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Spoiler level: nil
Here's a little moment that totally stuck in my mind from last night's reading. It's slightly random, in the way that true things about a person can be random.
Stuart Aysgarth, this very dark, embattled Viscount, is working on this "caper," let's call it, with Emma, that involves them going to London.
Aysgarth has this sleek black carriage pulled by eight giant black horses, but one of the horses is going a little wild and reckless and almost makes the carriage tip over. So Stuart has to stop the carriage and send the horse and its mate back to the stable and go with six for a while.
When Stuart climbed back into the carriage, he shoved through the doorway like a man who was more than merely frustrated by a wayward horse. He was angry. He sat back heavily into his seat, then glanced at Emma. "Happy?" he asked, as he she'd had something to do with it. "No more wild, whirling rides once we get to Harrogate."
Mystified, she told him, "It's a good decision."
But he didn't like it. Reducing the team to six, removing perhaps the fastest, strongest animal and its harness mate, seemed to mean more to him than giving up "Wild whirling rides." He saw it as giving up something else, something she didn't grasp, though nothing he would speak of.
I loved two things about this moment. One was a a big thing about human nature, you know, people don't behave in their own self interests in a lot of ways--you just have to look at the way our world is right now to see that. And people don't add up so tidily as they frequently do in books, either. It made him feel so real as a character, just this odd resistance to a smart decision, truly a moment.
The smaller thing was what this particular stroke of irrationality said about the character, like, reader beware, there's a little shadowy place here. You don't know him. There are eight horses here, and one of them has a wild streak and isn't with the program.
This book so working for me right now!
ETA/Monday morning update: Okay, after I wrote this I went to bed and finished the book and Ivory did bring this back, and twisted it in the most interesting way for this story. When I read it the night before last, I thought it was a strange little note to add dimension to this character, when in fact, it's a surprising metaphorical key. It was so subtle, I didn't think it would be that important. I like the idea of what I wrongly thought it was, and I also like what Ivory did with it.
Images: Black horse public domain file from wikimedia by V8Jess. Statue public domain file from wikimedia by manvyi
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8 comments:
I love this. Especially because it uses a horse, because they are so easily symbolic of so much. And though I only know this snippet u posted and nothing else of the book, I can say that this dude taking out his anger on the lady irrationally as if she "had something to do with it" is a crappy tactic a lot of people use. Very intriguing.
Bella, I thought about that too. Horses are symbolic of kind of everything! After I finished the book last night, the whole thing became even richer. Thanks for stopping by!!
So deep! I think I need more caffeine.
Lovely post on Ivory's book and an interesting insight into the character. seemed to mean more to him than giving up "Wild whirling rides." Hmm... I wonder what Ivory did with this? Now, I'm curious. :)
And what a coincidence, I'm reading "The Indiscretion" by Judith Ivory at the moment and enjoying it also. There's a "wild coach ride" in this book too... one that leads the characters to much more. Interesting.
Chris: All caffeine hands on deck!
Hilcia: Oh, really...sounds like a book I should be getting to.
I like little snippets of something that mean so far more once the story unfolds. Thank you Caroline!
I remember this! I think (although it's a while since I read this) that I saw this as part of his flamboyance and his larger than life thing like the big Russian fur coat he wears and the foreign courtesans who live in his house etc. All of that seemed to me to be (as I read it) sort of dressage or maybe compensation or an elaborate mask for the *******ing boy beneath.
You, I was just on Goodreads and realized that I wasn't currently reading anything at the moment, but I think I'll dig this book out of the 'keepers' box in the basement because i loved the the first time round.
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