Baker and Jones Ch. 15

Annette restrains a snort of laughter. "I assure you this is not about you."

"Isn't it? A noblewoman broke your heart and you cope by trying to tear down her world?"

"Tearing down your lovely comfort is simply a side benefit of my interests," Annette grins. "All that I am interested in is improving the conditions of life for everyone else."

"By reign of terror?"

"Is the side effect of industry not terror for the working man?"

Samantha rolls her eyes and sighs once more. "Your thinking is so... so uneducated on reality, Annette. It seems to believe all of us to be monsters and thieves, but it is not so. You ought to stay for dinner and meet Mister Hayle. His passion for charity would surely sway your opinion."

Annette taps a finger against her collar. "I sincerely doubt I would be welcome at dinner."

"You would be welcome if I invited you."

Annette laughs in response.

"This is funny to you?" Samantha frowns.

"You're serious?"

To Annette's surprise, Samantha rises from her comfortable couch and sits down onto hers, a respectable distance away, but close nonetheless. "Just because things ended in such a sour way does not mean that I despise you. In fact, I have been worried about you."

"Worried about me?"

"You ran away from Cordelia and threw in with a lot of murderers and radicals, only to be captured and publicly humiliated in your return," Samantha's face shines with an unexpected sincerity. "Yes, I worried about you."

"I am quite alright," Annette leans back, taken aback by the sudden change in tone from the woman.

"And yet you are now repeating the very same dangerous ideas that brought you into such trouble with the law. You ought not speak like this, and not simply for the danger it may bring to you," Samantha chides. "It isn't good for your person to be so convinced of a backwards way of thinking. Mister Hayle and his companions in industry are no monsters. They provide an immeasurable service to society, employing thousands upon thousands of working people who would otherwise be in the streets or pushed into collar servitude."

"I thought you supported the collarhouses?"

"As a prevention for starvation. But is it not better for a man to work an honest wage upon the sweat of his own brow?" Samantha rises. "I'll make the request to Lord Winchester. I should like you to accompany us for dinner, so that you may see it for yourself."

"What if I should rather leave?"

Samantha gently picks up one of Annette's hands and pulls her to stand as well, holding it with a sweet tenderness. Her thumb rubs softly along the backside of her hand. "Stay, as a favor to me. I... I was not as pleasant as I ought to have been with Cordelia when we parted. Allow me this opportunity to right that wrong by showing you this kindness."

As much as Annette might resent the idea, the opportunity to sit across from a baron and attempt to learn more is too important to pass up. Even if Jarl might resent her for departing from the plan he set out for her, surely he would see the value in gleaning as much information as possible. The delay in her return might make him worry about her turning against him, and provoke his threats against Cordelia, but Annette feels confident he couldn't be that foolish. He could just as likely conclude that Annette had been found out as a spy and killed by Lord Winchester to cover the tracks of whatever nefarious plan he was involved in.

In either scenario, Annette ought to have time to stay. She meets Samantha's eyes and nods, hoping that somewhere, across the large city, Cordelia wasn't too terribly worried about her wellbeing. She's sure Cordelia might even be proud to hear about the new hijinks Annette has somehow found herself in.