Oh thank the gods. He let out a breath that seemed as if he'd been holding it in. Of course she'd agreed, it was the only sensible thing to do. James' fingers brushed small circles across the nape of her neck, rustling her hair.
"Don't worry about it, mothers always think I'm charming," he assured her, the tension cutting out of his voice at the opportunity to say something that didn't exactly have anything to do with the fact that she might be carrying his child.
It was pretty much true. Mothers were easy enough to handle, and, well... Amarissa's father wasn't around to threaten him with violence or something. Still, he'd never exactly had to explain that he'd gotten someone's little girl pregnant. The specifics of Amarissa's relationship with her mother was a little vague, but James got the impression it wasn't exactly like the one he'd had with his mum. Legitimate concern could be fueling Amarissa's wariness. It was possible her mother was insanely strict - it wasn't much of a stretch, given how disciplined Amarissa managed to be most of the time. Was she the sort of woman who might actually turn away her own daughter? Muggles did that sort thing, just like wizards.
Merlin's blood. That might actually go terribly - well, actually, if she wanted to put that off a bit...
"Okay, how about, if you are... pregnant, we'll just get married before we tell your family," he suggested.
That had to make things better, right? It would have have to make things easier on Amarissa. Whatever she wanted to tell her mother, James would stand behind.