A surge of real irritation pulses through Jim. It manifests in the way he bites he inside of his cheek to keep from saying something he'll regret aloud. The clench of his free hand into fist at his side. The honed edge his gaze takes on. Do they think Jim didn't know where this was going to end up?

He chose to get hit to stand up for Isidor and by proxy for Harrowheart. Since Zandros' incorrectly placed Jim in that position instead of the right man to be jealous of, a man who was not there to defend himself or his relationship with Isidor. A man who quite possibly can't if the pieces Jim's seen of this fiasco line up to form the larger picture he thinks it does.

"She doesn't need me to defend her anything, least of all her honor." He doesn't brush Felix aside completely but he does jerk his head away so it's not locked in Felix's grip. "But she did look like she could sorely use a friend when I arrived." If anyone's honor needed defending, it was Harrowheart's. Not that Jim is ready to admit to that just yet. Things are still fragile and weird between the two. "I knew what I was doing."

And where it would get him.