Ah. So that's that idea terminated. There's probably not a pattern there to dig out. He sighs. He isn't even really sure why this is so frustrating a circumstance, but given time he'll be a rankling mass of negativity and potential violence.

More's the pity, really. A nice threat would do him a world of good, quite possibly. He'd have no question how to deal with that, and it'd be wonderfully settling to the nerves. "I'm in your debt, you know." When he says this, it sounds like a warning. The food and shelter are trivial, and if she has any sense, she'll know that. He would have gotten by without either, decently enough, though admittedly probably with more troublemaking. But answering all his questions, and not making him the authorities' problem instead of hers, well.