That... was not what Geralt thought Eskel would be angry at him about, but it is fair for it to be the reason. "I thought you were angry about me being so willing to kill you." He takes a healthy drink from his cup and closes his eyes, trying to think of how to explain it.

"I didn't know she was with child," he says after a long silence. "I fucked up, Eskel. I know that." Geralt's fucked up so many things in his life, and this is just another one of them. He's fucked things up with Yennefer, with Jaskier, with Ciri and now with Eskel too. He doesn't know how to make it right except for telling the truth. "I was embarrassed. I should have learned from your mistake, but I didn't. I made the exact same one, and ran just like you did."

The difference is that Geralt had eventually gone back, realised that he had to, and gone to claim his child surprise. "When I returned for her, Calanthe lied, tried to pass off another child as the princess. She was never going to give Ciri to me, not while she was alive. It took her death for Ciri to even learn of me, and know that destiny was guiding us both. When I tried to find her after the castle was sacked, she was already gone. I thought she might be dead."