Her face twitched a little at the mention of swamps, she had no love for swamps. Miserable places where it seemed everything in them, animal, insect or plant was out to make one as uncomfortable as possible. As if the place itself wanted to remind you that you weren’t welcome. When a place spoke so loudly, she tended to listen. So skirting the swamp suited her just fine. 

She fished in her pouch for the chain upon which her chits rested, a decent collection for one her age if someone were in the know, but she suspected he was not in the know. Asking for chits was a mark of respect and eased both parties minds on the score of honesty, chits could be referenced in any guildhall for further confirmation, or so she’d been told. She’d never personally confirmed that they were, the scratches across the pages of any such record made her eyes burn and her cheeks flame.
 
That a great many of her chits were of well-known names helped her reputation considerably, critical for a female in the trade. That the most distinguished chit in her possession was from a babysitting gig with a reluctant bride off to marry the king’s nephew was not something she bragged about. A chit was a chit. 

“Always ask for Chits.” She advised him as she slid the chain across the table to him. “It establishes that you aren’t green at this, even if you are, and it give the mercenary a chance to show off and confirm that he’s worth hiring. All those will be on record at the guildhall if you care to check.” 

She joined him in filling her mouth with food and nodded at his appreciation of the Ham, Florie knew her way around a ham for certain. She used the time she chewed to consider his pacing. The thought of setting out that night made her stomach churn. She would do it, but she’d rather not. It had taken her far too long to get there as it was, to leave so soon… 

So he was in a hurry, the why of that was important. Were they fleeing someone? Racing someone or simply scrambling to catch up because an absentminded lack of attention to dates? She suspected the latter but needed to be certain of a few things first.

“Are you all provisioned? If you have everything you need we could leave tonight. But if you don’t have everything, food for two, a mount and so on, you’d best wait until morning when such things can be acquired.”

That said she owed her mouth another delivery of heaven and so proceeded to wrap a slice of ham in a bit of still warm bread and then introduced it to her content to be silent for a moment mouth.