“They are horrible.” He shrugged like that was the normal way of things, which she supposed it was. “It’s just that their horribleness is usually aimed at me, not at innocent bystanders,” he said to the ceiling. “And believe it or not, it’s usually much worse. That was them tempering themselves because they had an audience.”

“I guess they didn’t want to make a bad impression on the people they hope will be future in-laws.”

“Mmm.”

She’d expected a more dramatic reaction, for him to shudder and fall back on his usual refrain about how he was never going to marry. “Lavinia doesn’t seem so bad?” she ventured, though she had no idea why.

He looked up sharply—he had still been staring at the ceiling. “Not bad as in I should marry her or not bad as in she’s a decent human being?”

“I don’t know,” she said, though in her mind she was strongly going for option B. “She seems too young for you.”

“She’s only four years younger than I am.”

“Right.”

“You’re four years older than I am,” he said.

“Well, I’m not going to marry you.”

“I know that. I merely meant that four years is not that big a gap when you click with someone.”

When you click with someone. Did that mean he thought they clicked? That was flattering. And true. Obviously. She wouldn’t be here in his attic in the freaking Eldovian Alps otherwise, stretched out on a bed with him. Platonically stretched out, but still. Or, wait, did that mean he thought he and Lavinia clicked?

“What if you did marry Lavinia von Bachenheim?” She had an illogical impulse to keep questioning him on the topic, like being unable to stop probing a toothache with her tongue.

“I’m not going to marry Lavinia von Bachenheim. She has no sense of fun.”

“Yeah, but if you did? And what if she wanted to hyphenate her name? Would she be Lavinia von Bachenheim-von Hansburg? Or Lavinia von Bachenheim-Hansburg? Or maybe, since you’re such a progressive dude, you could combine your names and be Max and Lavinia von von Bachenheim-Hansburg. Or—”

“I’m not going to marry Lavinia,” he snapped.

She blinked, not at all accustomed to such a harsh tone from Max. “Sheesh. Okay.”

He rolled onto his side and propped his head on one hand. “I’m sorry. I’m being a beast.”

“Is Sebastien single? I know you said you won’t walk away and leave him to shoulder the burden of being heir, but maybe if he was happily coupled, it wouldn’t be such a burden.” She knew she was grasping at straws, but now that she’d seen what kind of pressure Max was under, she wished there was a way for him to get out from under his duty.