His heart feels as if it lurches in his chest when she takes his hand, and yet those words nearly make him joke as if his heart is in his throat. His fingers curl, clinging to her hand for a moment.

"I care, because you are a good woman. In that way," he says, smiling tightly because he's sure she'll argue with him. And it makes him more determined to never be that man, to never put her in a position where the horrible things they say about her are true.

"It's mostly how I've spent my entire life. If it keeps you safe, protects you? I will." It it meant she didn't look poorly at him for staying there with them, he would.