[ He holds his gaze for a long moment, as though weighing up whether or not he should decline and do this by himself. But the measure of it is that Athos truly trusts the man in front of him. It's a personal trust, one that blooms somewhere in the ravaged garden of his soul and takes root. Athos has so little people he can afford that of and the fact that there is one more is still surprising to him. ]

All right. [ It's soft and lacking any particular edge. He's not being weak, he's being clever. ] But we keep it between ourselves for now. I won't approach him unless absolutely necessary, but I can't say the same for Aramis or d'Artagnan. They would want to respond to the slight. [ They would want to defend him, protect him. And so he'll keep his silence. ]