She took a breath. “I sometimes think it’s Mr. Cassidy’s uniquely American attributes, perhaps, that make him so appealing,” she said thoughtfully.
“What are those unique qualities?”
“He is very ambitious, for one.”
“Ambition is for people who are not gentlemen, Lillias,” Giles explained kindly. As if guiding her to the realization that this was not an exciting attribute but a flaw in the design. “Ambition is whatyou have if you’ve no money. Whereisthe virtue in striving if you don’t have to?”
It was a difficult argument to refute. Perhaps itwasthe ceaseless internal churn of his plans and the things he knew how to do that made Hugh seem more vivid than the other men around him. A bit like a whirlpool in a calm, privileged sea.
Or it could be just that hewantedthings more. Valued things more.
Perhaps loved things harder.
Andthatwas the value in striving, she suddenly realized. Everything is useful, he’d said. But then everything won becomes also more precious.
She could not imagine saying this aloud to Giles.
“But it’s thrilling to hear how someone hopes to shape the future of their country, isn’t it? And to want to create things using his own unique tastes and talents? It’s a bit God-like, that sort of creation. I am full of admiration for it.”
“Did you see the silly item in the broadsheets where I was compared to a god?” Giles said idly. “Adonis, I think it was. Ha. If you can imagine.”
“Oh. Indeed. I read that.” She hadn’t read it, actually. It had been readtoher by poor Dot. That was the one she’d burned. “They do like their hyperbole, the broadsheets.”
“You know, an MP shapes the future of the country, as you put it. My family of course, like yours, has a parliamentary seat and we have for centuries.”
“In a country where things are done the way they’ve always been, over and over, and where people can’t always choose their representation, because someone has inherited it.”
“Right!” Giles said brightly, with satisfaction. As though she’d stated something delightful.
Anything else she said after that might have sounded seditious. She could not recall ever having seditious thoughts before.
“And he’s...” She dropped her eyes briefly. “Oh, I am a bit abashed to say it.”
“You can tell me anything,” he said. “Haven’t we usually confided in each other?”
Did he truly believe this? Perhaps they had, after a fashion.
“I think he’s soveryhandsome.” She lowered her voice. “Very.”
Giles looked like he’d swallowed a fly. “He looks like the offspring of a tree and a cliff.”
“Exactly,” Lillias said dreamily.
It was admittedly gratifying to see that Giles had lost his grip on gallantry.
“Did you see Lady Flaxmont reach for her smelling salts when he walked through? He has made quite an impression.”
“Perhaps she was frightened by his coat.”
“Giles, that is very unkind. And his eyes are an unusual shade of blue. Quite extraordinary, really.” It was odd to say this out loud to someone who wasn’t Hugh, when it was something she’d thought from the moment she’d seen him.
“No doubt because he is the result of quite an unusual mix of ancestors. Many of them completely unknown.”
This was also probably true. And clearly an argument in favor of having an unusual mix of ancestors. It was also meant to be insulting, but it was time to get to the crux of the matter.
“Giles... is aught amiss?”
Her heart began to pound when he was quiet.