This is not a question she's ever been asked- partly because most people who wanted to know had met Emery and made their own minds up ('no, not really' is the accepted narrative there), and partly because she just doesn't know a lot of people who're inclined to ask. Maybe she gives him an honest answer just for the novelty of it.

"He wanted to be," she says, after a quiet pause, and that's the story of Emeric Featherstonehaugh's life, right there. Damned with faint praise, but always trying. "Daddy is an artist, though, and...that's just how he is." 'Artistic temperament' is not actually an excuse for Ilde's childhood. "He had his moments, though. Good moments, I mean."

Her tone is protective, almost; she sees herself as responsible for him far more than the other way around.