She didn't look at him still, she just sort of collected the tea cup where the liquid was now a little less warm an a lot closer to tepid than she would prefer, but it was her own fault for her taking the time she did to try and calm herself down. "It doesn't matter how ye feel about me," she said, her voice kind of half whisper and hoarse. "I should have kept me mouth shut. I should not have been inappropriate with ye, sir. And it's also not a matter of desire. I don't wish to leave. Leaving here, where everyone made me feel like family... I don't know. Me ma and da have a full house and I just cannot go back there... Besides, I think me brother needs ma more right now." She gave a thick sniffle.

Ruth did finally look up, but she looked over his shoulder toward the couch where she had let him cry on her shoulder. "I have no business in yer life at all," she whispered. "I came here ta get out o' the rain and ta offer me services since I'd not had me own income, and somehow it became a mess. Ma was right, I shouldn't have spoken to anyone about me feelins' toward ye, least of all ye."

She quickly dashed an annoying tear away, angry with herself that the tears were flowing despite the fact she was already cried out. "I don't want to go at all, but staying? I dunno if I can handle stayin' when it's not some infatuation. Ye don't know just how much I've wished, especially as of late, ye would see me as someone who deserves ye." And then she slowly pushed herself up, leaving her cup untouched other than the initial fidgets. She moved to the clock, the one he'd been so taken by, now ticking away as if having counted the hours in which she tried to pull him out of his funk. She touched the side of it, and then her thumb traced the workmanship. She sighed and then shook her head. She wanted to shatter the clock into a million pieces just to watch him fix it again because he was so alive when he was doing what fascinated him. She refrained.

"I have no business," she went on, "Not now, not ever. Especially not when I'm still married to Angus, especially when his child will soon be considered a bastard since Angus won't legally be wed ta me, especially since ye're still grievin', and especially since I am yer maid and not a woman of means or class." She gave a shrug. "I'm sorry I made ye uncomfortable." With that, she started for the door since she wasn't sure she could handle whatever he had to say next. Yet part of her wanted him to drive home that it was impossible. Perhaps then she could let him go fully.