Since the prurient approach had dead-ended, Nell tried a different tack: 
playing stupid. Sooner or later, the Duke would become a little testy. But he 
was always terribly patient with her, even after the twentieth repetition of 
"Could you explain it again with different words? I still don't get it." Of 
course, for all she knew, he was upstairs
punching the walls until his knuckles were bloody and simply pretending to be 
patient with her. A man who'd been locked up in a tower for years would learn 
to be extremely patient.