A Business Venture

"Before I begin," Isabell said as she set aside her meal to retrieve a small leatherbound notebook that contained several pages of notes. 

Hugo's fingers tightened on his own ledger. The woman hadn't even glanced in his direction, but somehow he felt like she knew exactly how incomplete his preparations were. His eyes darted from Isabell to Owain and back again, looking at the calm, collected engineer as she adjusted her spectacles like she could see through to a man's heart through them.