For a long second, she was lost in a distant moment - the thick velvet curtains surrounding Maddie muffling the sounds of the rest of the world, like being underwater, the only sound was her own breath in her ears. Just as her fingers touched its nose, a voice broke through the stillness, like a crack of thunder and Madeleine started, jerking her hand away from the jaguar as though burned. The surprise had set her heart hammering in her chest, a painful sensation when matched with an over tight corset.

When she realised who had come upon her, her heart was sent hammering again, a blush racing up her throat to colour her cheeks. Oh Merlin! It was him, the explorer she had spilled her guts to, embarrassed herself in front of and that who had clearly been so put off by her ridiculous outpouring of foolishness that when she had plucked up the courage to write he had clearly thought it pointless to write back. She didn’t blame him, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t mortified.

’Yes, well’ she managed, glancing from him back to the jaguar, frozen mid snarling swipe, ’we felt we ought to renew our acquaintance.’ she offered a small smile. He was clearly trying to be both patient and civil, ’It seems like it might be the evening for renewed acquaintances’ she acknowledged and offered her hand to shake in greeting, ’it is nice to see you again Mister Fisk’. And it was, but she should have guessed that coming back to England might mean seeing or hearing from him again, his family were notable and numerous enough to make that almost a certainty.

She was older now than when they had first met, a little more comfortable, or perhaps a little more resigned that what she really wanted would never really be possible. ’What brings you among this company?’ she asked, her opinion of Georgi was not an especially good one, and his ‘friends’ seemed vain and vacuous, neither of which had suited her first impression of Mister Fisk.

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