"I do care," Childermass doesn't even need more than a moment's pause to give Peridot's outburst some space to say that much, at least, and he says it softly, a polar opposite to her yelling.
It wasn't meant to go like this. The Ringmaster should have ended it when she had the chance. It shouldn't have mattered that they momentarily lost Lambert and the rest. The rest, just how many are 'the rest'? How many did something unbearably stupid while he was out of the ballroom? If he had known this would be dragged out, would he have changed his decision?
No. He doubts it.
"And I want them all back as much as you do," he adds, this time with a tired sigh. The magician's shoulders sag with that admission — as obvious as it should have been, anyway — and, while it irks him to show it, he can only hold himself totally aloof for so long after a night like this. He's tired. There's no time to rest.
"What we need to do is focus on how to do that, not what might be happening, not what we should have or shouldn't have done. Doing that will only exhaust you and then what help will you be?"
no subject
It wasn't meant to go like this. The Ringmaster should have ended it when she had the chance. It shouldn't have mattered that they momentarily lost Lambert and the rest. The rest, just how many are 'the rest'? How many did something unbearably stupid while he was out of the ballroom? If he had known this would be dragged out, would he have changed his decision?
No. He doubts it.
"And I want them all back as much as you do," he adds, this time with a tired sigh. The magician's shoulders sag with that admission — as obvious as it should have been, anyway — and, while it irks him to show it, he can only hold himself totally aloof for so long after a night like this. He's tired. There's no time to rest.
"What we need to do is focus on how to do that, not what might be happening, not what we should have or shouldn't have done. Doing that will only exhaust you and then what help will you be?"