Fortunately, Oxney—a good man, a responsible master—was clearly determined not to act on the attraction between them. Unfortunately, he wasn’t doing the sensible thing of ignoring Luke and confining himself to orders, or behaving like a prick so as to earn a healthy dislike. Instead he was kind, he was amusing, he cared for Luke’s well-being and his feelings, and thought of his wants, and appreciated his work, and stood up for him, and was in every respect the sort of man one could fall hopelessly in love with if one didn’t know how staggeringly stupid that would be.
