Reinette easily navigated the pathways and steps of Versailles, her skirts whispering behind her in a familiar cadence. Always, she watched. The comings and the goings of court. And in turn their reaction to her, and the stranger beside her. In that, she gave them no ground.

Nothing to suggest this was out of the ordinary. Let them wonder. Let them wait. She owed them very little, after all. If anything at all.

She continued to lead the way to her suite of rooms, now located on the lower floors. In the past year she had vacated her rooms famously located just below the kings. The spiral staircase that now linked them was now closed as well, walled away.

She often felt like that staircase. Still reaching, but for something that was now undefined.

"Tell me something of yourself Monsieur Harkness. Is there anything of substance to you, beyond sightseer?"