Ford made an expression of overblown offense. "Are you claiming I'm maliciously engineering situations to put damsels in distress, or that I'm simply bad luck?" He did tend to meet with young women in situations often, but there were plenty of normal interactions with women also — they weren't always in predicaments! And when they were it was hardly ever his fault. The only one he really thought he could be held responsible for was the ruination of Miss Chevalier's skirts at the hands of the gnome, but he'd done his best to make amends there where he could.

"I think blaming your sister is a safe bet," he continued lightly. "If your sisters are anything like mine, anyway." Really he just meant Clementine; Grace wouldn't cause mischief because she was too kind, and Verity wouldn't do anything that would make a scene. Clementine was an agent of chaos.

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