[ He makes a little soft noise of acknowledgment. He surveys her thoughtfully. This, too, is a posture, no less a manipulation than the prior flirtation and teasing, but it looks so genuine. He's good at this - absurdly good at this - with just the right amount of sympathetic pain around his eyes and lips, the right blend of empathy and opportunism in his manner when he says: ]

It's a bit hard to imagine you like that, reine. You don't exactly come across as a woman nostalgic for flowers. You seem a woman of steel rather than of tapestries.