Ford didn't like the way Cash said a lot of things, but there was nothing to be done about it. That was the state of things, as he already knew very well. That was the whole reason he was going to have to marry her in the first place.
"She would have been ruined, after that," he said. Would have been, had Ford not agreed to marry her; at the end of this she was probably still going to be whispered about for weeks or months but there was at least a chance that eventually she might recover from it — if being married to him did not ruin her life in even worse ways in the meantime, which it very well might. "And it was my fault," he continued. This didn't feel like a lie, even though Cash might misinterpret it. Ford had been the one to tell Mrs. Dempsey it was exactly what it looked like. If he hadn't been there that night Miss Farley might still have ended up ruined, but she might not have, and now they were never going to know.
"So now we're getting married," he concluded. Technically he had not said anything Cash didn't already know, or hadn't already heard, but circumstances being what they were Ford thought this was about as close as he could safely come to an admission that he was desperately freaking out about this.
"She would have been ruined, after that," he said. Would have been, had Ford not agreed to marry her; at the end of this she was probably still going to be whispered about for weeks or months but there was at least a chance that eventually she might recover from it — if being married to him did not ruin her life in even worse ways in the meantime, which it very well might. "And it was my fault," he continued. This didn't feel like a lie, even though Cash might misinterpret it. Ford had been the one to tell Mrs. Dempsey it was exactly what it looked like. If he hadn't been there that night Miss Farley might still have ended up ruined, but she might not have, and now they were never going to know.
"So now we're getting married," he concluded. Technically he had not said anything Cash didn't already know, or hadn't already heard, but circumstances being what they were Ford thought this was about as close as he could safely come to an admission that he was desperately freaking out about this.
Set by Lady!