He glanced to the side when she asked the question. It took him a moment to reply, because it had been a very long time ago. Lifetimes, really.
"I was ... bored," he said. "We had some money - not a lot, but we were gentry. I had little to do but drink and game. I gambled away most of my fortune - and a fair amount of my father's - and felt the need to escape."