"Oh I don't suggest we trust him for even a second, he's already proven himself to be a prodigiously talented liar. It would be disastrously stupid to do a thing like that."

And yet... he was also talented in other more useful ways that couldn't be ignored, especially when in this case he had to assume that their alliances might lie somewhere in the area of being the same. Perhaps. He would need to think about this some more.

He laid his hands upon her shoulders, gently brushing her collarbone with his thumb.

"We have had worse setbacks than this, and we have overcome them. It's simply a case of knowing how best to manage the situation. We know what he is capable of. I would like to think that the same cannot be said by him with regards to us, and so we eke the advantage. For now. Then we shall see how to turn this negative into a positive. The more important question right now is: are you alright?"

He closed the distance between them and pressed a soft kiss to her forehead.