Finally. He had been scanning the crowd fruitlessly, for it was hard to pick out people in the night air outside - even with the street lit up by lights, faces were cast in deep shadow.
Not quite in deep enough shadow to steal away and not be recognised for it, Tyb considered sadly. But maybe sometime after midnight. And it was not as though it wasn’t worth seeing Elsie, even when they had to filter themselves through public glances.
If he jolted in ‘surprise’ and nudged her gently, letting his arm brush past her as she came up beside him, that was inadvertent, excusable, and utterly unplanned. Obviously. “I was starting to think you’d been abducted on the way here,” he murmured, quiet tone matched by a louder grin that he hoped no one saw but her. “Or that I’d forgotten what you looked like.”
He tossed a glance over his shoulder, trying to spot whoever was with her tonight.
Her cheeks were flushed from the cold. Pity he couldn’t at the very least take her hand.
Not quite in deep enough shadow to steal away and not be recognised for it, Tyb considered sadly. But maybe sometime after midnight. And it was not as though it wasn’t worth seeing Elsie, even when they had to filter themselves through public glances.
If he jolted in ‘surprise’ and nudged her gently, letting his arm brush past her as she came up beside him, that was inadvertent, excusable, and utterly unplanned. Obviously. “I was starting to think you’d been abducted on the way here,” he murmured, quiet tone matched by a louder grin that he hoped no one saw but her. “Or that I’d forgotten what you looked like.”
He tossed a glance over his shoulder, trying to spot whoever was with her tonight.
Her cheeks were flushed from the cold. Pity he couldn’t at the very least take her hand.
