I had seen ardency in men's eyes, but I had only felt it once. With Flauvic, false and therefore easy to dismiss. I suddenly wished that I could feel it now. No, I did feel it. I did have the same feeling, only I had masked it as restlessness, or as the exhortation to action, or as anger. I thought how wonderful it would be to see that spark now, in the right pair of eyes.

Angry men with pointy things sent to secure a foreign city are pretty much alike anywhere. That's what I've heard. So far nothing's convinced me different.

Because you showed one face to all the rest of the world, and another to me.

The only noise now was the rain, pattering softly with the magnificent indifference of nature for the tangled passions of humans.

Finally someone takes me seriously enough to ask for my word of honor, and it’s a villain.

Everyone is an idiot," I stated. "Except me.

No, I don't think I could fall in love with him, handsome though he is, because I don't accept any of that huff he gives me about my great beauty and all that. I'd have to trust a man's words before I could love him. I think.