As soon as she said his name he knew he wouldn't like what was coming. He braced himself, but there was no way to be ready for a question as bluntly stated as you're okay, aren't you? No, obviously he wasn't, but he couldn't tell that to Grace. He couldn't even tell that to Noble at this point, because if he did Noble was going to think he was freaking out and getting cold feet and might not go through with it tomorrow, and obviously they were in far too deep for that. He couldn't even tell Tycho, because Tycho was losing just as much as he was, and Ford was acutely aware of how selfish it was every time he thought of seeking out some sort of comfort from Ty when he was providing very little in exchange. But if he'd been willing to talk about it with anyone it might have been Ty or Noble — he certainly could admit nothing to Grace, Grace for whom he was doing this in the first place, Grace for whom he'd been sneaking out of parties to rob people, Grace for whom he was always trying the best that he could and always falling short.

"Oh, Grace," he said, with a heavy sigh. "I thought you'd be happy for me." She'd been doing a passable job of pretending to be, so far throughout the engagement — or had he maybe only assumed that, because she hadn't expressed any concrete reservations so far? But Grace was the idealistic one, the romantic one; she was supposed to believe in this myth that they were telling everyone about how the pair of them were fond of each other and it was only a slight hiccup in the circumstances that was seeing them wed this way and not in a more traditional method. But apparently not even she believed it, and that made Ford feel... tired, more than anything else. What had been the point of pretending for the past three weeks if he hadn't managed even to convince Grace?

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