She held his gaze as she went on.
“I do not need a man for anything. And I certainly do not need your opinion of why I don’t have one.”
His eyes dropped.
It was only for a second that his gaze moved to her mouth and came back up to meet her eyes. Suddenly, she could not breathe properly but before she knew it, Harper took a step back.
The expression was gone. Whatever she had seen was replaced by the familiar, controlled composure.
“Stay away from my son,” he said. “You are not a good influence for him and I do not want him getting the wrong ideas about how things are done.”
Oh.
That was colder than she had expected.
“He has a future that requires a great deal of him, and I will not have it complicated by you.”
Temperance looked at him and there were things she could have said but understood that there was nothing she could say that would move this man one inch from where he had decided to stand.
He was perhaps even more stubborn than she was.
“Fine, then. But I suspect that he likes me better perhaps,” she muttered the last part under her breath.
“One more thing before you go,” Harper said. He seemed to soften a bit, only if by the barest amount. “There is a ball that you need to be in attendance in the coming days. You are expected to wear your best dress, and conduct yourself properly.”
“Balls bore me.”
“That is not relevant,” he snapped back, annoyed at her again.
“When is the ball?” she asked.
“Friday and we leave at eight.”
“I’ll be ready,” she said, knowing that there was little use in fighting with him. She picked up Peabody, who had been sitting through the entire exchange with great patience, and walked past Harper toward the stairs without another word.
She did not look back.
She climbed the stairs with a straight spine and unhurried steps and the absolute, ironclad composure of a woman who was not going to let him see a single thing she was currently feeling. But when she stood for a moment alone, and pressed her free hand flat against her sternum where her heart was doing something thoroughly unreasonable.
Stop it,she told herself.What was he doing to her?
“Stay by my side tonight. I will introduce you to several gentlemen and I would ask that you receive them with an open mind and appropriate courtesy. Can you do that?”
Harper had not phrased his question to be very polite, or even one that allowed her to refuse. She knew that there was only answer.
Temperance looked straight ahead at the lit entrance and the guests moving through it.
“Of course,” she said. They had finally arrived at the ball, and Temperance was dressed in her finest silk.
Vanity was something that she occasionally enjoyed, but it was surprising for her when she had noticed Harper looking at her, and second glancing even.
Did that mean she looked nice this evening? She wanted to know badly, but would not dare ask him.
She kept her expression perfectly neutral and kept walking, and after a moment he walked with her, and she heard Albina fall in behind them.
“And I suspect that it is going to be harder to keep your mother in check,” Harper said, in a defeated voice.
“Oh, let her be. She is not looking to get married again, so you need not police her movements so heavily,” Temperance replied, and she knew that Harper did not agree with her. But for the time being, he did not brook an argument.
