Husband, she'd said, and it would take a fool not to connect the dots. She'd been married to him, her...him, and...he'd died, in the war apparently. Suddenly, he felt like an ass for offering her comfort. He was probably only making everything worse. Still, the humanitarian in him knew that wasn't the case, and knew that she had to business apologizing.

"De world can be a cold place, Marie." He called her by the name she'd declared. "Ain' no harm takin' comfort where ya can."