zg_shadows | Brief Natasha tat, based on how I spent last night...

The book wasn't very old; she had a fairly good idea of how old it was, but she wasn't surprised by how much older it looked. Gingerly she touched it and was met by a sensation that, while absolutely unlike Italian gentlemen playing poker in a smoky backroom, was exactly the same anyway.

She opened it with eager reverence, and scanned through the slightly singed and stained pages. It held both more and less than she had expected, all laid out for her neatly and legibly in black and red.

She placed a heavy glass paperweight on the pages to hold them open, and picked up another book, pristine pages watermarked with a rose as was only appropriate. Really it ought to be a cardfile, but who had ever heard of 'the cardfile of Boons'? She shook her head at the silliness of the idea, and began to carefully rule a line down the centre of each page.

Three hours later she leaned back in her chair and rolled her shoulders to loosen them. Then she smiled down with satisfaction at the neatly balanced ledger.

It was only, after all, a matter of perspective, and she had kept accounts for a prosperous business for more than ten years.

Still, the world probably wasn't ready for the Profit and Loss statement of the Court of London...