Caractacus matched Ms. Prince's lean with one of his own, eyes casually flitting about the room, taking numerous small, and not so small, details, wand dangling from his fingertips, hand resting on his knee.
Why?
He felt his mouth turn up in a small smile, unable to stop himself. As though he would tell her why. Tell her that he felt hopelessly uninformed, out of his depth, and in a dangerous situation. Caractacus knew none of these people (Belvina excepted, and that was not his Belvina, certain commonalities aside), knew nothing of their motives or lives beyond what had been told to him by others, either through books or notes. Every person in this castle, as well as beyond its walls, was an unknown.
Furthermore, certain denizens of the castle appeared to have expectations with an older, more experienced him, which was what had attracted Ms. Prince's interest in the first place. Being in such a place as to be talented enough or strong enough to attract notice while not having the tools to defend yourself as necessary, or even to know where you stood in the scheme of things, was an absolutely terrifying feeling.
Much less when you were alone.
Caractacus Burke was scared. But that was weakness.
"I was curious about the properties of the stone; I apologize if my experiments in any way caused offense."