[There's a quick, generic answer here. Something along the lines of "your friends will never think that you're a bother", but this is something that Vanessa had spent years learning. After Fred, Claude and Ernest died, she'd kept her own grief bottled up. Who had time for it when the rest of her family had suffered as well? There was nothing to do except be as strong willed as her older brothers and eventually as brave as her little brother. She really has no right to go around waving the banner of friendship at anyone.]

I figured it was because you didn't want him recognizing you and bothering you about it. [She finally says.] But...people probably don't see it that way. As a bother.