"Oh," says Ivan, having found that everything else had failed him for the moment. Well, most everything. "Wasn't he her brother?"

Very tactful, Ivan. He takes a rather large gulp of his wine to cover it, even though he knows he can't take it back. Time to press forward, Ivan supposes, and try and separate Byerly from his dead relatives in the hopes that his uncle will have mercy on him. And the other man isn't even around to appreciate it.

"I don't think it's fair to make generalizations based on his other family members," Ivan points out -- god knows he doesn't want to be lumped in with a particular group of people he can't help but be related to by blood.