She was, admittedly a little distracted as she worked her way towards the Boar. She had a lot on her mind. The change in her routine was something she was still grappling with as she swapped out priorities. She also ran through lists of medical supplies she might need for the ship and for her charity work. From that she moved onto the card game at hand, Gleek and her curiosity about why the Captain had made his strange demand. 

She was familiar with the game, having played it often enough and moreover having studied it with her father as an exercise in numbers and chance. Though when she’d played it in the posh parlor of her manor home so long ago they had called it Glic and it had lacked the trick round of play. Her father would have said it made it more civilized, but she would have argued that it made it more tame. Tame or civilized, she had adapted and the presence of the Trick round was something she had easily overcome the first time she’d encountered it when she’d joined the Navy. 

She had learned then the trouble that came with winning too often. She’d been given her fair share of bruises for “cheating”. But her time for winning at such things was long past and her lessons long ago healed. As she walked to the Boar she was building up a new strategy in her head so intently that she didn’t see her crewmate until an arm was thrust in front of her. 

Instinct, reaction, action, all flowed into one another like spring runoff and before she had caught up with the moment she reached out, grabbed the Helmsman’s arm, twisted it and pressed him into the rough wood of the door with surprising strength. For a second she held him there, his well muscled body held, likely more from surprise than from her decent leverage. As she caught up with the moment and she realized what had happened she let her hands drop from him and with a touch of color on her pale cheeks she spoke in her honeyed voice into the relative quiet of the tavern,

“Pardonnez-moi, you startled me.”

She tugged smartly at the bottom of her vest, putting herself back together and giving the helmsman a smile that did not reach her eyes. For all that he hadn’t been attacking her, she had seen in his eyes just then, and many times before a light, a hint of disrespect that he had yet exhibited openly but still she sensed. That coupled with her newest fear, that somehow he was at the heart of changes coming her way made her want to both keep close to watch his every move and to keep him at arm’s length lest he oust her easily. 

“I will buy you some Rum to make up for my rudeness.” She said graciously since arm’s length did not work on a boat, even one so fine as the Skate.