I dunno why I originally told this, instead of showing it. Maybe I was in a hurry?
His thoughts were interrupted by a smirking “Sir Gerard!” Gerard looked up, to see… Lord Phillipe, he thought with an extremely well-hidden contempt. I’m surprised he’s voluntarily entered a building that’s had commoners in it.
Aloud, Gerard said, “Good evening, my lord! Would you care to sit with me?” He would not normally have offered, but the thought of the little toady having his clothes scraped clean afterward amused. “I can recommend the local white; the innkeeper opened a new tun just this morning.”
It was amusing, how Lord Phillipe had to fight to keep all the sneers off his face. It was clearly something he was not used to. “I beg your pardon, Sir Gerard,” he said, “but I am on the Duke’s business, and only wished to offer you a good evening in passing.”
From a regular musketeer that would be a commonplace hail-and-farewell; from a man who kept a pomade at hand, lest he encounter the smell of a soldier, it was alarmingly novel. As was the ‘Sir Gerard.’ Since when does he think I am worth wasting courtesy on?