Ben didn't stop Esras from making his own tea, but he didn't take up the offer of sitting back down either. He really needed to be on his feet for this. He ran a hand through his hair and steadied his breath. He really wasn't handling this very well at the moment, although he had no idea why not. After all, no matter what Esras said or threatened thought, he and Delora were getting married and that was all there was to it.
"You sound like your sister, telling me to take a break," he opened with a smile. "In fact, she's gone to pack now. We're hoping to have as much of the weekend as possible to ourselves." He paused, but the euphemism was innocuous enough that, even though Esras would know exactly what he meant, he couldn't take offense in any way. Hopefully.
Then again, that wasn't the half of it. Ben watched Esras's back as he continued making his tea, and spoke again when Esras was in no immediate peril of scalding himself with boiling water. "Remember I spoke to you the night you heard me speaking to Madison?" he asked. Of course Esras would remember. Ben had felt the need then to explain that his words about Delora hadn't been said just to frustrate the dying man bastard.
He paused briefly, then continued with a small shrug. "I've asked her to marry me. And she's accepted," he said briefly. Flowery explanations would not have worked on Esras. "I was coming to see you as soon as I could. This only happened in the past few minutes."
At least he was sort of saying that he had enough respect for Esras that he'd tell him straight away. Sort of. It could definitely be taken that way anyhow, by anyone's standards.