A nod, and she was evidently already taking the instruction to listen quite seriously because she hadn't managed a word. Ford let out a breath. No choice now but to begin. He didn't even know how to begin; he had never told anyone else about this before, unless one counted Noble. And Noble was different; he had been there at the beginning, so it had only ever been one thing to admit at a time. That was the way he'd have to go through it with her, too, in all likelihood... except he could already picture her face when he had to say and then yet again, the disbelief that this tale of woe really never wound down.
"Okay," he said, taking another breath. "Alright. So our father died in... 1889, in December. That's when it started. And it's been... I've never wanted to do any of this, it's just — for five years straight it's like every choice I make only has the wrong answers. Lesser of two evils, y'know? Because it was never — I was barely twenty-three when he died, alright? I mean I was still a kid," he said with a hopeless shrug. "So before he died I wasn't ever involved with — family stuff, the estate, finances, anything. He never asked me to look at anything and I figured there would be plenty of time when I was older. But then he died and suddenly it was all mine — my responsibility. And — and there wasn't any money," he admitted. His shoulders dropped, as though they had been mainly tensed to carry the weight of this admission, and having offloaded it he could collapse back against the door. "Not just — it was worse than that. There wasn't any money and there were a lot of debts. And so — so I had to do something, and there weren't any good answers, so we — moved here. We don't own this house," he continued with a grimace. "We owned the last one and I sold it. And almost everything in it. This was — Noble was supposed to live here. He had this deal worked out with the owner where he'd pay a little extra on the rent every month and then he'd buy it gradually, but we don't — there's no extra. We just rent. And there was this idea that it was all going to be temporary — that we just had to keep it all up long enough for my sisters to get married. And then it wouldn't matter if I was — I mean, whatever, I'd go live anywhere, I suppose. Pennyworth, if that's what it was. But then the season — didn't work out like it was supposed to."
"Okay," he said, taking another breath. "Alright. So our father died in... 1889, in December. That's when it started. And it's been... I've never wanted to do any of this, it's just — for five years straight it's like every choice I make only has the wrong answers. Lesser of two evils, y'know? Because it was never — I was barely twenty-three when he died, alright? I mean I was still a kid," he said with a hopeless shrug. "So before he died I wasn't ever involved with — family stuff, the estate, finances, anything. He never asked me to look at anything and I figured there would be plenty of time when I was older. But then he died and suddenly it was all mine — my responsibility. And — and there wasn't any money," he admitted. His shoulders dropped, as though they had been mainly tensed to carry the weight of this admission, and having offloaded it he could collapse back against the door. "Not just — it was worse than that. There wasn't any money and there were a lot of debts. And so — so I had to do something, and there weren't any good answers, so we — moved here. We don't own this house," he continued with a grimace. "We owned the last one and I sold it. And almost everything in it. This was — Noble was supposed to live here. He had this deal worked out with the owner where he'd pay a little extra on the rent every month and then he'd buy it gradually, but we don't — there's no extra. We just rent. And there was this idea that it was all going to be temporary — that we just had to keep it all up long enough for my sisters to get married. And then it wouldn't matter if I was — I mean, whatever, I'd go live anywhere, I suppose. Pennyworth, if that's what it was. But then the season — didn't work out like it was supposed to."
Set by Lady!