He got dressed faster than usual.
This was not the morning for taking his time with anything. The coat, the shirt, the glasses…automatic, the muscle memory of months doing the work while his brain ran logistics. Aisha was already dressed by the time he finished, composure reinstalled with an efficiency that was genuinely impressive given she'd been pink from the ears ten minutes ago.
She straightened his collar. Force of habit, or possibly a deliberate gift of something to do with her hands while she was thinking.
"Eleanor doesn't know yet," she said. Quiet. Stating facts.
"About Mephistopheles," he said. "About Isabella. About you and me being…."
"About any of it," Aisha said. "Yes."
A pause.
"She's going to find out," Aisha said. "The moment she walks into the same room as me she's going to find out something has changed, because I am now visibly…."
"I know."
"And Isabella is here, in this house, which is already…."
"I know."
