[Those fingers moved up again, working a light brush through the dark hair. It'd grown some over the years, as had the Earl himself, and personally he liked it that Astre hadn't bothered to want it trimmed again. Another testament to the chains of England and what they left behind that had fallen from the boy's shackles.]

You won't know unless one of you broaches the subject with the other. Or have you already tried to test those waters?

[His suspicions said no, no for certain. Not if Astre had come to him about it like this, not with all of this uneasiness.]