Hm, how to interpret that? Advantageous if he married as soon as possible. Tiberius had felt similarly, but he suspected for different reasons. He wanted an heir, and wanted to be spared the indignity of having to pretend to care about the social scene (unfortunately, marrying Antigone had served neither purpose, though that was besides the point). Macmillan had political aspirations, so arranging something to avoid having a woo a woman was unlikely. Perhaps he had been particularly eager for children, but evidently not because he had any particular fondness for them, if his daughter was any indication. And whatever his reasons for arranging a marriage had been the first time around, he had found his late wife wanting in some particular way that he wasn't inclined to say aloud, hence his reasoning for going about things in the usual fashion this time.

Tiberius didn't care a whit about Noelle, and Macmillan's feelings about her, but he did think this point of the arranged, early marriage bore delving into. Macmillan didn't have a reputation for wanton behavior, but suppose he'd taken a leaf out of Trystan Selwyn's book and gone fathering bastards left and right, and his frustrated father had insisted on an arranged marriage to contain him? Macmillan didn't seem the type, but stranger things had happened. His family would not have been the first to rush a marriage to avoid a scandal. And it might be an indication that his parents trusted the older son significantly more than they trusted him, which would be worth noting to Tatiana.

"Certainly not," he said in what he hoped was a suitably sympathetic tone, in response to the comment about Edward. "I assume you chose Noelle yourself, then? Despite it being formally arranged?"