Given any other circumstances whatsoever, pressing Kitty to immediately make good on the statement of 'I owe you' would be too good an offer to refuse. He'd be so delighted that he might just make up something for her to do even if it was only for his own brief and immediate entertainment. You learn to jump on this like that as a spirit, you see. There's never any promise that the next time you trip over a person that they won't pretend to have no idea what you're talking about. That's people for you, all right.

But oh ho, you're not catching out old Bartimaeus tonight Miss Jones! He knows a desperate bid for something (he hasn't figured out what yet, only feels in his bones that it probably asks more from him than it will anyone else) when he sees it. The temper of their last meeting, in a not so different dusty room, has nothing at all to do with his suspicion. Really.

Something cold grows behind his facade od flippant good humor. The boy narrows his eyes at her. "Let's bank that favor for the future then, shall we? I can't say anything you could possibly do for me is coming to mind just now."