Truer, [ he repeats with his own rolled R, as if it might be a new word for Bastien, he knows. ]

More real. Lady Bonaventure, for instance-- if her other suitor had been a man she'd known all her life. If he had long ago learned to crack open her ribcage and crawl inside -- and perhaps was not always kind there, nor she to him, but there was an honesty between them. A depth of intimacy, at least.

Might that not mean as much as Lord Volant's beautiful sonnets?