"Well, thankfully they're in America for another two weeks, so I've got you to myself until then." His own smile is just as small and uncertain. "Dad will flirt with you and tell embarrassing stories about what I got up to as a boy, and Mum will probably encourage him and ask a thousand questions about what you do to help out on case work."

Sometimes, he has to admit, he's a bit embarrassed by all the fuss people make about what he views as a minor and arbitrary difference in circumstances. He grew up upper-middle-class, raised by a pair of friendly eccentrics. Yes, his brother runs the government, but it's not as if they're next in line for the throne. Or if there's any distant relation anywhere far back, they'd have to kill about a thousand people to be anywhere near in the running for a position neither of them wants anyway.