#tharkay reading his face and trying to reconcile him to the idea

[prestisssimo-tempestuoso]

“Spying is not the cleanest business,“ Tharkay said, perhaps reading his face.

Laurence shook his head sharply: he felt certain whatever might be distasteful in the work Tharkay did could have nothing to do with this kind of selfish treachery. “There can be no comparison,” he said, and then realized he had betrayed himself unintentionally.

Tharkay nodded a little, but did not speak directly to the subject. “The two are not unrelated, I am afraid,” he said only. “A man rarely will compromise himself without assistance.”

“That does not justify the act upon his side,“ Laurence said. “No man may be made a traitor without his consent.“

He could speak from experience; he had given his own consent, once. He could not understand the coarseness of spirit which could permit a man to do such a thing for money and not the bleakest imperative of honor. 

 - League of Dragons, Chapter 10

#Temeraire #William Laurence #Tenzing Tharkay #Naomi Novik #spoilers #temeraire spoilers #the feelings that these five paragraphs give me......cannot be fully articulated #just #laurence's italicized '*his* side' #tharkay reading his face and trying to reconcile him to the idea #the two of them talking about this thing without saying a word about it but both of them know what it is i go INSANE #laurence seeing a world of difference between talleyrand and tenzing and tenzing does not and #SIR you are Biased #sirs you are BOTH biased #but also laurence is right because his love makes him right #i just #laurence failing to keep a secret from tenzing for ONE DAY #and tenzing just reads it from him #will is an open book for tenzing #will not understanding the 'coarseness of spirit' when probably tenzing understands way too well #and feeling indicted by will's instinctive repulsion towards talleyrand but for all that.... #i just!! #something! in these five paragraphs!! #i dont know what it is i just read it and scream