Admittedly, Minnow had no plans of following Étienne and Glasgow around that day and likely wouldn’t have had she not been struck with inspiration. After that, she became their shadow, following with a loosely bound, handmade sketch book in hand just out of sight. Perhaps if she heeded logic, she would have known following around the Boss of the Eclipse would have resulted poorly. She’d known, after all, from her many times eavesdropping that no one appreciates being followed. It was something even Aunt Ferrah had warned her of. Of course, none of that stopped her from believing she could be stealthy enough to capture the natural beauty of master and wolfdog walking together.
It took well over the course day for her to even begin getting the faint semblance of a sketch she liked. Many pages had been ripped out, scribbled on and shoved back between the pages yet to face an artist’s wrath. Nothing seemed to quite right. Nothing spoke to her. Between trailing Étienne and exposing herself just long enough to begin sketching, she’d yet to draw something worth turning into a painting. Normally, she would have simply given up in search of something else to spark her inspiration but she refused this time. She could not give up now that, after hours, she’d begun to create something worth painting. It only needed a few more adjustments.
Adjustments that she couldn’t make because Étienne had ducked out of her line of vision. After a moment of quiet, in case he popped back out, Minnow followed after him, hoping to finally catch a glimpse of the angle she needed to be pleased with her art. What she got instead was dragged and pinned against the wall. She dropped her sketchbook and watched her number of very private and personal art on loose paper flew into the air. She was too surprised to scream in surprise.
Instead, she stared up at Étienne with wide, surprised eyes. He seemed to recognize her but by then, a few tears had already escaped her. More might have come had she not glanced at the floor. All of her art, all of her hard work was on the ground. Many of them she never wanted anyone to see, scandalous and sensual in nature and absolutely not for public viewing. Quickly her tears were replaced by a bright blush of embarrassment.
Minnow?
“Yes. Get off.” Her tone, however soft, was flat as she tried to push against him in a rush to collect her works before he turned and saw them.