What he'd said wasn't very gentlemanlike especially not to say to one's mother but then Mariana's subsequent snort of amusement wasn't very ladylike either. Of course wrangling a violent plant wasn't exactly the sort of thing a proper lady was supposed to do in her spare time, she ought to be sprawled chaise lounge and lamenting her lack of grandchildren and contemplating her navel but she'd sooner be committed to an asylum.

In terms of firsthand experience with Mr. Macmillan Mariana had very little of it and in the brief periods she had spent in his company she hadn't been able to deduce much about him aside from the very obvious - like Valerian had so eloquently suggested, he seemed to have a snargaluff tentacle up his backside. Either he was a humorless, drab sort of man or he had something to hide. Valerian seemed to think it was the former which was probably the better of the two options. More important than all of that, however, was what Valerian had said about Tatiana, it was almost poetic.

"I daresay you're right," she said, referring to his crude remark. Mariana grabbed the pod from him quickly and snatched at a wayward tentacle that was making a lurch for Valerian. "Ah-ah-ahhh!" she chided the plant affectionately. "Do you think Tatiana's found something about him she likes, aside from the more obvious?"

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