Not to worry - as I said in my post, I was rather pleased to have Bert assume that the story was clearly over the top and made up to tug at the heartstrings.

It just might have been better to have something on the lines of "I'm a bit suspicious this isn't a real story - if that's actually the case "puzzled" is a manipulative bastard who should push off."

The intent is all, in an insult, and where there's no intent there is no insult.