“I circulated,” she said. “In fact, I spoke to three separate people I did not know but I am now resting from the effort.”
“Lord Ashby? I saw you speak to him.”
“He was perfectly pleasant,” she said. “And I was perfectly pleasant in return, and the dance was perfectly pleasant.”
“You should have spoken to me first,” he said, seeming annoyed. “I would have approved them for you.”
“Harper,” she said quietly. “You cannot keep doing this, it’s like you’re trying to control me,”
“I am being selective on your behalf,” he said.
“There is not a very large difference,” she said, “from where I am standing.”
They stood together at the window for a while without speaking. It was the comfortable version of silence, the one they had developed without meaning.
“You are being possessive,” she said. “You know that, don’t you.”
It wasn’t really a question, and he seemed to understand that, because he didn’t answer it immediately. He looked out at thegarden with the expression he got when he was deciding which version of a thing to say.
“I have more experience of the world than you do,” he said finally. “Using that experience on your behalf is not possession. In fact, I would say that it is the only sensible thing to do with it.”
“You make it sound very reasonable,” she said. “But I still believe it is form of control.”
He looked almost angry at that.
“Do you even know what you’re getting yourself into? I know what a bad marriage looks like,” he said, “I will not watch you walk into something equivalent, knowing how draining it can be.”
She looked at him, and suddenly felt a strange feeling in her chest.
“You never do talk about your marriage you know,” she said softly.
“There’s nothing important in it for you to know,” he shrugged off the topic. “Why talk about something that is not applicable anymore?”
“If only for advice,” she said and then added, “or if only to make yourself feel better.”
“I feel fine, please,” he said and she could almost see his walls come up.
She knew that it was best to retreat from the topic at this point, but she did not want to go back and have more small talk.
“Can I ask you something?” she said.
“You will regardless,” he said, and she smiled despite herself. “So go on ahead, already.”
“Well, it’s about Joseph. How old was he when it became just the two of you?”
Something shifted in his expression.
“Four,” he said. “Nearly five.”
“That is very young.”
“Yes,” he said.
She waited for him to continue on, not wanting to push him.
“The first year was the hardest,” he said, after a moment. “He would ask questions I did not know how to answer.”
“Like?”
