"I guess," he deflected. What she said was true, and he didn't feel like offering a defense. Innocence like Lissa's was vanishingly uncommon between her youth and her privilege, and they had procrastinated spoiling it because no one wanted to tarnish the brightness in the eyes or the skip in her step. Life and happiness could be simple when you didn't know some things.

But that wasn't an excuse for someone in Lissa's position. She needed and deserved to learn those things, even more than the average person. And she certainly was past the age that she should have started learning them.