“I’ve heard rumors, child. Quite explicit ones. All for you, of course,” the chairwoman said, squeezing Lila’s arm.
Lila wondered how in the world she and her mother had come to have such blunt conversations about the senators of Bullstow, all while surrounded by them. She was glad that no one had approached them yet, happy for once that protocol kept her apart from nearly everyone else in the room, at least until they puzzled out who among them had the right to break the crowd’s silence first.
Mostly likely, they all waited for Serrano, and Serrano knew it. He’d decided to take his damn sweet time with it, too. Perhaps he knew he’d be rejected and didn’t want to do it so publicly.
Perhaps he wasn’t as dumb and egotistical as everyone claimed.
“I remember my first Senate ball,” her mother said. “I was sixteen and too excited to think carefully. I would have taken home a rather beautiful intern I’d seen on the silver carpet if I’d had my way. Luckily, your grandmother had appointed Chairwoman Lafayette of New Orleans as my advisor. She reined me in and kept me from making a very foolish choice. Your father wasn’t nearly so handsome before he became so distinguished. But he was kind, smart, and had a great deal of potential. Chairwoman Lafayette and I both saw it.”
At the front of the ballroom, the musicians snapped up to attention, hauled their instruments to their chins and shoulders, and began to play. Senators and chairwomen and heirs quickly paired off and whirled around the ballroom floor.
“I pity you for starting so late. I had you early while I was still young and healthy. I managed to attend meetings up to the hour I went into labor, and feedings—”
“A nursemaid managed the feedings for you,” Lila reminded her as a couple swirled close and ricocheted back into the room’s center.
“Perhaps, but it is indelicate for you to be so blunt about it. Jewel was more difficult. She kicked during every meeting of the Heston acquisition. Best deal I ever made. I should have known from that alone that she’d have poor business sense.”
Lila gave a noncommittal hmmm and sipped her drink.
“Jewel took Senator Remington home after her first closing ball. That was a good match, regardless of whether or not they lasted through the season.”
“I thought a good match was one that did last through the whole season, madam. As well as one that produces an heir.”
“None of us knew that the man didn’t favor…the season. I hear he’s made a very fine diction professor at Bullstow. He and his husband have adopted three lowborn children, though I’m not sure how he managed to swing so many. Competition is fierce among those of his disposition, you know.”
“Well, he was a senator. That had to have helped immensely.”
“True. One might even think that he planned it that way.”
The music stopped, and the crowd clapped in appreciation. A few latecomers were announced at the door before the dancing started again.
“Who’s that?” Lila asked, pointing her champagne flute toward a man who had brushed in front of Serrano and Coupe. She meant only to redirect the conversation away from the awkward bend it had traveled down, but her attention had also been caught by the man’s auburn hair. It was so dark that it might have been brown, and it brushed his shoulders with a slight wave. Lila spied the ranginess of his steps, the ease with which he slipped through the crowd, searching for someone he could not find.
Here was the panther.
Hunting.
The chairwoman’s eyes twinkled. “Ah, Senator Dorian La Roux. You’ve heard of him already, I presume?”
“Should I have?”
“I would have thought Senator Dubois would have foisted him on you at some point. They’re cousins on his mother’s side. He wouldn’t be a bad choice, come to think of it. Chairwoman Masson does not know how to make use of him in his current appointment, nor has she spent much thought upon him. He’s the son of the fifteenth heir. He’s hardly even on her radar. The man is hungry to prove himself and intelligent enough to be useful. He ranked second in his class, if I recall. He only has a few children scattered among our ranks, none of them prime or firstborn sons. It’s been enough to earn him a prized slot in the Beaulac Senate, and he’s carried himself well there. He’s young, but unfortunately his seed is falling behind his legislation. He’s spent as many seasons sitting out of the game as he has inside it. Senator La Roux doesn’t lack for attention, he just lacks for the right attention and someone to guide him.”
That piqued Lila’s interest. “What does he do during those seasons when he sits out?”
“No one really knows. Senator Dubois said that he circles the New Bristol clubs and balls, gathering information and building alliances for his work in the senate. He’s been trying to make Beaulac more than a city full of oil money. Perhaps he does not have the time to juggle that work and an heir.”
Lila sipped her drink. “He’s an idealist, then. Naïve. A man who doesn’t understand the importance of having children spread among the families.” It made her think of Tristan, yet another man who was naïve and shortsighted.
Oh gods, she had a type.
“Senator La Roux knows the words but not their meaning. I don’t know why not. It’s drilled into their pretty little heads enough at Bullstow. It’s his one failing. You’d think that he’d understand by now that the highborn need to see him intertwined with the families before we can trust his judgment. If he’s not vested in seeing his children safe and prosperous, how can we believe he’ll do the same for all of us? Perhaps he’s just beginning to understand.”
“If he’s managed to stay in the senate this long with few children, then perhaps he hasn’t needed to learn the lesson yet.”
“He’ll need to learn soon,” the chairwoman said. “He should have had more children by now, and everyone knows it. His place in the Beaulac Senate is not secure, not if enough senators have a better season this year.”
“You think he’ll be shipped off to some no-name city if he doesn’t seed a child?”