The look she gave him as she grappled with the situation and the suddenness with which she turned away left Ford feeling much more soundly chastised than any words could have. He swallowed. This was a rotten situation for either of them to have been in, and he couldn't pretend he hadn't just thrown her to the wolves. The Minister's wife was about as bad as things could be, in terms of people to know your supposedly darkest secrets. But even in the face of her overwhelming dismay at how things had played out, he couldn't regret the choice that he'd made. If one of his sisters had been in a situation like hers then yes, he would have hoped for better from the man she'd been caught with — but his sisters would not get a chance to be in any situations, good, bad, or otherwise, if they were living on the streets after he'd been arrested and Noble had declared bankruptcy.

Head hung, he walked to the door and closed it, turning the handle gently so as not to make a sound... though he supposed the caution was unnecessary now. If Mrs. Dempsey was of a mind to send people after them, stealthily closing the door wouldn't avoid the inevitable. Neither would the lock, so he skipped it. He didn't think it had done either of them any favors in the past few minutes and it hadn't slowed Mrs. Dempsey's entrance much.

Ford looked back at the young woman, who was in the process of trying to fix her corset herself and didn't seem to be making a very good run of it. He took the few steps back to where he'd been before and reached towards her shoulder, but hesitated. "Can I...?" he asked, touching one of the loose edges of her dress to indicate that he meant help, since she still wasn't looking at him. She seemed to be in need of it, but given what had happened he would be entirely unsurprised if she didn't want his help.

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