Jude smiled his thanks as Kieran passed it over, his eyes on the pamphlet sketch and his mind on other things – so he startled slightly at that remark, then stilled abruptly in his seat.
“Debutantes,” Jude echoed, mystified. Women generally, he might have understood, to help prove his pro-suffragist credentials. Debutantes felt different; Jude had never had occasion to mix much with debutantes. He probably ought to have done, if he had followed the expected path – but by the time he would have been suitably eligible in society to supposedly care, he had already been... well... here.
He swallowed, earnestly wishing he could just brush off that suggestion as a joke. But this was a campaign, and Kieran sounded serious. Jude shot him a searching look. “Why?” he asked carefully, without too much expression in it. “What have people been saying now?”
Some things people said to a candidate’s face, and other things surfaced behind their backs, so – Kieran was usually more up-to-date on what people really thought.
“Debutantes,” Jude echoed, mystified. Women generally, he might have understood, to help prove his pro-suffragist credentials. Debutantes felt different; Jude had never had occasion to mix much with debutantes. He probably ought to have done, if he had followed the expected path – but by the time he would have been suitably eligible in society to supposedly care, he had already been... well... here.
He swallowed, earnestly wishing he could just brush off that suggestion as a joke. But this was a campaign, and Kieran sounded serious. Jude shot him a searching look. “Why?” he asked carefully, without too much expression in it. “What have people been saying now?”
Some things people said to a candidate’s face, and other things surfaced behind their backs, so – Kieran was usually more up-to-date on what people really thought.
