His arms go around her immediately, without thought. "He is earnest. I do trust him. I care for him, as well."

He pauses, because the thought comes up -- as a brother -- but he knows that isn't what he means; and then, besides, there is the complicated knot of feelings for Arthur, who has called him brother, and he still cannot explain the ways that his feelings for and about Laertes abut those he has for Arthur. (They are not the same. Laertes is not Arthur, and is little enough like him. But there is that sense in him that the quality of his care is similar enough to scrape, and he does not know what to do with or about that.)