"Is it not?" he asks, equally confused. He reaches around to rest his unburdened arm upon her shoulders and hold her gently. "I know I tried to warn you off falling in love with me when we first slept together and I...I apologise for that. I had been through too many heartbreaks to want yet another. Mayhap what we have won't be the sort of romantic saga played out upon a stage, but that does not mean we cannot care for each other."

His fingers idly rub the length of one of her ears as he continues, "Make no mistake, Hythlodaeus occupies the closest place to my heart next to who you all were before. But I think you are both too quick to hand me back to him. Our people had many words for love: from sexual to the romantic to the simple affection between parent and child. The love I feel for him is different to the love I feel for you and Felih."

Bowing his head, he moves to cradle the back of her head and rests his cheek against her hair. With their disparate heights, she seems so small...

"But if you would rather we distance ourselves," he says reluctantly, "then I will let you go."