[i]Hmph,[/i] thought Malcolm,[i]someone's rather resilient today.[/i]

Malcolm was rather disappointed at Cecilia's currently neutral disposition. He had hoped to get one final rouse out of her before her execution and passing on from this world. Over time, Cecilia had conditioned herself to withstand his bullying and wicked sense of humor, which had grown to annoy him in the later years. How he missed the way in days past that she would become fitful and angry, and even tearful at times, over some of his devious and sinister antics. Malcolm didn't let his disappointment show, he would not give her that final satisfaction of besting him in the end, of rising above his treatment of her.

Still, Malcolm knew there was no point in further pushing Cecilia. He had played his trump card too early it seemed, which was mocking her father. She undoubtedly knew that he was just seeking a reaction from her, and he saw little point in "hammering the wall" as the commoners said. 

[i]Still, might as well get in another jab or two before my departure.[/i] He thought.

"You know Cecilia," he began,"I do regret in a sense that you must die today. Notice that I said 'in a sense'. True, you are a treacherous, smug, homely, thrice-cursed harpy, conceived by union of a foolish codger and a shriveled strumpet of a woman. But, little cousin, I do think I'll miss you at times. 
I'll miss pissing in your bathwater, beaning you with rocks, and burning your favorite books, just to name a few. Oh, the times we had, you overacting to my jokes and whining to your knock-kneed father, begging him to make your auntie thrash me when we were children. So many memories."

Satisfied with his final assault, Malcolm held back from departing, standing still, arms still crossed, grinning smugly as he awaited a reaction from Cecilia.