Too much time has passed since Athos was touched with anything like warmth or intimacy - even in the most casual of ways.The war has swept away thoughts of the wife who betrayed him, but now that tensions of cooled, he finds himself returning to Anne in his mind far more often than he would like. Perhaps that is why even this simple gesture stills him, causes him to look at Porthos with heat in his eyes.

He hates himself for his weakness, but it has just been too long