He nodded and picked at her wooden doorframe. “I’m sorry that you have to be prime. I know you don’t want to.”
“So you heard?”
“I heard it all last night and put it together. Jewel doesn’t take bad news privately. It’s all tears and snot with her, and damn the neighbors.”
Lila chuckled.
“She’s really upset.”
“She’s always upset about something, but it’s hardly the end of the world that she claims. I guarantee you that she’ll have children in a few years anyway. If it’s not her own idea, then it will be at mother’s urging. Jewel always wanted children too much to forbear now, regardless of her feelings about the senator. Knowing him, he might even press the issue.”
Pax shrugged. It was the shrug of a younger brother who did not wish to contradict his elder sister.
“What do you think about it all?” Lila said, noting the im
patience of his tutor, Ms. Beaumont, framed by the nursery doorway across the hall. The room had been converted after Pax refused to return to boarding school, for the boy needed some place to study. Though Lila enjoyed having him so close, she wondered how long it would be before he returned to school, especially since Ms. Beaumont annoyed her.
The feeling seemed to be mutual. The woman frowned at the interruption and eyed Lila as if she were a poisoned wound that might fester into educational necrosis if she did not intervene.
Naturally, Lila ignored her.
Ms. Beaumont returned to her work, too far away to eavesdrop.
“I think it’s all terribly romantic.” A goofy smile broke upon Pax’s face. “The idea of giving up what you’ve always wanted most for love. What else could one hope for?”
“You would. You want to marry.”
“Yes, I do want to marry. Lots of people marry, even lowborn and highborn, so don’t act like I’m strange for it.”
“Only the poorer classes can afford monogamy.”
He shrugged again. “You’re doing the same thing, you know, giving up what you want for love.”
Lila peered at her brother. “What do you mean?”
“You could have easily refused her.”
“Easily?”
“Well, not easily—nothing is ever easy with Mother, is it? But you could have refused and remained chief if you really wanted, or you could have bought back your mark and struck out on your own. You have the mind for it. Anyone who knew the history of Randolph General would know as much.”
Lila appreciated the sentiment, but Pax was still a child, one who had no interest or skill in commerce. He didn’t understand how difficult it was for a highborn to start a company after cutting ties with her family, how hard the highborn had made such a prospect by covering it with layers upon layers of rules and bureaucracy and terms like conflict of interest. He didn’t understand the dirty games the highborn played with one another. For her to be successful, she would have to leave Saxony, if not the country.
She’d have to leave her family too.
The idea repelled her.
Besides, her mother would never sell her mark back to her, not unless she followed Alex’s tactic and blackmailed her matron into it.
That was something she’d never do. She had a duty to her family. If she was of more use as the president of Wolf Industries rather than its chief of security, then perhaps that was her burden. The chairwoman had known exactly what buttons to push during breakfast.
“You could have forced mother to make Jewel keep her promise,” Pax said. “She would have been forced. You can count on it. Mother wouldn’t have approved of Aunt Georgina becoming heir. She’s too bloodthirsty. I suspect it’s from being around all those brides and grooms all day long. But you love Jewel and Mother even though you don’t get along with either of them, so you’ll become prime and make everyone happy even though it’s not what you want.”
“Is that so? I suspect you think too kindly of me, Pax.”
“No, I just know you. Mother was right this morning. You would have gotten bored in the security office. You need more of a challenge. You need a bigger chessboard.”
Lila narrowed her eyes. “How would you know what was talked about this morning?” She wasn’t quite sure what annoyed her more: that he had clearly eavesdropped or that he was partly right. Because it was true that Lila had tired of the drudgery of her office soon after becoming chief. The only challenge, the only pleasure she had received over the last few years, had been working with Tristan and her father.