Dimitri & Annette B

Annette
Your Highness! I have a little favor to ask of you.

Dimitri
Of course. How may I be of assistance?

Annette
Well, I was hoping you could...tell me about my father.

Annette
I imagine he was a very different man at home than he was at work.

Dimitri
Ah, so you wish to hear about the Gustave that I knew...

Dimitri
As you know, he was a knight who served the royal family since my grandfather's reign.

Dimitri
To me, he was a teacher of martial arts and tactics. He was someone I depended on since I was a small child.

Dimitri
But he was also a very stern and strict instructor.

Annette
That doesn't surprise me. He was much the same at home.

Annette
He'd chide us if we made mistakes, whether it was with cooking or even how we spoke.

Dimitri
Is that so? Funny. I suppose in front of his family he felt the need to demonstrate proper etiquette.

Annette
Wait... Are you saying that's not how he was around you?

Dimitri
Even all these years later, there's something I recall with perfect clarity. It happened in the autumn of my eleventh year...

Dimitri
Before the break of dawn, he woke me suddenly. Said he'd heard a disturbance and had me grab my bow...

Dimitri
Then he set me and a fellow pupil loose on a dark mountain. Our only directive was to "go catch a deer."

Dimitri
As you well know, autumn in the capital is very cold. Now imagine being up on the mountain at night, with no idea what might jump out from the shadows.

Dimitri
That, in a nutshell, is the Gustave I knew.

Annette
Hehe, I can hardly imagine that! He was completely different with me.

Dimitri
I recall one other defining detail... He used to speak of you at every possible opportunity.

Annette
Really? What would he say about me?

Dimitri
Are you sure you want to know? There's one story he used to tell, from when you were very small...

Annette
No, stop! It's probably too embarrassing to bear... Is it?

Dimitri
Ah, perhaps...

Annette
Look, I'll promise to forget the stories he told me about you, if you return the favor. Deal?

Dimitri
Yes, that seems the only thing to do. It's a promise.