In spite of how quickly Wysteria moves past it, alarm still flickers across Ellis' face. The pen turns in his hands again, small fidgeting movement that absorbs the impulse to reach for her shard-marked hand.
Instead, there is a few beats of scrutiny, watching her face, before his attention falls to the papers scattered across the table, pen tapping at the webbing between thumb and forefinger as Ellis scrutinizes them again. Or appears to. His attention turns inwards, weighing up the entirety of what he's been told, setting it against the tightening clutch of reaction in his chest.
"Yes," he agrees slowly, a little absently in the response. "It was quite clever."
In which clever sits very close to foolish, to some heated, worried objection that's come far too late to be of use. If anything, Ellis has come to understand that innovation tends to occupy the same risk, or it does in the way Wysteria and Tony tend to approach it. Had it worked, he might still have told her it was a foolish risk, or been present in a room where Tony said such a thing. Ellis is suspicious of his own instincts in this, how much of his own good sense is guided by some other emotion.
"Wysteria," Ellis says, and then stops. It must be familiar to Wysteria by now, what it looks like when Ellis is turning something over in his mind, attempting to resolve it into words. He is still looking at the papers between them, her hands resting over them. "Have you considered what you might do if this complication becomes too entangled for your solicitor to manage?"
no subject
Instead, there is a few beats of scrutiny, watching her face, before his attention falls to the papers scattered across the table, pen tapping at the webbing between thumb and forefinger as Ellis scrutinizes them again. Or appears to. His attention turns inwards, weighing up the entirety of what he's been told, setting it against the tightening clutch of reaction in his chest.
"Yes," he agrees slowly, a little absently in the response. "It was quite clever."
In which clever sits very close to foolish, to some heated, worried objection that's come far too late to be of use. If anything, Ellis has come to understand that innovation tends to occupy the same risk, or it does in the way Wysteria and Tony tend to approach it. Had it worked, he might still have told her it was a foolish risk, or been present in a room where Tony said such a thing. Ellis is suspicious of his own instincts in this, how much of his own good sense is guided by some other emotion.
"Wysteria," Ellis says, and then stops. It must be familiar to Wysteria by now, what it looks like when Ellis is turning something over in his mind, attempting to resolve it into words. He is still looking at the papers between them, her hands resting over them. "Have you considered what you might do if this complication becomes too entangled for your solicitor to manage?"