A satisfied smile turned up the corners of Natalie’s mouth when Luuk finally gave in, making the decision to reply with her sudden – and clearly unexpected - request. A soft chuckle slipped from her lips at the surprisingly forceful denial that followed, but she refrained from commenting any further. Instead, the woman-turned-teacher chose to count her blessings and focus, now that she had been given the very thing that she had asked for.
With her hands positioned beneath his, Natalie began her examination. She cast her gaze over both of his hands to begin with, making note of any obvious wrinkles, callouses, or scars that were immediately visible to the naked eye. Once she was done, Natalie would release one of his hands, so that she might gently run her fingertips over the palm of the other. She hummed thoughtfully to herself for a moment, before turning Luuk’s hand over, so that she might see what sort of condition his fingernails were in. Without even realising it, she had begun to lean forward in her chair slightly as she poured over the details, much as she would suss out the history of an object for her work.
The evidence clearly corroborated Luuk’s story. These were far from the hands of a labourer, but neither were they the soft and well-maintained hands of someone who was just a little too pampered. Of course, she could have guessed as much just from what she knew of him already. That was only the beginning of her assessment, though. Did the untrimmed nails mean that he was too busy to care about them, or did he simply not care? Every little detail held several possibilities, all of them intriguing in their own way.
Natalie offered up a quick thanks to Luuk, before withdrawing her own hands, signalling that her examination was over. She folded them on the desk in front of her, seemingly satisfied, as her mind returned to the topic on hand, following on with the information that Luuk had just offered her.
“That would be wonderful. I’d love to see what sort conclusions you were able to draw from the information I provided you, as limited as it was. More for personal curiosity than because it has any sort of relevance to today’s lesson, though” she answered – a not-so-subtle way of directing the conversation back to the matter at hand. “There’s nothing wrong with doing your writing electronically, per se. Its more that penmanship is very important to our work. A steady hand works wonders, and those who spend all their time typing tend to be less…practiced. Maybe we’ll get in some calligraphy practice at some point, just to be safe.”
She made no mention of the inspection she had just conducted, and any insight she might have gleamed from it. Would Luuk be willing to let it go, or would he insist on her sharing her thoughts?
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