What were you thinking was kind of a bullshit question, because it wasn't as though there was any answer she would be happy with. The truth was he had been thinking, when he'd lied to Mrs. Dempsey and before that when he'd left the party and before that when he'd picked the house to rob. He had been thinking hard for a long time about what was best for the family, about what it would take to keep the girls afloat long enough to marry — but Verity didn't know any of that, and it wasn't as though he was going to tell her now. Even if he'd wanted to, he couldn't have said anything about it here.

He pulled his arm through his coat sleeve a little more aggressively than was necessary. Maybe he should have gotten his coat himself rather than waiting for it to be fetched — he knew where all the coats were being kept, obviously, and everyone here knew he did. And that would have given him a chance to have been home by now, not waylaid by his sister.

"Yeah, you're right," he said, sarcastic. "Should've planned it better." The subtext: I didn't plan for this, obviously.

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