Joe was enraptured by his meal and didn't feel Pearl touch his arm.  He considered her new skills with his fork in still his mouth, so he chewed before answering. 

"Pearl, your cookin' is lovely, to be proud of." He ate some more.  "So, what about you?  If I am Joe, tell me about Pearl."

When he complimented her cooking, she blushed prettily and ducked her head a little. "I am glad you like it."

She told him about herself, how big her family was, which one of her siblings he needed to really be wary of and which of his siblings were mere pains in the ass. "I am the youngest of eight," she went on to say, "I have two sisters and five brothers." She wasn't sure if he knew just how big the brood really was.

"That sounds like a right 'andful.  You turned out alright, I see." Joe responded trying to keep the names straight with the good, the bad and the Robert.

She blushed again, "I don't see the point in being greedy or selfish." She'd been called selfish by Robert just weeks before when he had rubbed the newspaper article in her face as if she had meant to get kidnapped. She stiffened a little when that unpleasantry came up in thought. "I should tell you..." and she told the story about how she had been kidnapped, and that the article written about it was hardly accurate.

Joe stopped eating and listened to her tale. After she had finished, he reached out the hand that was closest to her and touched her arm, assuming it would be welcome.

"That's a terrible thing for a lady to endure, I'm sorry you 'ad to live it. Truth be told, I read it in the paper but it sounded all a bit daft to be 'onest. Walkin' up an down the beach like a fallen woman at night... scandal made up to sell copies, frankly. It doesn't fit with the Pearl I've met."

"I did go to the beach alone but... Not for those purposes. I needed a think and it is my family's property where I was..." She was honest about the part she played in the fiasco. "I don't know if anyone would want to marry me now... I've been telling people I don't want to marry but it's not true," she confessed. "But because of that article... Who would want me?"

"I would." his response was instant, without thought.

"You would?" she asked with a small, surprised voice. Her doe like eyes were round.

Joe took his hands and assuming it would be welcome, held hers.

"You're a wonderful woman. The story you just told me and my seein' you face your brother - I 'ave never met anyone stronger, or more beautiful."

When he took her hands in his, she looked at his face. Her eyes searched his. She stood then, pulling her hands free but not because she wanted him to stop touching her, but because she moved around to him and then she stopped short of reaching for him. He would have to close the distance, he would have to meet her halfway if he wanted the same thing as she... naught but a little kiss. Or maybe more than just a little kiss.