Aye, I was. Luckier than most. Didn’t always feel like it when I was just a lad, but I was.

[My father was a kind man, he almost says, but it may be something she doesn’t wish to hear. His father would forgive him for this, in light of the North’s great need.]

I only meant to explain why I saw so little of him.

[A pause, and he adds,]

It must have been hard — to grow up in exile.