Bert squeezed her hand, just for a moment, and nodded. She was right. Roland and Nariko would be back soon, and although it felt like betrayal to keep something like this from his dinh, none of them needed the hassle of rehashing the argument. The sooner they could deal with whatever the fuck this was, the better.

"Speaking of letting other stuff get in the way," he started, then bit his lip, pulling a face, and walked on in silence for a moment more before continuing. "What I'm saying is, I'm sorry too. For being such an ass. About this, and about everything else."

And he really hoped she didn't register how rare and precious an apology from Cuthbert Allgood was. That would just be awkward.