Alfred raised an eyebrow at her question. "I thought you knew," he said, with a shrug. He had been soft-of, half courting Zelda since the beginning of the summer, and it felt like ages to him; he was not used to this level of restriction on what he was able to say and do, and the fact that it was affecting only the time he could be around Zelda made it feel all the longer. It didn't seem like Jo had really been gone long enough that she could have missed it. He also felt like it had to have been obvious to anyone looking that Zelda's entire family didn't care for him, but maybe not. That was sort of the point, after all, of this ruse — banking on the fact that they wouldn't come out and say they disapproved, lest it be widely known that Zelda had gone against their wishes in courting him.

"They don't like me much, suffice to say," he said, because he wasn't sure how much time they had to really unpack all the Fisk issues pertaining to him. "Her father is pretty adamantly opposed to sailors as a group — which is understandable, really," he joked with a playful grin. "With a few notable exceptions, we're rather incorrigible."