[ It's not an obvious response -- not in words or a single action but it's a stiffening of tension that sits heavy on his shoulder. The question they're too near and too pointed for him to sit easy with it. Not sure why she should care. Much he might be able to say of her for so short meetings, but empathy to his grief was not it.

-- And for the most part, it is not a question he hasn't heard before. Only then, crueler, sneered between pretty words. He does not think that her intention, but it makes him wary. ]

I was a gift to her father for my skill enough to speak of what it is, and bearing no title or peerage of my own, my loyalty was without question to her family.

[ Because I adored her, even then, and she had always known that, even as a girl. Is the simpler answer, and one that would take a great deal more for him to say. ]