"I won't drop ye," he said. He sighed and said, "We can't just leave her out there, though. I suppose I'll have to make this proper like somehow so this misunderstanding doesn't happen again." He was being honest, a look of wariness in his eyes when he pulled away some to look down at her face. "I don't want to do anything ye ain't comfortable with, but how about ye stay while I talk to her?" He was willing to let Abi go for her, but he didn't feel good about it. He felt bad about the whole thing, especially when Rose was right that the arrangement was improper and it wouldn't do. Although he had not been thinking with his Johnson, he could understand how one could see it as that. In retrospect, he should never have offered the position to an unmarried woman if he had no plans to marry her.

He did not immediately let go of Rose, but rather, waited for her to be the one to pull away and let him know it was alright to let him fix this mess that he had made.