"Call it off? I will not. I will see his blood for this."
"Sir... Malcolm... you misunderstand. My grandson meant no —"
"Oh, I think I know full well what he meant. From the words he used, it was full and abundant clear exactly what he meant. And on tomorrow's dawn, I intend to feed him those ill-chosen words, along with two feet of steel."
"Please, for your own sake... my grandson has practiced the blade for over a thousand —"
"Oh, sing me no songs of mystical prowess. I've heard them, note for note, and I know what passes for training among your nobility. Willow switches and padded doublets and honeyed wine between rounds. I've ended older lives than his, when our nations warred."
"Well, then, for my sake..."
"Lady, do not presume upon our brief acquaintance. I like you well, I will not deny it. But my honor is mine own to keep."
"But my grandson did not even speak to you! Not until you struck him! And challenged him to your ridiculous ... duel ! It was I that he spoke to!"
"And I heard what he said. Disgusting. An act of perversion. As if I were an animal. A pig. A horse. A dog. Your act. Your fault. As if I were a thing with no will, a thing beneath his notice, beneath your..."
"Malcolm, stop. Please. You do not understand. I do not think you a... we do not think of you as beasts, or animals, or lowly things.
"Do you think I would lay down with one I thought to be nothing but an animal? Would go to your arms so eagerly? With joy?
"Are you so hot-blooded, so ruled by impulse, so quick to take insult, that you cannot see that my grandson sought only to protect you? Do you not understand that it was I? I who, in a moment of weakness, of loneliness... that I did a wicked thing?"
"Protecting me? From you? What are you talking about?"
"Do you truly not understand what we see when we look upon you? You are not monsters, or animals, or dumb beasts bereft of reason. You have wisdom, and craft, and virtue in you... but..."
"But?"
"... but you have no time. You are like children who cannot grow. It breaks our hearts."
"Wait, are you saying.... that ....?"
"What would you say, to one of your own, who took advantage of a child?"
"Lady... I a man of five and thirty."
"Yes. Precisely. You are only thirty-five years old. And I am... I am ashamed of myself."