She wasn't even looking at him. Ford grimaced. He should maybe write this off as a lost cause, because this conversation wasn't resolving their argument and might have even been making it worse. If Miss Farley picked up on it Ford could just say Verity was always like that. But that wasn't fair to Verity — and he did wish he could repair the relationship, honestly. Sometimes it was just impossible to see a route from here to there.

"I know you've got plenty of reasons to hate me," he said eventually. All the little ways he'd had to crush her dreams while she was a debutante, pretending she was being unreasonable and ridiculous when the reality was they were just broke; her sham marriage that he had failed to stop; lying to her about what had happened with Miss Farley. "And I deserve it. But I hope you know I still love you."

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Set by Lady!

"I don't hate you." Verity replied, her tone much more disheartened and defeated than before. She pulled the kettle off the stove and dropped in the leaves to begin seeping. That Ford thought he loved her was a ridiculous lie, one Verity would have scoffed at if she didn't feel so jagged and raw. He was supposed to be her big brother — her protector and hero. He was supposed to be outraged over what happened to her and swear to never do the same to another woman. He was supposed to be and do a great many things.

Ford had done none of them.

And yet, Verity didn't hate him. She couldn't — he was her big brother. However, she was irrationally hurt and was growing increasingly aware of it. "I don't hate you." Verity repeated as she turned her head to face him somewhat. "If you wouldn't mind, I think we should leave it there." Everything Verity had to add was either unfair to him or too vulnerable a statement to express in these circumstances. She needed time to rebuild her defenses, to shove away the old wounds his actions dug up and settle once more into her role of pretending. She would be better able to stomach this all in time.

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set by mj

Ford shifted uneasily. The doubling up of the sentences didn't inspire confidence, nor did how quickly she wanted to shut down the conversation after she said it. She claimed she didn't hate him; he was not convinced. But he didn't have the right to fight her on it, and he recognized that.

"I do mind," he said, crossing his arms as he leaned against the counter. "But I won't force you to talk to me."

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Set by Lady!

Of course he minded, of course he would push to continue this conversation when she had no room to respond in turn. Their sisters were still in the parlor (and that was only if Clementine hadn't abandoned Grace to glue her ear to the kitchen door), their mother was lurking about somewhere. There were too many people here for them to have anything even vaguely resembling a healing conversation. Verity was almost certain now that Ford had chosen this venue purposely to prevent her being truthful with him again.

"What else would you like me to say?" Verity demanded.

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set by mj

Ford took a second to consider that. His expression was pensive with a mild frown as he ran his tongue along the backs of his teeth.

"I think I'd like you to yell at me," he eventually decided. He knew from her perspective that he deserved that, given what she thought he'd done, and he had the sense that maybe if he'd been able to push her to the point of blowing up at him that afterwards it might be clearer how to pick up the pieces and move on. She was playing everything so close to the chest — it was obvious to everyone that she was livid with him, but it was not obvious to him what he could do about it. Clearly, as his fumbling through this conversation indicated.

Maybe that was intentional on her part, though. Maybe she had the same sense that if she yelled at him then this tension between them would have reached its crescendo, and there would be nowhere left to go but towards resolution. Maybe she didn't think he deserved to be forgiven, yet.

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Set by Lady!

"Well you picked a perfectly suitable time for me to do so." Verity snapped. Their siblings had to have picked up on her anger by now but none of them were aware as to what had provoked it. And, if she meant to keep true to her promise of not informing others of Ford's true intentions towards Miss Farley, she couldn't tell anyone else. More than that, she didn't want to tell anyone else, because if they then asked why she cared so much Verity would then have to discuss what had happened to her. Yelling at him was simply impossible.

She huffed another breath of frustration. "The tea is growing cold, I need to bring it out to the girls." She then muttered. Clementine would only give her so long before she got nosy over what was taking so long.

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set by mj

Yeah, he supposed he had to give her that one. It wasn't as though he'd been standing around down here with the express purpose of ambushing her, but he had to admit this wasn't an ideal venue for hashing out arguments, or for yelling. The house didn't really have ideal venues for that sort of thing; there were too many people here, always, and the walls were too thin. Neither one of those was an ailment that would be alleviated any time soon.

"Sure," he agreed, moving out of her way. He didn't look at her while she walked to the kitchen door.

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Set by Lady!