The girl froze when he grabbed her hand, eyes wide.  Her smile returned, a bit wider this time, when he let her remove the skull mask.  She examined his revealed face, gaze lingering on the piercings and the scars.  The last time it had been night, and hard to make out details.  As the man reached to touch her cheek, the child flinched before she could stop herself.  She didn’t like being touched, even by people she knew.  She quickly stilled, though it was evident she was bracing for something.  Surprise showed in her eyes when whatever was expected didn’t come.  Any fabric between herself and someone else dampened the effect of contact a bit, and his gloves were thick, but there was hardly any change in the little amount Amuné could pick up from the stranger.  “You still feel so far away,” she said, sounding puzzled.

Before she could continue, he turned to look at something to the side, and a shadow fell across the pair.  The newcomer’s words were just as unkind as those his son had flung at her earlier.  Would the man in black do something to get him to go away too?  She hoped so.  The peasant’s anger, spurred into foolhardiness by fear and hate, washed over her like boiling water.  There was something else too, faintly.  Something deadly, but...expectant?  Amuné looked at the strange man beside her, and suddenly she worried what he intended.  But he didn’t seem to be doing anything.  He was hard to understand.

Someone needed to respond, so the noble got to her feet, brushing off her skirt and facing the one who accused them.  “He did no such thing,” she informed father and son.  She might not be a very good noble, but she knew enough to use a bit of the commanding attitude.  “My retainer came to my aid when I was set upon by your son and his friends without reason.  He did not cause harm to any of them, though they certainly did to me.”  The girl lifted her chin, her bruised and bloody lip very visible.  “I don’t see a good reason to waste my time dealing with such petty brats on so lovely a day, so I am willing to let this go without serious consequence.  I will put it down to us all being cranky after a week of foul weather.  Provided he and the others do not trouble me again, the issue ends here.  Do we have an agreement?”