Essmay cleared her throat. She too, was off her mount, and stood cross armed staring at the couple. Mrs. Gold was the first one to speak up.
"Greetings fellow Hunters," she cooed, still running her hands over the baby bump. There was boos from the crowd and I clenched my fists behind my back. Mr. gold finished his conversation with tophat man and averted his attention to us. He gave us a bored smile, as if he cared little for our presence.
"What an exciting day for you two birdies eh? Finally won't be eating crumbs off our table?"
"Us starving must be the theme of tonight," I muttered to Essmay.
Mrs. Gold continued, probably not having heard my comment.
"It must be so very hard for you two. No riches, no spoils, no children, no man." She elongated the last word as if that would have some sort of sting on us. I bit into my unfinished apple, my loud chewing echoing in the relatively silent room. Essmay and I wore expressions quite similar to that of her husband. The mistress of the Gold District seemed to realize this.
"You must have been waiting all month to get just a peak at the glory which is the Golden District!" She announced, standing and raising her arms in the air. There were some sounds of agreement which widened her smile. Essmay and I remained complacent. It had occured to us that Mrs. Gold could not insult us properly since she did not remember who we were.
"Well," She paused, her brain clearly working overtime to come up with something clever.
"You should beg us for your bribes. That's right! You should get on your knees and beg for it. Show us how much you really want it!" The response from this lacked the previous enthusiasm. It was never a good idea to strain the relationship too much with Hunters and asking them to get on their knees was not a good starting point. Crooks here were let off because of the tentative relationship between Hunter and District Leader, which Mr. Gold was clearly picking up on.
"Darling, darling, why don't we just have them ask politely and then be on their way eh? They'll muck up their white outfits getting on their knees anyway. No need for theatrics hmm?" He leaned in tenderly and kissed his wife's neck, making his way down her collarbone to her breast. I turned away, mostly because I was entirely uncomfortable, and maybe, just a tiny bit, because Mrs. Gold had been right about one thing: I did not have a man.