Chapter 16
“This mask is really ridiculous,” Temperance groaned.
She had chosen the simplest one. Ivory, fitted closely to the upper half of her face, with no feathers or embellishments beyond a small detail at the outer edge.
“You’ve picked the most boring one, and still you complain,” Albina replied.
“Why would I wish to hide my face?” Temperance turned her mother’s argument back on her. “Do you think me so ugly?”
Albina laughed out loud.
“Oh, no. Nothing of the sort. But I do think that it adds a little mystique to your aura, which is always a good thing.”
She was wearing it now, in the entrance hall, waiting, while Albina had gone back upstairs for something she had forgotten and Harper stood near the door with his own mask in his hand, not yet wearing it.
“Are you not going to put on the mask?” she asked him, “if I have to wear this silly thing, it is only fair that you should as well.”
“I don’t feel the need to,” he shrugged his shoulders.
“But we are at a masquerade, and the entire point is to wear a mask.”
“I find that people wear plenty masks in their day-to-day life, so this is just superfluous,” he said, only half joking.
Temperance could not help but laugh.
“Trust you to philosophize about the strangest of things,” she said. “But will you put it on for my sake, so that I feel a little less of a strange being?”
She didn’t expect Harper to listen, or for her bid to work. But he put on his mask, to her surprise.
“Do you feel better about yourself now?” he said, his tone starkly more annoyed now.
“Oh, loads.”
Before their moment could continue, Albina came back. Her mask was already in place, and much more lavish than the other two. She shot them both a look.
“Was I interrupting something?” she said, cheekily.
“No, we were only waiting for you,” Temperance narrowed her eyes at her mother. “Can we go now? I suspect that we are getting late.”
“Oh, there is no such thing as being late, darling,” Albina replied. “You know this, and it’s always better to make an entrance.”
Temperance shook her head, laughing. .
When they arrived at the ball, most of the guests had already arrived.
They moved across the enormous ballroom in silks and satins and elaborate masks ranging from the simple to the frankly architectural, and the whole effect was of a world slightly removed from the ordinary one, operating by its own rules for the evening.
“I suppose I don’t dislike masquerades as much,” she admitted to him. “They are more bearable than normal balls, though the act of putting on a mask is still too silly to me.”
“I told you before,” Harper went on. “We are all already wearing masks, and these ones are just visible.”
“If that’s the case, what sort of mask do you think I am wearing?” she asked him, suddenly curious.
“Do you really wish for me to answer that honestly?”
“Why not?” she shrugged. “I am not scared of the truth, or your assessment of me.”
“Huh,” he said. “Perhaps I will leave that assessment for later. But for now, I can tell you what sort of masks those around have put on.”
“You are evading the question,” she laughed. “But fine, I shall humor you. Go on.”
He pointed to one of the guests, who was a lanky gentleman. He was speaking to one of the women, and was being entirely too loud.
“That is the mask of insecurity,” Harper noted. “He is overcompensating for something, or trying too hard to impress that poor woman. I am not sure if it is working, however.”
“That’s a rather swift assessment of someone you don’t even know,” Temperance remarked.
“I suppose my mind works faster than most.”
Temperance stifled a chuckle at that. Of all things, she did not know him to be humble.
“What about her, then?” she pointed to a woman, who was not speaking to anyone.
“Mask of self-importance,” he said. “She is waiting to be approached, and thinks too highly of herself. She does not want to be seen with the wrong sort of match.”
“Alright, enough,” Temperance said. “But I shall wait for you to give you my assessment, which you have promised me.”
“In due time.”
They noticed that Albina had already located an acquaintance near the entrance and was being absorbed into a conversation. Temperance watched her go with the fond, familiar ease of someone who had stopped worrying about her mother.
“She is in her element,” Harper said, beside her.
“She always is,” Temperance said. “People think the scandal sheets mean she is bad at society but she is extraordinary at society as she simply does it on her own terms.”
“I have noticed that,” he said, “She has a gift for making people feel that her attention is a considerable thing to have.”
Temperance looked at him. “It is a considerable thing to have.”
“Yes,” he said, simply. “I’m beginning to understand that.”
“I’m surprised you feel that way, considering how harsh you were in your assessment of the others just now,” she admitted.
“Don’t doubt my discernment,” he shrugged. “Tonight, you should stay close to me. I want to introduce you to some suitors.”
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 heard you 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 time Temperance 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.”
“I am being selective.”
“You are being very picky,” she replied.
“Thank you,” he said.
“That was not a compliment.” She looked at him with the expression she reserved for occasions when she was deciding whether to laugh or continue the argument.
She decided, after the third redirected suitor, to simply watch him do it.
It was more interesting than arguing about it, and considerably more revealing. There was a pattern to it, she noticed, he never did the same thing twice and always had a new reason.
“I think I need a break,” she told him. “I see that my friends are here, and I think I will go speak to them. Maybe in the meanwhile you might find someone suitable.”
She rushed off, not waiting for a response and found Charity near the refreshment table. Charity took one look at her face and handed her a glass.
“You’re doing okay?”
“I just wanted to come see you. The duke has been acting a bit strange, and I thought I needed a little break,” she admitted earnestly.
“What’s he doing now?” Charity laughed.
“Oh, I don’t even know. He said that he wanted to introduce me to some suitors, but he keeps redirecting them when they approach.”
“Duncan noticed,” Charity said. “He pointed it out to me during the second redirection. What do you think?”