Hugh leaned back in his chair. “If you’ll allow me, Mrs. Pariseau, to address the question?” he asked politely. Mrs. Pariseau gave a magnanimous nod. “Your interpretation is interesting, Lady Lillias. I confessI’vealways thought of it as a story of a woman who was searching for an excuse to succumb to temptation. Because confronting her true desires would have scandalized not only her parents, but the entire world. Imagine wanting to be with a man who isliterallybeneath her. So she ate a pomegranate seed and blamed her desires upon it.”
The pretty flush in her cheeks seemed to begin at Lillias’s collarbone.
A startled, rather impressed silence fell upon the room.
“Demeter and Zeus,” Mrs. Pariseau contributed helpfully. “Those were her parents.” She sounded fascinated. “Do go on.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Pariseau,” Lillias said pleasantly. “I do think it’s rather distressing to imagine that there Persephone was, minding her business, innocently picking flowers, when Hades just decided it would be wonderful to... take her.”
She fixed him with an unblinking gaze.
Well, that was surprisingly well done.
Take her take her take her.The words echoed through his mind, accompanied by swift, flickering scenes and carnal little prepositions and possibilities: backwards, forwards, sideways, behind. He dug a fingernail into his palm to stop them.
He eyed her warily.
Did she understand the full implications of what she’d just said? Or was he just inclined to sift everything she said through an innuendo filter? Doubtless she’d learned that men were just that easily distracted.
“Butwasit... innocent?” He furrowed his brow. “Persephone’s actions? Or was she doing something she oughtn’t be doing out of sheer boredom, courting an outcome she was entirely unprepared for, as she had no real notion of the dangers or consequences? It strikes me as a situation in which she would never... possibly... win.”
Their eyes locked in deadly, silent combat.
Mrs. Hardy and Mrs. Durand each sported slightly puzzled furrows in their brows. Mrs. Pariseau was now frantically scanning the pages of the book for anything that might support his hypothesis.
Lillias’s head tilted sympathetically. “Poor Hades,” said softly. “Howweakhe must have been to do such a thing. How very savage and desperate it must have felt to be at the mercy of a need he couldn’t ever... dream... of satisfying.”
His jaw tightened.
“Oh my goodness,” Mrs. Pariseau breathed. She touched her fingertips to her collarbone. “What a powerful anduniqueinterpretation, Lady Lillias.”
Everyone else looked rather puzzled.
She lifted slightly and let fall one shoulder with a little self-satisfied smile.
Hugh took pains to make his own faint smile pitying. An intimation that, while her goad was amusing, she hadn’t a clue who she was up against.
Her satisfied expression flickered a bit.
Hugh rubbed his chin pensively. “Well, it certainly relieved her of the need to make that decision for herself, didn’t it? Perhaps being swiftly taken by someone so uncivilized was a dream she’d never, ever admit to... given that she was so above him.”
He had the pleasure of actually seeing her breath hitch.
“Then again, at least he’s thelordof the underworld,” he added. “I’m sure that eventually brought her a good deal of comfort.”
Mrs. Pariseau was now madly flipping through the book. “Whata stimulating discussion,” she enthused. “I didn’t know you were a scholar ofmythology, Mr. Cassidy. I must say I’m impressed with your conjectures. I’m eager to hear your thoughts on Odysseus. The poor fellow lashed himself to a mast in order to avoid being lured to his death by sirens.”
“Odysseus was weak,” Hugh said idly. “Resistance is child’s play.”
Lady Lillias seemed a trifle subdued. She turned her head and resumed gazing toward the curtains.
It was in all likelihood merely a tactical retreat.
He studied the back of her head. He suddenly imagined putting his lips against the pale inch of skin just above the lace of her collar. Blood rushed to his head.
“So what you’re all saying is that Hadessnatchedher and took her to live in, er...Hades?” Lady Claire said suddenly. She’d been listening to all of this raptly, and evidently was both thrilled and scandalized. “TheHades? Where the devil lives?”
The countess looked up uncertainly, belatedly realizing that the classics were essentially full of moral pitfalls. “Er, doubtless she was quite comfortable there for the duration, Claire, dear,” her mother soothed. “It was a palace and she was the queen, after all. And she would have been waited on hand and foot. We would haveallbeen quite comfortable there, I’m certain, if we went.”