" Not darling. Darling is what my mother calls my father when she's cross with him."
..."I did ask what form of endearment you'd prefer."
"Dinna think endearments ought to come along naturally?"
"Arsenic, I hate to say it, but endearments, as a general rule, may come naturally to some stout gentlemen of fine moral fibre, but certainly not to me. "

― Gail Carriger , Reticence (The Custard Protocol #4)