Editing Adventures of Dash Karp and Cat Flynn (section)

== Chapter 5 "Overnight Guest" ==

'''''DASH'''''

Once our eyes became unlocked, I rose up to go refill my cognac. I didn't usually have a second cognac before bed, but I didn't usually have female guests that were going to sleep in the guest room either. 
"If all goes as I suspect it will, Catarina, we will convince Mr. Applewhite to let you keep your keepsake and to drop the matter entirely. Or, you might accept whatever generous offer he makes. In any case, it is my hope the matter is neatly wrapped up before lunch tomorrow and I can be back in Manhattan in time to take Gladys Rutherford to the opera tomorrow night." 
Of course that didn't say much about what to her and I was not exactly satisfied not having that answer myself. I swirled the freshly poured cognac in my glass and looked to the far wall as though the answer was there. 
"It might not be safe to send you back to your apartment," 
I sipped some cognac. 
"I am sure Applewhite will let you stay at the chateau while you make other arrangements." 
I returned to her and tossed back the entirety of the cognac.
"Might be time to take a powder from the Big Apple, Catarina." 

'''''CAT'''''

"Opera?"
Her nose wrinkled and she laughed softly.
"Isn't that dreadfully, well, dull?  Not that I've ever gone, but it always seemed to me strange to sing so....stuffily."
She watched him move, something predatory but smooth about it and she sliced her gaze away, annoyed with herself.
"Well, I think maybe you and I must travel in different circles if its as easy as all that for you Dash."
Oh she smiled, most would even have bought it, but she was scared.  She was all too well aware that she was clanless in a subculture that was beholden to clan above all, living illegally in a country glutted with refugees and immigrants already and with a skill set that hardly set her up for long term success.  The string of thought brought her hand up, throwing back the rest of the whiskey as a shot, wincing some before she coughed.
"Hit me again?"

'''''DASH'''''

"Stuffily?" 
Well she wasn't wrong, but I could find entertainment in many venues. 
"Opera is simply another expression of art, I suppose." 
I set down my empty glass and took up hers when she asked for more. I didn't want to get her drunk, but one more wouldn't hurt. 
"We will see to the arrangements, with your permission, of course." 
I smiled while I poured her whiskey and when I brought it to her, I held it out of reach for a moment. 
"Don't worry about expenses, Catarina. That will be taken care of." 
I stopped to study her again. Ostensibly out of the normal curiosity for wanting to learn about things I didn't know. Romnichal, she claimed. "Forgive me for staring, but I never would have taken you for a gypsy. You're not just taking advantage of the Gypsy Rose Lee's popularity?" I had actually seen the burlesque queen perform twice and she certainly put on a show? And I do mean show! 
"How long have you been doing burlesque?"

'''''CAT'''''

She felt her cheeks go hot and she stood up from the settee where she was sitting, arms wrapping around herself, one at her waist and one over her breasts, a painful poke reminding her of what she had concealed.
"I am no lewd low class dancer as all that are."
She paced past him, her Celtic brogue thickening, the usually more careful grasp on proper speech taking a back seat to being embarrassed and angry.
"Nunya clasp to what is nor isn't....slap a harlot in tassels and feathers and enough pancake for half the coast and suddenly everyone's all high 'n courtly ain't they now?"
Pace, pace, pace, a pass by and she snatched up the whiskey and paced some more before turning on him, forgetting that she still wore heavy stage make up and done fancy hair herself.
"I dance the dances my people have danced since before yorn were to set their nappied arses on a mare's flank thank you muchly." 
Her blue eyes were hot, cheeks too obviously red despite the pancake she wore to darken her own complexion.

'''''DASH'''''

Her sudden indignant attitude fairly amused me, as did change in her speech pattern. I almost helped myself to more cognac. 
"Forgive me, Catarina, I did not mean to upset you." 
Though it was an interesting development. Interesting and oddly attractive. Perhaps she was simply naive about what burlesque was, or why men came to watch her dance. 
"Do you believe the men come to watch the dance of your people for the sake of cultural enlightenment? Or do they come to watch Exotica move about in an alluring fashion that sets their passions aflame?" 
I still resisted having any more to drink and just stood in one spot while I watched her pace. Even in her pacing she moved in a way that held my gaze. 
"Different performances appeal to different people for different reasons, Catarina. The performer, however, might not always intend to be appealing in certain ways, or to certain people." 
I offered up a dashing smile then as she passed by me for the umpteenth time. 
"Did you want to wash the, uh, pancake from your face?" 
And I twirled a finger in her direction. 

'''''CAT'''''

She did indeed move in a way that was simply lyrical, always had from the moment she transitioned from crawling to walking to running.  She was, for better or worse, generally unaware of doing so and surely there was no salacious sway or strut right then.
"I had a good thing going."
If by good one included criminals, dank clubs, smoky haze and strangers trying to make the leap from club audience to wanting her to dance a whole nother dance with them.  His sudden smile caught her off guard and she started, disarmed suddenly.  A hand touched her cheek and she chuckled.
"I am in desperate need of a quick shower off if you've maybe got something I could wear?" 
Her dress smelled of smoke and the idea of putting back on the worn clothing was a bit gross.  She might be low rent, but she was, like all Romnichal, meticulous about cleanliness.

'''''DASH'''''

Normally, I slept in the nude, but I did keep pajamas on hand for various occasions. 
"I suppose I could lend you something of mine, though it will be big. Excuse me," 
And I left her there to go to my bedroom and root through the drawers. My hands clutched two different sets. Silk or cotton? The shirt alone would be like a night dress for her, but I chose the cotton and included the bottoms for the sake of her modesty. I believed she was rather naive about the affect her dancing had on men and for that reason I chose not to enter into any games with her. She was, I gathered, a 'good' girl and it would be wrong of me to tempt her. Or to make her more tempting than she already was. If I had flannel pajamas, I would have given her those. 
"Here you go," 
I offered with a smile as I handed her the plain white pajamas. 
"The bathroom is there," 
Pointing to the door between the bedrooms, 
"And you can change in there," 
Pointing to the second bedroom. 
"I will give you some privacy," 
And I gave her a short bow and retreated to my own room. 

'''''CAT'''''

She was no hothouse flower beneath glass, but nor was she a low rent stripper.  She had taken a few to her bed, but they had been choices, not opportunities or rungs on some ladder.  The plain white pajamas got a strange look as she took them.
"You haven't been a...patient...anywhere recently have you?  Some cozy padded place?"
And that quicksilver smile flashed, teasing him about the virgin whites he was handing her.
"I won't waste water." 
A strange comment maybe, but it made her chuckle as she headed for the bathroom, entering and widening eyes a bit, way nicer than the shared bathroom at the boarding house.  She stripped off her clothing and eyed the room, tucking the wad of cash beneath the rug before stepping into the shower and turning on the water, a startled look when the water was warm to start with.  She did not linger overlong in the shower, washing her face and body thoroughly, one cloth used below the waist, her hands above, culturally the divide was not moral but hygenic.  In less than ten minutes she was clean and wrapping her hair in a towel as she slipped into the far too large pajamas, forgoing the pants after the fourth time they slid off her body and pooled at her ankles.  Besides, the shirt almost reached her knees.  She folded her other clothes and  tucked the money and jewel into the pile deeply before emerging.

'''''DASH'''''

I changed into the satin pajamas and was immediately reminded I was no fan of satin against my skin, but it was teh choice left me. I covered myself further with a scarlet house robe and grabbed the cigarette case on the top of my dresser. It was my plan to have a smoke on the balcony and then turn in, but when I heard her in the sitting room, I decided to have my smoke out there. 
"Did you find everything to your satisfaction? As I said, I will have feminine toiletries sent up in the morning, along with breakfast. Do you like poached eggs? Or perhaps you would prefer...pancakes?" 
I smiled and lit my cigarette then, enjoying a long pull to end the day. I did my best to not look too closely at her wearing only my nightshirt. She had extremely pretty ankles, which I recall noticing when I saw her dance before. 
"There is a house robe in the closet there," 
I should have told her that before. 

'''''CAT'''''

It was almost a new woman who emerged, the make up gone, her skin was very fair, not a freckle in sight, though she did have a few here and there unseen just then.  Barefoot, raven hair soft and loose in damp strands spilling to the middle of her back, she nodded.
"Everything was fine, I do not need to smell like roses."
She smiled, looking far less harsh, younger, easier somehow in her natural state as it were.  She looked to his cigarette.
"Have one I can beg?"
An expression, common, but accompanied by a smile.  She looked down at herself and then back to him.
"Am I making you uncomfortable Dash?"
Just enough of a hint of seduction in the smile to make one wonder.

'''''DASH'''''

Never was I uncomfortable with a pretty girl in any state of dress. In that moment, I was trying to be less comfortable before I started to see her as a potential conquest. 
"Certainly," 
And I pulled the cigarette case from the pocket of my robe and snapped it open in front of her. From my other pocket, I pulled the lighter and flipped that open in readiness. 
"Certainly, you may have a cigarette, that is. You do not make me uncomfortable, Catarina. Not at all." 
I spoke with distinct assurance as I lit her cigarette. 
"Obviously, I do not make you uncomfortable either. We are, after all, modern people in a modern world with modern ideas, wouldn't you agree?" 

'''''CAT'''''

She took the cigarette, the white tip pressed against full lower lip bare of any but the berry pink nature gifted her with, drawing in a drag and releasing a perfect trio of smoke rings before stepping back to settle on the settee.
"Thank you."
And she took another drag, eyes closing a moment.
"I come from a place and people most would not term very modern Dash.  But they are long ago and far away."
A single shoulder rose and fell, her legs tucked up onto the settee, the pajama top came down over her knees, legs bare from knee to bare feet.
"Besides, girls like me, we are made for the Thin Spaces, the modern world looks past those."
She gave him a look, meeting his eyes.

'''''DASH'''''

I crushed my cigarette in the ashtray and was looking at her chest, imagining one more button being undone. 
"You said it," 
I smiled, 
"They are long ago and far away." 
I did manage to drag my eyes from her chest up to her eyes. Beautiful blue eyes. They were alive with something I was unused to among most of the women I dallied with. Perhaps I was being unfair to the other women, just then. Perhaps I never really looked for it before and only just 
saw it now in Catarina's eyes. 
"Thin spaces?" 
The odd mention shook me out of my imaginings and I once again looked at Cat as part and parcel of this current case. 
"And tell me, please, my dear, what do you mean by a 'girl like you'?" 
I adjusted the belt around my robe against it flying open for a free show of what I was *not* wearing underneath.

'''''CAT''''' 

Oh he could have let it slip, she might have been draped in virgin whites but she was not exactly qualified to be doing so.
"Hm, well, not all of my people are born with the gift I have Dash.  Oh to a degree it is said we are all closer to the natural world than others.  In my case, though, I do not just know where the veil is, I can step through it."
She took a drag on her cigarette slowly in that luxurious way women had with a cigarette.
"Thin spaces, um well, they are everywhere.  The twixt and tween, the outside of time and space."
Blue eyes shifted and she stood up, moving to the doorframe between the sitting room and his room, hands pressing to the frame and sliding up.
"Like this...places where the veil is thinner is all."
And she smiled, it made perfect sense to her.

'''''DASH'''''

Hocus pocus! Mumbo jumbo! Or that's all it was to me. Mostly. It was obvious she believed it and I was sure she had her reasons, but even when I encountered mysteries I could not explain, I still believed a scientific explanation was lurking somewhere. 
"You can step through the veil you say?" 
I smiled. 
"I would like to learn what is on the other side of that veil," 
Or what she believed was on the other side. I stepped to the doorframe and took her by the wrist, removing her hand from the doorframe. I notice I liked how my fingers closed completely around her slim wrist. 
"But it is late, Catarina, and your room is there," 
And I turned her in that direction and, regrettably released her wrist. 
"Breakfast is at seven and I hope to be on the road by eight." 
I was in the doorframe leading to my room then and she was without. 
"Goodnight, Catarina. Do sleep well."