“Then, what?” he challenged. “You haven’t done anything to move away.”
“Harper..” the words fell out of her mouth like a whisper.
He did not answer it. Instead, his lips hovered against hers, as if waiting for some conformation from her. And then, he kissed her.
Temperance’s entire world fell away around her, and all that she could feel was his lips against her own. There was no resistance from her, and she kissed him back.
It was as though all the emotions that they had suppressed were flowing freely now amongst them.
She never wanted it to stop.
But they broke apart as the ballroom erupted in noise downstairs.
“What’s happened?” she said, cheeks flushing and still entangled in Harper’s arms.
If anyone was to see them like this, her reputation would be soiled for a lifetime and there would be no coming back from it.
There were shouts and the sound of something falling, and then the dogs started to park.
“Something has happened,” Temperance remarked, snapping out of her moment. “We must go see immediately.”
CHAPTER 26
The ballroom was chaos.
Temperance saw it all at once when they came through the doors, and panic set inside of her as she realized what has happened.
“The dogs,” she said, eyes widening. “They’ve broken in.”
The guests were overreacting, of course. But the dogs had caused a ruckus. Biscuit was the leader of the pack, moving through the horde of guests, who were running to dodge him and knocking over the glasses on the tables. Midge was ricocheting between guests as though she was playing a game with her whole body. Peabody had stationed himself in the center of the floor and was refusing to move, which several guests had discovered and were now navigating around him with varying degrees of success.
Somehow, Soot had managed to come inside as well.
“This is absolutely unacceptable,” said a woman in blue silk, pressing herself against the wall as Midge made another pass. “Your Grace, this is entirely….”
“The animals, filthy” said a man near the refreshment table.
“The dogs… they cannot be inside like this…”
The complaints were never-ending, but Temperance knew that it was unlike the dogs to come in like this unprompted.
She stood in the doorway, and examined the room until her eyes landed on one particular suspect.
Joseph, who she found near the far wall, looking pale as a sheet. Albina was beside him, her hand on his shoulder, and she was looking at the room with eyes widened.
She crossed toward them immediately.
“Do you have something to do with this?”
“I’m sorry, I… I didn’t mean for any for this to happen. I only wanted to….” he started.
“I know,” she sighed, knowing that there was little use in scolding a child. That, too, in front of everybody.
“I thought that if…”
“Joseph, you don’t need to explain yourself,” She looked at him steadily as he looked down at the floor in shame. “I know.”
“I tried to stop him,” Albina said. “But it seems that I was not fast enough.”
