Her mother was Evalina! Alfred turned his attention with surprise to Evander, looking for a confirmation or denial of this fact. Evander, though, was giving him a look as though he should have known this. As though he was an idiot for having asked at all. Alfred knew this had never come up, no matter how Evander was trying to play it off now. He certainly would have remembered being told he had a niece! When he'd come back from abroad, he'd been told that Evalina was dead, but not that she had a child (children? Who knew, at this point?) running about in the world. He could understand, perhaps, not bringing it up in the moment, since he'd been grieving for both Evalina and their mother at that point, but he'd been back for two years (and some change); surely there had been an opportunity to mention it at some point?

"I've been back for several years, too," Alfred said saltily. This comment was entirely directed at Evander, with the not-so-subtle implication of so you could have told me before today, you overgrown wart.

The conversation was moving on, into more what the fuck territory for Alfred. Why were they sorry to hear about her father? What the hell had happened to her father?

Not that he was going to ask, given how well his last question had gone over. Instead of saying anything, then, he decided to just step on the toes of Evander's closest shoe, hard, to let him know he wasn't bloody following.