Warmth bloomed through Sisse, sliding up her spine, coloring her cheeks. His attentions like this, it was unexpected, and yet she felt as if she would be hard pressed to be misunderstanding him. In the early hours of the morning when she arrived home and curled into her bed to sleep she knew that she would wonder and second guess, but in this moment, pressed sweetly in the folds of the present time, she felt as if he at last saw her, understood her to be the lady she was instead of the girl he had known. Her lips tingled with the memory of kiss months ago, that moment when things had shifted. Without realizing it her eyes drifted to his lips, but the moment she realized it she tore them away, met his gaze again.

"The company is precisely why one ought to attend such events." She turned as if surveying the crowds, coyly drawing the attention away from the compliment.