Private Finished The Candle in the Antique Store

Monday was in the backroom when Candle came into the shop. Business had been extremely slow lately with all the snow that had been, and was still, falling non-stop. In fact, the snow was getting so bad that Monday found Sunday's charm to keep water at bay was only keeping the snow a few feet away and not the eight he had initially hoped for.

So when the bell over the door rang when the customer came, Monday wandered out of the backroom stirring his cup of tea somewhat amazed that someone had come into the shop at all.

Gazing across the store, which was full of antiques from everywhere and every era possible, he was most curious to see who had dared to venture out in this inclement weather.

After a moment, Monday spotted and then observed quietly for a minute a young woman who was glowing, in what he suspected to be a rather subued-like manner, and what was most surprising of all, it looked like she was wearing a maid's uniform. Frowning slightly at this, thinking it was odd attire to be wearing on such a cool, if not cold, winter´s day, Monday approached, while still stirring his tea, the young lady.

"Good afternoon. Is there something I can help you find?" Monday inquired politely, having noticed the determined look in her eye.

@Pallas

Still stirring his tea, Monday was actually quite surprised by the striking colour of the young woman's eyes. It reminded him a little of when one forged metal. Staring for a second longer at her, Monday then nodded at her request.

"An oil lamp, yes. Made of brass, of course," Monday said thoughtfully as he moved his spoon around slower in his tea and turned his body around slowly trying to think where he had placed the candle holders, the hurricane lamps and the brass lamps.

"Lights, candles, lamps," he murmured to himself, smiling then after a second, finally remembering exactly where he had placed them after taking a sip of his tea and carefully swirling the cup a bit.

"The lamps are over here," he said, pleased with himself as he led Candle down one aisle of knickknacks and across the store to an out of the way corner. There on three wall shelves were lamps of all sorts. Some were hurricane lamps, others were kerosene lamps, a few made of silver, others had glass globes and on the bottom shelf were the brass oil lamps.

"Oil lamps, brass, bronze, pewter and glass..." Monday explained matter-of-factly as he gestured with his spoon to the bottom shelf, allowing her to inspect them for herself if she wanted.

While he watched quietly the scantily dressed young woman chose an oil lamp, Monday fidgeted and quietly tapped his toe against the floor as was normal for him and drank his tea quickly now that it had cooled off.

"That's a very nice lamp you've chosen there," Monday remarked appreciatively when he saw which one Candle had finally settled upon. "It's Narrow Reality, circa the 1830s, maybe 1840s, Turkish in origin, a brass replica of an early 1100s bronze Persian oil lamp," he informed her politely.

"Your master is Sylvester Notts?" Monday enquired as he looked at the name of the credit card she had given him, unperturbed. It was a rather common thing for people to send their servants to do their shopping. However, it also made Gavriel's life just a tad more difficult since he would have to check that the card was not stolen and that the young girl was allowed to actually use it. Luckily for him, he could usually just scry for the information if he needed to.

"Do you mind if I call him to verify that you can use the card?" Monday asked, waiting to see how she reacted to the question.

"Thank you, it shouldn't be but a moment," Gabriel said as he took out an island directory of phone numbers and quickly found the name of her master, S. Notts. Dialing the number listed there, Mr. Notts answered after the fifth ring. And after a somewhat short and rather curt exchange, one that left Monday staring at the phone at the offhanded rudeness of Candle's master.

Glancing at the young woman as she looked around his shop for a moment, Monday wondered silently just how somebody could work for such a person.

"All is good," Monday said when he caught her gaze, feigning enthusiasm since the exchange with her employer had left a somewhat bad taste in his mouth. "I can ring this up for you. Do you require a bag?" he asked her as he rang in the price of the lamp, and waited for confirmation back from the bank that the card had no issues.

As he passed the woman her card and the receipt along with the lamp, Monday peered curiously at Candle. It sort of sounded a bit like her master's errands were part of a wild goose chase of some sort. A way to keep her busy for some reason.

"May I ask why you'd assume he would send you out to look for something else that's uncommon? Is he a collector of some sort?" Monday asked her, unable to help himself. His curiosity had been piqued by everything - the woman being made to venture out in 4 feet of snow - quite literally - for a lamp that he doubted had a value to anyone beyond the curiousness of it, to her master's lack of manners and her apparent and very bland interest and acceptance of all this.