Valerian fell silent along with her, but he was the first to break it after the moment had passed.
"I can't give you the political power you seek. Not at this point in my life," he said, leaning forward to touch the top of her hand with her fingertips, "but neither will he. I will not beg you to be my bride, but I will beg you not to be his." Very rarely were disagreements with Tatiana won; she was stubborn in a way he was not, and usually they were about much more trivial matters than this. However, he felt as though he had breached a wall that he had not managed to penetrate before, and he would continue trying until he was met with another barrier.
"But if you were to be my bride..." He thought back to the way Macmillan had spoken of her during the confrontation, about how she was his—and that was before any proposal was made. "... you would have a great deal more freedom at my side than you would at his." Valerian, of course, still had expectations of any woman who became Mrs. Macnair, but none of them were expectations Tatiana did not already fill by virtue of having been raised by his own mother. It would be so easy...
"I can't give you the political power you seek. Not at this point in my life," he said, leaning forward to touch the top of her hand with her fingertips, "but neither will he. I will not beg you to be my bride, but I will beg you not to be his." Very rarely were disagreements with Tatiana won; she was stubborn in a way he was not, and usually they were about much more trivial matters than this. However, he felt as though he had breached a wall that he had not managed to penetrate before, and he would continue trying until he was met with another barrier.
"But if you were to be my bride..." He thought back to the way Macmillan had spoken of her during the confrontation, about how she was his—and that was before any proposal was made. "... you would have a great deal more freedom at my side than you would at his." Valerian, of course, still had expectations of any woman who became Mrs. Macnair, but none of them were expectations Tatiana did not already fill by virtue of having been raised by his own mother. It would be so easy...
