It had been one of the other Selected who had approached her, a young lady. Leah could in no way call herself a lady, the idea already made her feel uncomfortable. She was a lot of things, but for sure she wasn’t a lady. She didn’t possess the grace of someone you would consider a lady. This girl however, she truly was a lady. The way she carried herself, the way she spoke and the way she looked. Her oh so perfectly soft features, her stunning dress combined with her grace. There was no way this was not a Selected from a higher class. That worried Leah, as she had no clue what the proper etiquettes were, which words were the right ones to say, how to act, how to interact with the other Selected. While clearly the lady in front of her knew. In these situations, Leah’s strategy was to fall back on mirroring, acting in a similar way as the other person had been acting. This had proven a useful tactic for her in the past, especially when meeting new people. It had in fact lead to some of her better friendships.
In this moment, she had an instinct she had to get on her feet for this introduction, and quickly. She stood up, but had forgotten she was wearing heals. Therefore, she had twisted her ankle. Her dress had luckily prevent the accident from being visible, but it oh so noticeable to Leah, as she was in much pain. ‘Don’t show you are, don’t show it’ she told herself. She didn’t want her first impression with any of the Selected to be bad. More importantly however, she didn’t want to be vulnerable and confess she was pain because she was not used to wearing heals. She already felt out of place, she didn’t want to make it any worse for herself, especially with someone from a higher caste, so she decided to bite on the pain.
“It’s nice to meet you.” She curtsied as she said: “Leah Fisher, from the province of Yukon.” She took a breath, forced herself to smile at Dariana regardless of the pain and continued: “No need to apologise, no harm done.” her eyes went from Dariana to her ankle, as she was wounded, Dariana had not inflicted it on her. She didn’t want to put the focus on her ankle however, so she looked up to Dariana’s eyes again, hoping she could get away with it looking as if she had been checking Dariana out and asked softly: “How do you feel about being here?” she hoped this would give her some insight in Dariana, allowing her to simply listen and not have the focus on herself.
@Kristi - Dariana