She was about to get up and walk away as she normally would under such a circumstance but seeing him in the state he was in caused her to give pause. Ruth knelt down by the couch, brow knit with genuine worry and care. She swallowed heavily and tentatively touched his arm, "Edw--- Mister Blackwood..." she said softly, "I am here..." And that was all she said because anything else would have been too much, perhaps, and those three words were probably profound enough. Especially, she thought, given the fact that maybe that's all he needed to hear from anybody.

Her feelings for him were such that if she left in that moment, she would regret it.