A stern man who often seems tired from the labors of his life. While he may not have a highly laborous job, physically at least, yet because of the mountains of paperwork that he, particularly recently - largely thanks to Yael, and her messy meddling within the dukedom, has to deal with fixing and undoing all of her negative influences. Trying to resolve as much as he can before, he believes, her inevitable return. 
 
He's taking this opportunity to reach out to his subordinates, the earls that have been kept at a distance up until now because of Yael, because they are his childhood friends and because many of them are not fully human.