Alfred wasn't entirely sure that this was the right course of action, but he was trying to trust Zelda. She knew best how to handle her family and see the two of them through this without burning any bridges, or so the theory went. Konstantin's reaction did not engender much confidence in Alfred that they were even going to make it through this conversation without doing some sort of irreparable damage, however, much less the evening. The addition of the Minister's wife to their little group was an even worse omen. He didn't have much time to fret over her arrival, however, as the very first thing she said was immeasurably worse: taking the conversation somewhere more quiet. Quiet, of course, meant only one thing; she wanted to move somewhere private enough that they could let him know what they really thought of his repeated attempts to court their sister.

Of course there was nothing in the world he wanted less, but it might not even have occurred to him that he could have refused — not until Zelda pointedly did so first. This surprised him; although Mrs. Ross' statement had been phrased like a suggestion, he hadn't gotten the impression that it was one. She had authority to command them, too, in several capacities; she was Zelda's older sister, and she was not only the hostess of this particular party (whether in fact or only in formality, it mattered little) but the Minister's wife, which gave her (Alfred thought) the power to do more or less as she pleased when it came to social affairs. But if Zelda didn't want to go and was willing to say as much, of course Alfred was going to side with her — even if in doing so he might permanently sink any hope of being on good footing with any of Zelda's siblings ever again.

You offered to elope with her, he reminded himself. No matter how tonight went, it could not possibly do any more damage to his potential relationship with the larger Fisk family than that.

"We were planning to join the next dance," Alfred said, in an attempt to give them an early out to this conversation. "So perhaps we can postpone the... chat until later tonight."

He had no real hope of avoiding them indefinitely, but perhaps if they could break up the conversation into small enough pieces it could be a bit more manageable. Maybe they'd even burn through some of their anger before they had a chance to air it — but that was probably hoping too much.