She asked for frankness, but the reality of the words given voice rattled Titania. The way he structured his argument, statements of fact instead of declarations of emotion, was of odd comfort to her. Titania was first and foremost a woman of reason, and her unsteady hands and heating cheeks were all the unfamiliarity she could stand at the moment. She was also a woman of practicality. She was a woman of thirty and three, unmarried, and being made the beginnings of an offer from a man she dearly admired at the least. There was no question of her required response, but it wasn't etiquette or Society guiding her words.

Titania caught her own bottom lip with her teeth, a habit that rarely reared its head in her adulthood, but when she found herself at a loss for words and afraid over overstepping, the habit surfaced. How was it she was more nervous of her footing now that Mr. Greyback spoke? Accustomed to alarm bells at the thought of misspeaking, the flutter of excitement was unanticipated and unsettling in the extreme. Risking a look in his direction, she took some courage in his own caution.

"I must confess, Mr. Greyback, it seems I owe you an apology." Titania dared to watch his bright eyes for a moment, the laughter she'd come to love in them absent for a moment. "It seems my allowed feelings changed without consulting either of us. My affections," Her face absolutely burned. "Are certainly not familial in nature." The admission took more out of her than she cared to admit; her shoulders sagging for a fraction of a second in relief. "And I think it safe for you to call me Titania. If you prefer." She added quickly.

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