His compliment had been meant as a something of a transition, taking the first step from mundane chatter about the room in the hotel lobby to what would come next, but when she pointed out his suit in response his resolve wavered. He couldn't really go through with this, could he? He had been in Tycho's arms that morning. He was wearing Tycho's suit. If he kissed her tonight he would be kissing her in Tycho's suit — and yes, technically he'd already done that once today, but that hadn't been a real kiss. Even if he tried to squash his emotional reservations he wasn't even sure if he could — he might be sick. And she did look very pretty today, with her fine gown and her hair done up and everything, but he still didn't really know her, much less love her.

He swallowed. "Thanks, it's — Greer did a good job," he fumbled. Even this felt a bit like a betrayal, because Greer hadn't done anything except change the color. "It's the nicest suit I have. I didn't really think I'd wear it again. It used to be white," he explained. None of these were details she cared about, probably, but with the slip of his resolve he seemed to have also at least temporarily lost the ability to keep himself from overtalking.

"Did the Minister talk to you on your own, before the service?" he asked suddenly. "I wasn't sure if he does that with everyone or if I was getting some kind of special 'reformed rake' treatment. Or — you know. Rakes that need encouragement to reform, I guess," he said with a helpless shrug.

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