"I'm so glad you've made it through all right, pet. Who's your - acquaintance?"

"Rolan," says Rolan, with a charming smile.

"I see."

"He's been very helpful."

"We're going to the city."

"...You're going with a strange man who you've never met before just yesterday, to the city? To whatever - bolthole or hideout he has there? Rapunzel, that makes no sense."

Okay, maybe now he's making a face.

"Do you realize how lucky you've been? Maybe this one doesn't really wish you harm, I don't know and neither do you, but do you think you're going to be able to charm all his dangerous friends? His dangerous enemies? Do you think you'll hold his attention long enough to get an escort all the way to wherever you think you're going instead of being auctioned off - for your hair or worse -"

"...Rapunzel..."

Rapunzel looks at him.

"Rapunzel. This behavior is insane. You've been fortunate enough not to run into any - irrecoverable problems - yet. Not to fall into the hands of anyone more than a day and a half's worth of impatient - yet. Why didn't you talk to me if you wanted this badly to go out and see the forest? We could have talked about it, sweetheart. Maybe not the city, that's nonsense, but you could have looked at some trees up close if you wanted to so badly that you'd go charging off with a stranger."

"Do you want to just - keep going?" he asks Rapunzel. "We could."

"I - I -"

"Come home, darling. We'll talk about this and come up with something safe to do instead of - this."

"I'm..."

"You decided to go to the city," says Rolan. "And you think things through. We can just go."

"How did you know I just met him? How do you know he hasn't been visiting me while you're gone for months?"

"Oh, darling, I think I would have noticed -"

"But maybe you wouldn't. How do you know? What makes you think his friends are dangerous? I slept in an inn where there were a lot of them all last night and nothing happened."