"Right," Alistair says, in a tone that suggests she is perhaps being unreasonable but he has too much self-preservation instinct to argue, which is ridiculous for multiple reasons, including that Alistair has no self-preservation instinct at all. If he did he wouldn't use tones like that with women like her at times like these.

He crosses his arms. Rubs his own elbow.

"You don't have to do the packing. We can send everything up."