"If you like," is easily given. After all, he'd done a great deal of reading aloud to her while she'd been laid up and so low in the Gallows infirmary. It's only fair to accord him the same consideration. That, and she likes the idea all on its own. Maybe she will find some way of getting a laugh out of him then, painstaking sincerity or no.

"Though you must be warned that I'm a very poor reader when it comes to verses. One of my governesses tried very hard to break me of the habit of pausing at the end of every line or reading more or less only for the rhymes, and now it's all I think about and I find it doesn't do much to improve the sound of anything. But of course, Mister Ellis. I shall be most happy to have my revenge in person."

She can't touch his wrist in return, so instead Wysteria sets her cheek briefly to his shoulder and cinches the link of their arms momentarily tighter, and is pleased by the resolute shape of the whole thing. To that end, she keeps her arm tight in his even after she's otherwise straightened and as they reach the stairs, though it makes traversing the latter with their differences in height somewhat hilarious.

"Oh, but that reminds me. I have a project that I could use your help with. Not this moment. I won't keep you from your bed. But should you find yourself with a free hour or two later today—"