Yes, possibly. But when AG first encounters him the P meeting hasn’t occurred yet. At that point he definitely isn’t interested. At all. He would have been happy if DC had lived and married her.
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That I agree with. But then he spends time with her, and not very much, before remembering how awesome she is. Because she is.
aug 30, 2025, 7:15 pm • 0 0 • view
Yes, and maybe that lays the groundwork but it isn’t until he is holding her and looking at her that it hits him and he’s interested. i don’t think he’s just admitting it at that moment, he’s REALIZING it, which is different.
aug 30, 2025, 7:19 pm • 3 0 • view
I’m just processing all of the flirting. He doesn’t flirt, but he spends the prior weeks flirting. Maybe there’s not a lot of daylight between admitting it to himself and realizing it.
aug 30, 2025, 7:24 pm • 1 0 • view
There is a reality where all the preliminaries with her happen but he’s still not interested. DD showed that with Christian. To have it be inevitable that all the preliminaries inevitably lead to love is a romance novel trope and I think DD is writing a more complicated story.
aug 30, 2025, 7:26 pm • 2 0 • view
I don’t think I’m saying it was inevitable - rather that there are also clues inasmuch as he spends those weeks feeling things that are really out of character for him, and he’s not in control of the emotional landscape for a big chance. This may also be a largely terminological discussion.
aug 30, 2025, 7:31 pm • 2 0 • view
And I think his affect with Christian is just very different.
aug 30, 2025, 7:41 pm • 1 0 • view
Different. But I’ve lived through so many people shipping them in the first book only to be disappointed. The way she writes you could ship L and P but still realize you could be wrong. (Of course the fact that there is only 1 1/4 books left makes it different. It reassures your hope.)
aug 30, 2025, 7:45 pm • 1 0 • view
If you recall (I would not expect you to) I refused to post after blackfriars because I expected her to die horribly in the next chapter.
aug 30, 2025, 7:51 pm • 0 0 • view
That would be change, not chance. 😖
aug 30, 2025, 7:31 pm • 1 0 • view
Maybe. But I also think it’s how you look at the writing from a genre perspective. Is she primarily writing a romance (I say no, but many would disagree) or is she primarily concerned with writing a psychological study of a complicated man. The situational leadup does make him open to the moment.
aug 30, 2025, 7:35 pm • 1 0 • view
Doesn’t Danny figure it out earlier? I like Danny.
aug 30, 2025, 7:38 pm • 1 0 • view
I love Danny. But there’s a line between a friend WANTING something to happen and it actually happening. She writes very realistic situations. I’ve had it happen where we friends all knew 2 people were perfect for each other but it took 2 years for the guy to realize it (and maybe he never would.)
aug 30, 2025, 7:41 pm • 0 0 • view
When Danny references Layla and Majnun he is watching them be flirty, I think. I have to check. I don’t think he would have gotten there without the goofiness of Lauguish Locked in L. But I personally felt on this read that there was so much uncharacteristic warmth there that he was even aware
aug 30, 2025, 7:50 pm • 1 0 • view
of his own softening - but pace his utter mess of an emotional inferiority, he can’t get there. That’s also the longest L’s eye section in the whole series up to that point. He’s almost a normal character with a viewpoint for that section.
aug 30, 2025, 7:50 pm • 1 0 • view
I meant interiority but inferiority works too.
aug 30, 2025, 8:05 pm • 1 0 • view
She is awesome, of course, but not the awesome young girl, growing up fast, that she was in Istanbul, despite all the polishing she received in the Seraglio. He knows nothing of her development since, and has barely thought of her till he discovers her to be in danger at Berwick. At their first /2
aug 31, 2025, 9:13 pm • 1 0 • view
So I was thinking about this more - do you really make cracks about wedding nights with someone that you can’t imagine having any interest in?
aug 31, 2025, 9:14 pm • 0 0 • view
I don’t plan to die on this hill, btw. It will fade soon enough and I will revert to the classic understanding of the anvil scene.
aug 31, 2025, 9:18 pm • 0 0 • view
I'm not arguing that you're wrong, just that there is a very short amount of time available, and if it happens it's part of a very fast sequence of events.
aug 31, 2025, 9:29 pm • 1 0 • view
One might even speculate that it might occur between the first "Bravo" and "Languish lock in L"
aug 31, 2025, 9:32 pm • 1 0 • view
And just maybe the key that unlocks the possibility even of that lies minutes earlier when he's play-sword-fighting with Nicholas and he laughs, and P declares she's never heard him laugh before.
aug 31, 2025, 9:36 pm • 1 0 • view
Was there perhaps a thought, maybe even an unconscious one, that said "Maybe she's right, I haven't laughed for a long time, and she caused it". Or maybe I'm just an old romantic ;-)
aug 31, 2025, 9:53 pm • 1 0 • view
Gentlemen!
aug 31, 2025, 10:14 pm • 1 0 • view
2/ encounter he learns she is politically astute and has learned languages and culture and makes connections. But that meeting ends badly and he has a severe headache. It's only in their second meeting that he flirts a little and then they are off to Blackfriars, where he relaxes properly for /3
aug 31, 2025, 9:17 pm • 1 0 • view
first time as they indulge in wordplay, so if he gives himself permission it's in that very short period before the stands fall, and after that the thoughts on the way back in the boat rapidly develop to a wave of reflexion and admiration that is then engulfed by an emotional breakthrough. /4
aug 31, 2025, 9:22 pm • 1 0 • view
See also the preceding passage where lies a hint. "Of its (the journey's) significance he himself had no inkling when he set out, relaxed by the company a trifle more than was usually possible..." He has no warning - it all happens between leaving in the barge and returning with her.
aug 31, 2025, 9:25 pm • 2 0 • view