He crouched--hunkered, really, squatting there on his heels as he was wont to do, really--before her, considering her, regarding her.
"I don't know," he answered, still smiling a little. "If you'd chosen me, well, I wonder if I would have seen that neat little trick of yours. I might have toyed with you, knowing that there were more and others who wanted you. It would have been amusing to keep you out of his hands when he wanted you. That was some of the fun then, in those innocent days."
A veritable tangle of limbs now, he leaned his chin on his hand.
"He's spoiled it all, really, by telling you all these things, about who and what I am. He's right about them all. But so it goes. It was by my hand that he told, by my hand pulling on his strings as one pulls on the strings of a harp."
His smile turned wistful, charming, almost romantic.
"I wish you had chosen me. I think it would have been a delight. For however long it lasted. Perhaps the truth would have come out anyway. But it would have been a delight until then."
no subject
"I don't know," he answered, still smiling a little. "If you'd chosen me, well, I wonder if I would have seen that neat little trick of yours. I might have toyed with you, knowing that there were more and others who wanted you. It would have been amusing to keep you out of his hands when he wanted you. That was some of the fun then, in those innocent days."
A veritable tangle of limbs now, he leaned his chin on his hand.
"He's spoiled it all, really, by telling you all these things, about who and what I am. He's right about them all. But so it goes. It was by my hand that he told, by my hand pulling on his strings as one pulls on the strings of a harp."
His smile turned wistful, charming, almost romantic.
"I wish you had chosen me. I think it would have been a delight. For however long it lasted. Perhaps the truth would have come out anyway. But it would have been a delight until then."