He understands. Of course he does. Yet in the height of her agony, of all ladies most wretched and deject, she thought that no one possibly could. Not even her brother — her dear, shy brother, shy as her despite the larger tether he could walk with, whose own fears spoke loud in his own warnings to her. Best safety lies in fear. It’s what both of them were taught. It’s what both of them inherited, from their father and their mother’s death.

“Thy love has made thee wiser,” she observes. Soft, she asks, “Hast thou seen heartache, too?”