. . . Well. To start with, don't go saying it like that. "If I've been mistaken." You're entirely too polite; you make it sound as if it might have been a misunderstanding that you were. I don't deserve the kindness of you thinking so, my dear.

[Protesting that is both stalling for time and, in some way Nikolas hopes he isn't wrong about, important; it does pain him to think that Winter might really believe he was just "mistaken" about Nikolas's feelings. Not when Nikolas mislead him, and quite deliberately at that. He folds his hands in his lap, demure in a way he rarely is.]

The fault is mine there.