They went inside.
The Ashworth ballroom was large and warm and full noise. Temperance had attended enough of these evenings to know them by their rhythms, and enough to know precisely where she stood within them.
Harper, she noted, knew what he was doing.
He moved them through the room with the quiet authority of a man of his title. People noticed him.
It helped.
She could see it helping, the way eyes that had been sharp with amusement or calculation smoothed slightly when they landed on him. It was the exact opposite of how people behaved when they saw her, and her mother. She could not escape their whispers tonight, either. Even though she had the duke by her side.
“The Hosmer women. Good lord, has he brought them both?”
“I heard the mother was in the papers again last week.”
“Poor man. He’s inherited quite the situation there, hasn’t he.”
Temperance kept her expression perfectly neutral and kept walking.
She had learned, a long time ago, not to let them show on her face. It was one of the more useful things the nunnery had given her. Harper’s hand was at her elbow, steering her left around a cluster of guests near the entrance, and she wondered, briefly and without intending to, whether he had heard them too.
But he said nothing to her about it, which she appreciated.
“I need you to stay close to me,” he said. “And there’s someone I’d like for you to meet.”
“A suitor?” she said, knowing fully well that is who he was referring to.
“I am not interested in you gaining more friends, so yes, a suitor,” he replied. “He goes by the name Mr. Alford, and I have spoken with him briefly this week and he seemed reasonable.”
“That is quite the accolade,” Temperance could not help her sarcasm.
“It is a quality I am beginning to value considerably more than I did,” he said. “I would like for you to consider him.”
Once again, she knew that arguing with him would be completely futile, so she only nodded.
Which seemed to surprise him, and perhaps disarm him as well. Albina was on his other side, and Temperance could hear her mother exchanging a few pleasant words with a woman in yellow who had stopped them near the center of the room. The woman looked mildly alarmed, which meant Albina was being entirely charming and the woman had simply not expected it and didn’t know what to do with it. This was a common response.
Most people who had read the columns arrived with an idea of what Albina Hosmer was going to be like and found the reality considerably more disorienting than the version they had assembled in their minds.
“Your mother is…” Harper began, also noticing the exchange.
“I know,” Temperance gave him a smirk.
“I was going to say that she is managing herself well this evening. It appears I underestimated her social capabilities,” he said. “In certain contexts.”
“In most contexts,” Temperance said. “She is very good with people and always has been. My father simply ensured that not very many people were aware of it. She is making up for lost time.”
It was the honest truth, and she hoped that the duke would understand it. Though, given his over dedication to propriety, she suspected that might be difficult for them to achieve.
“I suppose I can see that,” he said simply. “Now, will you please? I believe he would like to dance with you.”
Temperance turned around to see a man glancing in their direction.
Mr. Alford was perhaps thirty and he bowed correctly when Harper introduced them.
It was, she allowed, a promising opening. Quickly, he led her into the dance floor.
“Have you a taste for dancing, Miss Hosmer?” he asked her. She noted that he did not seem overly excited in his tone, which perhaps was a good thing.
