He understood what she meant well enough. He stepped forward and looked down at the table and at the books that were set out. Most just had words. One had a picture of a knight and he thought that interesting enough. He rarely had a chance to see art.

"I've wondered what it would be like, if I had been a Waters instead of a smith. My father... Robert Baratheon. I saw him once, in the streets. He near ran over me. I recognized him, but he didn't so much as look as me. He was drunk as could be at the time." A drunken fool is what he had thought. But he wouldn't dare say something so treasonous to her.

"But if I'd have been a Waters, maybe he would have kept me in the palace. I wouldn't have been a prince, I know that. But he might have taught me the sword. The sort of things I ought to know to be a man." He touched the picture of the knight. "And my letters, I suppose."

He looked back up at her. "You knew him, right? I'm wrong, aren't I? I know it wouldn't be that way. Your father is kind, to take you in. But mine..."

Don't speak treason.

"Probably better this way. Had I been in the palace, the Goldcloaks would have been able to put a sword in me a lot sooner."