Captain Gordon said, “It’s rare to see a man of his age ready for the hearth and home. I can assure you I was not.”

“Ye seem well fond of children.” Lily knew her lack of trust in Captain Gordon’s motives when it came to Maggie put a faint edge to her tone, but it could not be helped.

He glanced at her. “Aye, but I did not begin my family until I was thirty. I was ready for it then.”

Lily realized, though his words might sound offhand, he was selecting them with purpose. It dawned on her that he was thinking of the heart-shaped brooch he had just learned about by accident, the one Matthew had given her, for Gordon would know what it meant. She looked at him more closely. “And ye think Matthew’s not ready?”

“I think Matthew is yet young.” He had the air of someone at a crossroads, trying to decide which turning he should choose. At length he said, “He does remind me of my brother. My half brother, if you’d know his true relation to me, for my father did beget him on a servant two years after my own mother’s death, so he was born into this life already at a disadvantage, as a bastard.”

Just like Matthew. Though he did not speak the words aloud, the implication could not be ignored, and Lily bristled. “Children cannot choose the circumstances of their birth.”

“You’re right. But our society is structured to constrain them by it, nonetheless. And if a man is driven by ambition, like my brother, those constraints are keenly felt. They turn to restlessness.” His hands were in his pockets now. “My brother is a man of fine intelligence, like Matthew. He is forever chasing some new challenge. When the revolution came here, I did send him into Russia to the care of General Gordon, who’s a favorite of the Tsar. It’s my hope he finds his fortune there. If nothing else, he’ll find adventure.”

Lily did not need to hear him say the words. “Ye think that Matthew should not marry me.”

“I think he’s young,” the captain said again. “I fear that if he settles here too soon, he’ll never know how high he could have climbed. How far his own ambition could have carried him. I fear he will regret his choice in time, and grow resentful, and you both will be unhappy.” Captain Gordon held her gaze with level eyes. “And I believe that, if you’re honest with yourself, you fear it, too.”

The wind felt cold when he had walked away.

She wrapped her arms around herself, yet she did not feel any warmer. What he’d said had stirred the tiny whisperings of doubt that she’d been fighting to ignore. Sometimes at night, when she lay troubled in the darkness, she had tried to argue with those whispers, telling them that Matthew was as ready as he claimed to cease his wanderings and have a settled life. And then she’d see him at his work, and she would try to picture Matthew growing old here with his cart and horse in Leith, and even Lily knew that he was meant for greater things.