Well. If it worked for them, Rory supposed he shouldn't criticize. But still ... he'd heard Pippa denigrate her own abilities too often. "Maybe not in the pouring and cooling," he said mildly, "but in all the steps leading up to, and the ones that follow after ..." He left off there, hopefully making enough of a point to answer his lover's self-deprecation without sparking another argument.

He gave her a gentle squeeze as he looked thoughtfully at the Red King. "I wonder how he'll feel about meeting the original, as it were." He glanced down to check her reaction. "That is, if you want me to meet him while I'm here. If you'd rather I didn't, I can understand that."