((Props for the PB choice btw. I never realized before that even when Queen Elizabeth smiles, she looks so full of murder.))

He assumed there may be no spring with this lady, nor did he assume there would be much cheek pinching. You can't fight or charm your way out of winter's teeth; best hunker down and bare it out. Although actually winters were rather mild around his neck of the woods. It was the mosquito-bloated summers and their disease that was often the killer in his neck the woods. He'll still take the risk of malaria over being an Englishman or German, and having to live with their damned cold.

"Aye, there's strength in wanting. So say the hungry, when they have no bread and must live only on the virtue of their poverty."