Ester could hardly miss the hesitation, but the fact that the younger woman was even still lingering in the face of that proposition (and all she had meant by it) was notably damning. The cause was already lost or already won, no?

“Not far at all,” Ester said, with a catlike grin, pulling the young woman up with her before she had time to come up with any new excuses. “And don’t worry about your funds, darling,” she added in amusement, entirely blasé about that insinuation, “that’ll be plenty.”

Yes, a bottle of gin would do her nicely, and so would the company, and, cheap date that she was even in this state Ester could afford to be a little choosy. (That said, if she had a galleon for every stranger she had taken home with her in the last few years... Well, that Gringotts vault would be a pretty picture.)

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