Jeanne: Salute

Druce looked up in surprise from scraping the last of his blueberry duff into Cu's open mouth. His eyes, narrowing, flicked back and forth across Jason's face, but he could not tell what thoughts were running through the other's mind; he raised a hand in what was almost a salute and said, "Yes, sir." He was not sure whether he meant it mockingly or not. It simply seemed right to say.

Pushing the dog away from him and swiping pawprints of dirt from his trousers, Druce swung away from the board. He said good-night to the Guttersnipe and and nodded to Ambrosius as he passed them - he did not interrupt Artos and Caleb's conversation by hailing them - and left the hall, as ordered, for Jason's chambers.