She nodded, and he looked surprised that she did not argue with him about it.
“Fine,” she muttered without putting up a fight.
The first man approached within twenty minutes.
He was tall, pleasantly masked, and had the bearing of someone who had identified Temperance from across the room and crossed it with a specific intention. He introduced himself as Lord Caldwell and asked if she was engaged for the next set with the direct, cheerful confidence of a man who had decided she was worth approaching and saw no reason to be indirect about it.
She opened her mouth.
“Caldwell,” Harper said, from beside her, in the tone he used when he was being polite and also conclusive. “I believe I heardyou had some trouble with the Northmore contract. Has that resolved itself?”
Lord Caldwell looked at Harper with the expression of a man who had not expected this particular conversational direction. “I…yes, largely, there were some complications with the….”
“Complicated business,” Harper said, nodding with the focused interest of someone who found this genuinely absorbing. “You’ll want to give that your full attention this evening. I believe Northmore himself is here.”
Lord Caldwell looked around the room, “Is he? I hadn’t…I should probably…”
“Probably,” Harper agreed.
Lord Caldwell excused himself and went to find Northmore, who may or may not have been present, and Temperance watched him go and then turned to look at Harper with an expression she was keeping carefully neutral.
“The Northmore contract,” she said.
“A genuine issue,” Harper said. “I was being helpful.”
“You were redirecting him.”
“I was providing useful information.”
“Harper.”
“He had a complicated contract situation,” Harper said, with complete composure. “I thought he should know Northmore was here.”
“Is Northmore here?”
“I am not sure, actually.”
Temperance looked at his profile for a moment, surprised by his behavior but then decided not to think too much of it.
Until the second man showed up.
A Mr. Harrington, by his own introduction, who had a pleasant face and a genuine smile and had asked very nicely whether she might like to walk with him toward the refreshment table. He was informed by Harper that Harrington’s estate was apparently in some difficulty with the drainage on the north side, which Harper had heard about through the land agent network, and that this was probably worth addressing before it became a more serious structural issue, and Harrington had gone away looking worried about his north drainage.
The third man did not get as far as introduction. Harper had seen him coming from across the room and had steered Temperance toward the opposite corner on the pretext of having seen someone he needed to speak to, and by the timeTemperance had established that there was no one he needed to speak to, the third man had been absorbed elsewhere.
“Now what was wrong with him?” Temperance asked.
“I suppose I did not like the way he was walking,” he replied. “Too much pride, and not a good quality to have in a suitor.”
“He was walking across a ballroom,” she said. “That is the conventional method of getting from one place to another.”
“His intent was apparent.”
“His intent,” she said carefully, “was to introduce himself. Which is the conventional method of meeting someone at a social occasion. Which is, if I recall correctly, the reason we are here.”
Harper looked at her, annoyed. “What is your problem? I am trying to ensure you meet the right people.”
“You are ensuring I meet no one at all,” she said. “Which is a different thing.”
