Emery doesn't answer, at least not at first. He focuses on his stew, gazing down into it unseeingly after each bite. These are words that have been offered to him by his own children in the days since his son's flogging, words of compassion and understanding that he knows, were the tables turned, he would offer to anyone else. His son is a grown man, and he acted on his principles. He'd not been taught to behave any other way, nor to anticipate that the soldiers' commander might not respond in kind. That Brickenden might be unspeakably cruel in demanding his recompense.

Forcing Lance to hold the whip that has scarred Emery's son for the rest of his life--

"I should have been here," he repeats simply, softly, and rubs a hand across his beard. Then, "Apologies, Wilde, I shouldn't place any of this on your shoulders."