[She's smiling a little at him for that. It isn't amusement: it's the small hint of gratefulness that one feels at realizing that her current company is, indeed, a thinking and feeling human being.]

He was married to my older sister, after his brother - her husband - was killed. They did not love each other, and she did not love me.

[Because she had always been the prettier one, the better one. But Malia had, of course, been made to obey. Respect family, respect elders, uphold tradition.]