Ford stopped in his tracks at the snap of Mrs. Dempsey's fingers (not that he had gotten much farther than half-lifting one foot, anyway, in his attempt to flee the room). A competent explanation seemed like a fairly tall order, given how well they'd handled things so far. Ford crossed his arms and bit the knuckles on one of his hands. The young woman was regaining her composure faster than he was, because this was an almost credible explanation. Too warm, and she'd been looking for the retiring room — alright, fine, and maybe it was still a bit incredible to think she would have gotten herself so undressed just to try and cool down, but it was in the neighborhood of reasonable — and maybe combined with that stupid thing he'd said earlier about how her dress broke, it could almost be called sensible. She'd tried to just undo a lace or two, maybe, and then it had all fallen apart and left her in this state — sure, maybe they could make that claim. He didn't think Mrs. Dempsey would buy it, but they could certainly claim it.
Then she went and said he'd come in through the floo. Ford's jaw tightened, biting his knuckle hard enough to bruise now, and he shot the young woman a look of wide-eyed panic. He hadn't been expecting her to turn him over like that — not when he had said nothing about whoever she had presumably been in here with before, whoever had actually taken her dress off and whom she was clearly trying to protect. Now Mrs. Dempsey was going to know that he'd been somewhere else during the middle of the ball, and even if he was able to come up with an excuse for stepping away momentarily it would be far too easy for her to check his story against the other guests. He could claim he'd dashed home to get a headache potion for his mother, maybe, except that only took ten minutes and no one at the party had seen him for at least three-quarters of an hour. And no one found that suspicious yet, but someone at this party was going to go home tonight and find that they had been robbed, and if there were already rumors wondering where Mr. Greengrass had been —
— and, it suddenly occurred to him, there was only one potential alibi left to him, given this turn of events.
There was a buzzing in his ears and a pit in his stomach, but the decision was made. He couldn't be arrested. It would sink his entire family.
"It's no use," he muttered at the young woman, and if he'd remembered her name he would have tacked on her first name for good measure, to sell it a little more. "She's not stupid."
Then she went and said he'd come in through the floo. Ford's jaw tightened, biting his knuckle hard enough to bruise now, and he shot the young woman a look of wide-eyed panic. He hadn't been expecting her to turn him over like that — not when he had said nothing about whoever she had presumably been in here with before, whoever had actually taken her dress off and whom she was clearly trying to protect. Now Mrs. Dempsey was going to know that he'd been somewhere else during the middle of the ball, and even if he was able to come up with an excuse for stepping away momentarily it would be far too easy for her to check his story against the other guests. He could claim he'd dashed home to get a headache potion for his mother, maybe, except that only took ten minutes and no one at the party had seen him for at least three-quarters of an hour. And no one found that suspicious yet, but someone at this party was going to go home tonight and find that they had been robbed, and if there were already rumors wondering where Mr. Greengrass had been —
— and, it suddenly occurred to him, there was only one potential alibi left to him, given this turn of events.
There was a buzzing in his ears and a pit in his stomach, but the decision was made. He couldn't be arrested. It would sink his entire family.
"It's no use," he muttered at the young woman, and if he'd remembered her name he would have tacked on her first name for good measure, to sell it a little more. "She's not stupid."
Set by Lady!