"And my ankle is absolutely fine, thank you. So, if you could just give me that back - I can finish what I started."

Maybe in his awkwardness he had come across a bit strong, but now with the laundry basket in hand he was too much of a stubborn fool to relinquish it. 

“Of course not,” he replied as he made his way towards what looked like a washing line. “Two weeks ago you could hardly walk. Hanging a little bit of washing will be of no inconvenience; a little unconventional, yes.”

George Farr in the past two weeks had been a regular visitor to the Hollyworth’s and he hardly expected that to change over the following months. His actions that Friday night had been inexcusable, an all he wanted was to return to some form of normality between the two of them.

"Why are you even out here?" 

“Because I couldn’t spend another second in that same sitting room without having apologised for my inexcusable behaviour.”

That and needing to escape her Mother, but he wasn’t going to mention that.