Use.The word echoed unpleasantly in his chest. Use had been the justification for everything in his life. He did not want it to define hers.
“You are very certain of how this will be perceived,” he said. “How?”
She hesitated. Just enough to matter.
“I grew up watching my father manage perception as though it were currency,” she said. “And watching my mother vanish from it entirely.”
The answer felt incomplete, but he did not press yet.
“Your family,” he said instead. “They are… formidable.”
A wry smile touched her mouth. “That is generous.”
“You defended your sister without hesitation.”
“Yes.”
“And yet you did not raise your voice when your half-sister insults you.”
“There was no need. She remains undeterred due to a lifetime of lenience.”
He leaned forward slightly. “Is that how you have always survived them?”
She met his gaze, something unreadable flickering there. “Survival is not always loud.”
The room felt smaller.
“Tell me about them,” he said, surprising himself with the request. “Not what they expect me to know. What you know.”
Eleanor drew a breath, slow and steady. “What would you like to know?”
“Who holds power,” he said. “And who pays for it.”
Her fingers laced together more tightly. “My father values usefulness. My sister Charlotte values attention. Arabella values… fairness.”
“And you.”
She looked down at her hands. “I value outcomes.”
That answer settled something in him. He had been treating her as a piece placed on the board. She was not that. She was a strategist who had simply been denied authority.
James stood and crossed the room. He felt her eyes on him as he poured the liquid into a small crystal glass, then hesitated, and poured a smaller measure into a second.
He handed it to her.
“What is this?” she asked.
“Port.”
She studied it with cautious curiosity. “I have never tried port.”
“You will survive,” he said dryly.
She lifted it to her lips, took a careful sip, and coughed faintly.
James smirked despite himself. “Slower.”
She tried again, her brows lifting as the warmth settled into her chest. “It is… bold.”
