She almost walked away right then. Her nerve was close to breaking and he seemed odd, skittish and distracted and she wasn’t certain she was up to deal with that. She opened her mouth to excuse herself when her belly rumbled underneath her jerkin, demanding tribute. She’d lost a lot of weight when she’d been recovering, her gut had hurt to much to eat much and healing her massive wound had taken all of her reserves and she hadn’t had the funds to do much about that of late. 

She didn’t have to agree to accompany him, she just had to get him to the inn, get him to pay for dinner and then listen. He seemed like the sort to be amenable to that. For all that he was ink-stained and rumbled, his clothing wasn’t cheap. Her mother had been a seamstress and as such she knew good work when she saw it. He could pay, for dinner at least. The rest remained to be seen. 

When he introduced himself she pursed her lips and inclined her head politely like she would to any client. 

[i]“Respect can only raise your pay little cat.” Big George had said. “It don’t cost nuthin’ and you don’t have to mean it but it is always a good place to start from. You don’t have to keep givin it neither, but just start with it. Them that hires us likes that.” [/i]

“My name is Katherine Galt. The Inn isn’t far at all. Just a street over from the square. We could go to one closer but those are usually rowdier than the Locust at this time of night and we won’t get much talking done.”

Besides, she thought to herself, the Locust had the best food and she was starved. She began to walk towards the tavern in question wanting to see if he would follow or if he would sputter and try to steer her like so many clients did. In the dance and patterns of the job acquisition she was finding familiar ground and though she was only several steps from panicking there was some peace to be found in patterns.