Merlin, he seemed to be getting grumpier as they went on! Mattie had half-expected him to be begrudgingly charmed by her interest in him (she presumed this of most people), but he was proving a tougher nut to crack.
She frowned a little. “No, no, you’re quite right,” she said with just a sprinkling of sarcasm, glancing at him from her place close at his side. (It was an oddly friendly position to be in, her hand on his arm, for someone as standoffish as he was being – Mattie supposed he might forcibly cast her off him at any moment.)
“But I understand you very well, I think,” she said, matter-of-factly – a little less sweetly than she had before. “I think you don’t care about anyone or anything at all – you would rather be quite unknowable to everyone. A mystery and a perfect recluse,” Mattie decided, refusing to avert her gaze from him. He seemed quite happy to be grumpy and miserable: perhaps that truth was that he was not worth her interest after all? “Do you have any fun at all?”
She frowned a little. “No, no, you’re quite right,” she said with just a sprinkling of sarcasm, glancing at him from her place close at his side. (It was an oddly friendly position to be in, her hand on his arm, for someone as standoffish as he was being – Mattie supposed he might forcibly cast her off him at any moment.)
“But I understand you very well, I think,” she said, matter-of-factly – a little less sweetly than she had before. “I think you don’t care about anyone or anything at all – you would rather be quite unknowable to everyone. A mystery and a perfect recluse,” Mattie decided, refusing to avert her gaze from him. He seemed quite happy to be grumpy and miserable: perhaps that truth was that he was not worth her interest after all? “Do you have any fun at all?”
