Her smile was only painfully brief, but he let it go for a moment and walked farther into the room, waiting for her to finish wiping her hands before he went ahead and pulled her into a friendly hug.
"I'm doing all right. The question is, how are you?" he asked her, his eyes full of mild concern as he looked down at her. He knew that she was very stressed right now, with everything piled on her, and he was here to help relieve that, he hoped.
He wasn't completely unaware of the undercurrents in the room--he'd grown up in a house full of women, learning came as a method of self defense--but he decided it was best to ignore it for now. "We met at the apothecary awhile back," he said with a brief smile.