“Your cousin is hilarious,” Lila said when they were alone.
“Quite. Keeps me in stitches whenever I return to Bullstow.” La Roux’s voice lacked a certain roll in the vowels that she’d begun to treasure, but it was deep and warm, far warmer than she would have liked.
“Do you return to Bullstow every season?”
“Yes, madam.” He did a graceful quarter turn and took her arm. “Let us go for a stroll. I require air.”
Lila assented to his suggestion, for she
did not want Ms. Weberly to interrupt their conversation. The senator seemed to have the same idea, for he led her around the dancing couples in the ballroom and up the main staircase. The men glared at the senator for taking Lila away, while the women in the room stood on their tiptoes, eyeing Senator Dubois curiously.
The couple soon crossed through a set of double doors, ending up on an empty balcony that overlooked a park.
Lila sighed. She’d forgotten about the paintings in this part of the ballroom.
Penises, penises everywhere.
“So, you have taken off your blackcoat for an evening. You’ve finally decided to seek an heir, perhaps to become one.”
“Perhaps I just wanted to dance.”
“If you just wanted to dance, you wouldn’t have visited the women’s clinic two days ago. You’re taking up the whitecoat soon. You just want to find a partner for the season before it’s announced.”
“What makes you say that?”
“I can put two and two together. My cousin told me this morning that your sister has chosen love over business.”
“It’s quite romantic, isn’t it?”
“Liar.” La Roux leaned into her side and pressed her back against the high stone balustrade. His breath tickled against her ear as he boxed her in. An unwelcome thrill went up her spine at his presumption, at his nearness, at his aggressiveness. It was odd to be touched by another so soon after Tristan, but she knew she’d have to get used to it. “I think you find it all very irritating and inconvenient, especially now that your mother has pressed you to bear a child. Pardon me for saying, Chief Randolph, but you don’t seem the type.”
Lila did not answer him. She did not worm herself free of his closeness, either. His palm bulged in his coat pocket only a few centimeters from her hand.
If he really was the Baron, then there’d be plenty on it to incriminate him. She just wasn’t sure how to manage a peek.
“I find it exceedingly odd that two sisters, both heirs to one of the highest-grossing families in all of Saxony, would turn away from their birthright. You were the first to forsake it when you began working in for the Randolph militia. Now your little sister has stepped aside.”
Lila considered the fact that Chief Shaw would soon toss La Roux into a holding cell. The man wouldn’t have time to chat with his brethren about her new occupation.
“She’s always copied me, the brat. You’re quite knowledgeable about my affairs. Has anyone ever told you that women find that creepy?”
“I’m not any more or less knowledgeable than any other ambitious senator in this room, and you’re avoiding the question. I understand why your sister would forsake her place and marry. My cousin is a good man and will be an excellent father, but why did you turn down the prime role for the militia all those years ago?”
“I liked the game of it, and I wanted the responsibility.”
His eyebrows quirked. “If you wanted responsibility, why not remain as prime? As for games, you’d be hard-pressed to find better among the highborn. The president of Wolf Industries could snap her fingers and influence half the New Bristol senate. Your mother could do the same with the state senate, perhaps even Unity if she wished.”
“You’re examining my words in terms of power and influence. I should expect nothing more from a politician.”
“How should I examine them?”
Lila drained the last sip of her champagne. “I enjoy the militia because I’ve always seen my mother’s little queendom as something altogether different than she sees it—different than any other chairwoman too, I imagine.”
“Different how?”
“I’ve always seen the people inside our gates as people to protect, rather than tools to be used. People, family especially, should be more than chess pieces.”
“Now who is thinking like a politician?”