Cocktail glass in her hand, Millicent swayed her way back to the bar and sighed. She had expected more from this particular League gathering, a cocktail party thrown for new signees, and what it could offer her in terms of new connections. New minds to mold. Her appearance made mingling easy, as everyone had taken special note of gawking at her, but she had found little beyond geile hunde - horny dogs either interested in Millie herself or in whatever object of lust they had targeted earlier in the evening.
Desdemona had set her expectations too high. For all the young woman's sensual obsessions, she possessed a keen understanding of when she should listen, when she should assure her mistress of her understanding, and when her lewd anecdotes would best land. The young people here tonight... lacked that same subtlety and acuity. It was like attending a secondary school dance. Millicent had left a dozen of them with empty promises of her attention. Their ignorance ensured she would receive no more of that attention, but she had surely left her mark on them.
She should avoid wasting more of her time, she decided, as she weaved past a couple more youngsters who turned to stare at her rear. Social gatherings drained her easily. For all her desire to keep up appearances, to sway minds and hears, she never entirely enjoyed herself lest she had some purpose or goal in mind or found herself engaged in a particularly entertaining game. She knew no one here, and no one appeared to have either the moxie to prove themselves knowable nor the reputation to merit Millicent wasting her breath. The empress should have brought Desdemona along. At the very least, she could have used the opportunity to teach her how to maneuver one of these gatherings outside of finding the right pair of panties to steal.
She took up her perch on a stool and swung so she could sip and see the room. So long as she remained long enough for enough to have seen her, to have noted her, to have allowed her presence to have marked them in some small way, she would depart. Brushing her hair back over her shoulder, she let her eyes wander down the length of the bar.
They narrowed on one figure when recognition struck her. She tried to place the face, but try as she might, the German could not know every figure who had merited her attention in the past. But she did recognize the woman. American, perhaps. Noteworthy. Far more interesting than anything else in the room. Millicent might gain something from this night yet. From behind another sip of her cocktail, her yellow eyes beckoned for the woman, waiting for her to catch a glance of her.
Spoiler
