins to blur the former!

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