Despite the circumstances, Elsie found herself breathing out a little sigh of relief as she melted into him, wrapping her arms around him and simply holding on for a moment. It had been so long, far too long for her liking, since they'd even gotten to share a simple embrace and though she couldn't show it, it was starting to wear on her. These stolen moments were all she had to keep her going for the moment and sometimes it just wasn't enough.

"I've missed you," She mumbled into his shirt, eyes closed as she tried to stall the moment for as long as possible. This discussion had the potential to go a lot of ways and she just hoped it wasn't too sour of a note to leave off on. She would much rather moments like this to hold her over than any unpleasantness that may arise this evening. Els had been dreading what she had to tell him, had refused to tell her mother, and still couldn't even really fathom how it had happened, but she needed to tell him and holding it in much longer would cause her to burst.

Gently she eased back just enough to look at him, the news on the tip of her tongue, but she couldn't yet bring herself to say it. "How're you?" It was a cop-out, but she was also genuinely curious. Letters weren't always enough for her to gauge what he was thinking. Elsie worried constantly how things were going for him at the ministry, if he was liking it at all, if he wasn't, was it her fault. The same things that had plagued her for well over a year now, only she could manage them a little better.