His mother's story wasn't quite the one he'd heard from Mary, and in all truth, he was not going to take his mother's word rather than his sister's, especially as he knew Mary not to be a lying, sneaky little creature. "Well mother, whatever happened, you certainly spent a very long time away from home." He said, getting up to make Nell's drink- only a small measure, because it wasn't right for a lady to have a full one, and besides, Harry didn't trust Nell's tongue once their was some brandy in him.
"I haven't grown not to love you, Mother. I can't say you were here often enough to be loved in recent years." He said, a little tiredly. This was just another thing to weigh on his mind, along with Viv and Slater and the rest of it. But with Nell curled against him it seemed not so important."But now you're back and we'll all determined to make things right I'm sure that will change."
He shifted back down into the sofa, trying to get comfortable again, hand going back to the boy's knee. "Nell and I went to see Lord Hurst at his estate, didn't we, Nell?"