I came here because I wanted your company, not theirs. [He was not going to abandon him under the weak pretense of better entertainment with the others. They where perfectly well off on their own.] Besides, I think Tharkay is sick of me by now.

[It wasn't true in the slightest. At least, he didn't think it was. Tharkay was always hard to read, but always forward in letting one know when they where bothering him. Either way, he's not letting Laurence win that easily.]

[The idea of returning to England without him was a dim one. There was probably no way around it, though that hadn't stopped him from trying to puzzle a way around it. But even if the could have convinced the stuffy and scared politicians that Temeraire was needed, they'd never let Laurence back into the country alive.]

[But the idea he presented Granby with finding someone new was far less pleasant than all of that.]

Yes, and they'll all be incredibly dull compared to you. You sell yourself too short.

[He'd never tried before to bolster someone's self worth and he could only pray he was doing it right.]