She did not seem especially gratified by his offer of help, but she'd handed the laces over. He had been more than half expecting her to snap at him or to whirl and smack his hand away, so this was about as decent an outcome as he could have hoped for. She'd even made enough of a start on them by now that he didn't have to try and puzzle out which direction they were meant to go from here. Now that she'd done a few it was hard to imagine how he'd been confused about it before. Maybe that had been more to do with his state of mind than it did with the state of her corset. He did feel, perhaps paradoxically, calmer now that Mrs. Dempsey had come and gone. Maybe he'd expended all of the anxiety he had the capacity to feel for this series of minutes. Maybe it was just that things had already gotten about as bad as they could reasonably be expected to, and there was no use fretting over them when they could no longer get worse — or at least, that whether they got worse or not was solidly out of their control. Maybe he was anxious still, but had crossed some dissociative threshold for it and would feel it all later. Whatever the case, he made short work of her laces, up until she asked him a question which forced him to stop and realize how divorced she was from the reality of their situation.
"Yes," he answered, matching her volume. Of course Mrs. Dempsey would say something. It wasn't even a question. He was still a little shocked that the young woman had asked it. He felt vaguely sick about it, actually, and it took him half a beat to realize that was because it reminded him of Grace. She asked these sorts of wistful questions all the time: do you think mother will make me do introductions with everyone? before her debut as though willfully forgetting that was the whole purpose of the evening; do you think that she loves him? on the eve of Verity's wedding when they all knew very well she didn't. Grace asked questions as if she hoped by asking the question she could persuade you to change reality in order to give her the answer she wanted, and Ford hated these kinds of questions because he was forever disappointing her.
"The only real question is who she tells," he said as he got his fingers working on the remainder of the corset laces again. "I suppose the best case scenario is your parents." He had not actually decided if this was a better scenario than her telling the Minister, because while he was mortified by the idea of the Minister having any insight (even incorrectly) into his sex life he also suspected the man would do nothing about it beyond perhaps telling Morgan to lecture him, and Morgan — was not very good at lectures, to say the least. But Ford also didn't know whether his boss or the Minister were very inclined to keep secrets of this nature, and he suspected the young woman's parents would be quite eager to keep this under wraps.
"Yes," he answered, matching her volume. Of course Mrs. Dempsey would say something. It wasn't even a question. He was still a little shocked that the young woman had asked it. He felt vaguely sick about it, actually, and it took him half a beat to realize that was because it reminded him of Grace. She asked these sorts of wistful questions all the time: do you think mother will make me do introductions with everyone? before her debut as though willfully forgetting that was the whole purpose of the evening; do you think that she loves him? on the eve of Verity's wedding when they all knew very well she didn't. Grace asked questions as if she hoped by asking the question she could persuade you to change reality in order to give her the answer she wanted, and Ford hated these kinds of questions because he was forever disappointing her.
"The only real question is who she tells," he said as he got his fingers working on the remainder of the corset laces again. "I suppose the best case scenario is your parents." He had not actually decided if this was a better scenario than her telling the Minister, because while he was mortified by the idea of the Minister having any insight (even incorrectly) into his sex life he also suspected the man would do nothing about it beyond perhaps telling Morgan to lecture him, and Morgan — was not very good at lectures, to say the least. But Ford also didn't know whether his boss or the Minister were very inclined to keep secrets of this nature, and he suspected the young woman's parents would be quite eager to keep this under wraps.
Set by Lady!