"It was a long time." He glances away. "I don't know if it will make you respect me more or less if I tell you how long it took me to realize nobody was coming for me. Probably less. I respect me less. I must have caught a bout of 'hope' from Charles." He glances at her. "But it passed."

He takes a breath and folds the napkin - more something to do with his hands than a necessity - before reapplying it.

"No good deed goes unpunished. Ten years for trying to save a man's life. Finally building something with meaning and then losing it right away. What good has hope ever done anyone?"

But at least, in Shaw's custody, he'd known he was alone. He knew nobody was coming for him. He knew he had no family. In Washington, he'd been fooled.

He looks away.

"That's grim, isn't it?" A small, humourless laugh. "Sorry."