“Why are you being cross with me?” he said, knitting his eyebrows together. “We do not need to be arguing.”
“Correct,” she said, feeling as though she had reached her emotional limit.
“Temperance,” he said softly, “you’re truly beginning to worry me now. It is unlike you to give up so easy.”
A laugh escaped her lips before she could control it.
“And this is somehow amusing to you?” he said, offended now.
“No, Your Grace. It is simply that I cannot seem to win with you. You ask me now to argue, and when I agree, you say that is worrying.”
Harper let out a sigh, and slid his back against the balcony railing.
“Perhaps I should get going,” Temperance said. In her mind, she was scared that if she stayed a moment longer in his presence, she would not be able to hold back what was in her heart anymore. “Elias must be wondering where I have disappeared to.”
At the mention of his name, Harper’s face darkened and his posture stiffened.
“Have you made up your mind, then?” he said, and Temperance swore she heard an unmistakable jealousy in his tone. “About marrying him.”
Temperance felt a lump form in her throat.
“I suppose so.”
“That is not a definitive answer,” Harper pressed, looking at her directly now. His gaze was piercing, and it felt impossible to lie to him when he was looking at her like this. “If he is to ask you now, to marry you, you say yes to him?”
“Would that not be the wise choice?” she returned his gaze, and for a moment held it in place before he looked away. “After all, he is a good man and it is in the best interest of everyone if I am to settle down quickly.”
He was quiet then and Temperance turned to leave.
“Don’t leave, I need to talk to you,” he said.
She turned to look at him then, which was a mistake. She felt something press against her chest from the inside.
“There is nothing to talk about,” she said. “I have made my decision and I would like you to respect it.”
“I cannot,” he said. “And certainly not under these conditions.”
She hadn’t expected that answer.
“Why not? This is for the best, and your practical sensibilities should allow you to see that clearly.”
He said nothing for a moment. The garden was dark below them and the noise of the ball moved behind the glass.
“Because I have watched you all evening,” he said, “and I cannot watch Elias ask you to marry him and say nothing.”
A small glimmer of hope appeared in Temperance’s mind, but she knew better than to let herself be deluded.
“There is no one forcing you to do so,” she said, feeling her voice shake, “You can back to Sedgewick, as you have been wanting for months. Consider this your opportunity. I will be settled and you will be free of us, with everything will be exactly as you planned it.”
“It is not what I planned,” he said. “You cannot make assumptions like that on my behalf.”
“Pray tell, then. What did you plan?” she said, voice rising now and the anger pulsing through her, “Because from where I have been standing, the plan has always been to manage us. To find me a suitable husband and put my mother somewhere sensible to eventually return to your orderly life…. And never think about any of this again.”
“That is not what I want,” he said. Once again, she felt hope again but what good was it? He would never tell her anything clearly.
“Then what do you want?” she said. “Because you have had months, and you have never once said anything. You have looked at me and said nothing. You have sent away every man who approached me and still said nothing,” tears pricked at her eyes.
In her mind, it did not make sense to her why he was suddenly bringing up the need totalk.It was unlike Harper to discuss things with her that he found uninteresting, nor had he ever really offered to speak like this before.
