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.”
“It’s too late now, I suppose,” Temperance said. “The ball is a mess.”
Across the room, the woman in blue silk had located Harper and was saying something to him at length. Several other guests had gathered around him. But Harper was standing very still in the middle of all of it, and Temperance watched him take in the general state of everything.
He put two fingers in his mouth and whistled.
In second, the dogs stopped wreaking their chaos and walked directly to Harper.
Temperance stared at him with her mouth hanging open.
Of all things, she had not expected that to happen. It was as though he had effortlessly taken control of the situation and brought order to everything. Even the guests, who had been complaining just a moment ago, were now focused on Harper.
Harper looked at Temperance then, their gazes locked and a strange warm feeling passed over her.
He turned back to the guests.
“I owe you all an apology,” he said calmly, “This evening has not concluded as intended and the fault is entirely mine for not anticipating the possibility.” He looked around the room, taking in faces and making eye contact.
Effectively, he had diffused the situation perfectly.
“I would ask you all to make your way home for the evening. Anyone whose clothing has been affected should send the details to my staff and the cost will be covered in full.”
There was a murmur through the room and the woman in blue silk opened her mouth.
“In full,” Harper said, looking at her, and she closed it again.
The guests began to move toward the doors, and the room began to empty out. Temperance stood near the wall with Albina and Joseph and watched the room empty.
“My, word,” Albina laughed, “now that was rather remarkable. Did you know he was going to do that?”
Temperance shook her head.
“No, but I am not surprised,” she said. He was a natural leader, and this incident had proven it. She thought back to their kiss, feeling her cheeks heat up.
“Are you alright?” Albina picked up on the change of color.
“It’s fine,” she said, turning away. The chaos had made her nearly forget that everything between them had changed now, and it would be difficult to go back.
When the last guest had gone, the ballroom was very quiet again. Biscuit was still sitting at Harper’s feet while Midge had lain down across his shoes.
“He’s made friends with the dogs,” Albina remarked. “Wonder when that happened.”
Harper still hadn’t said a word to them, remaining eerily silent. A part of her worried that he was going to explode in anger at any moment.
After all, he had just been proven right about his point about not letting the dogs inside.
She braced herself, quietly, and beside her she felt Joseph do the same, as though he was preparing for consequences.
“Don’t worry,” she whispered. “I’ll defend you.”
“I’m not sure if you can get me out of trouble this time,” Joseph sighed, resigning to his fate. Perhaps he would be grounded for weeks, or not allowed to do anything with the dogs from now on.
But what happened next surprised them all. Harper opened his mouth not to shout at them, but laugh.
“Excuse me?” Temperance muttered, surprised. The duke was... Laughing? He found all of it funny?
But it set off a chain reaction, and the next thing she knew, she was laughing too.
Albina made a sound that was half laugh and half something that might have been relief, and Joseph, after one more moment of uncertain stillness, laughed too.
“I am sorry,” Joseph said, when the laughing had run its course and they were all standing in the empty ballroom in the aftermath of it. He said it to his father, “I know it was wrong.”
Harper was quiet for a moment.
“Why did you do it?” he said. “You deliberately brought the dogs in?”
“I did,” Joseph nodded, “but you… you really must understand that I did it out of love. I was… you see… You have been for days. I thought that if I could make you laugh then perhaps it would help.” He paused.
“I know that was not the right way to go about it but the dogs seemed like a good idea at the time.”
“Why bring them to the ball?”
“Because…” Joseph sighed. “During the dance, I saw you. You looked like something terrible had happened, and I knew that I had to act quickly. It was naive, yes, but… at least I got you laughing at the end of it.”
Temperance felt her heart clench. The dance… Harper had been upset because of it, though she could not have fathomed that it would impact him in the slightest.
“The dogs,” Harper said, “are never a good idea, and I told you that nothing good comes from bringing them in.”
Harper crossed the room to his son as the latter held very still.
“Are you very mad at me?” he asked.
The room seemed to hold its breath for a long moment. Temperance worried that perhaps Harper would get angry now, for Joseph had disobeyed the principle that his father laid out. But Harper surprised everyone once again, and wrapped his son in a hug.
“I understand that you didn’t meant harm, and were only trying to help in your own way. Thank you,” he said.
Joseph looked at him with his mouth agape.
“Are you certain?”
Even Albina let out a whoosh of surprise, but Temperance could only smile.
“I wouldn’t say it if I wasn’t. But this does not give you license to continue to go against what I say in the future. So don’t do it again,” Harper said.
“I won’t,” Joseph said, shaking his head, “But did it work?”
Harper was quiet for a moment. His eyes moved across the room and found Temperance, briefly, and she held the contact for a second before looking at the floor. The smile on her face hadn’t left.
“Yes,” Harper said. “I suppose it did.”
Joseph’s face broke out into a large grin.
“Can the dogs stay inside tonight?” he said. “Given the circumstances.”
“Don’t push it,” Harper said. “Now, go up please. Let me speak to the others.”
Joseph sauntered off, with one of the dogs trailing behind him. As soon as he was gone, Albina stepped forward with a grin on her face.
“My, my, my,” Albina clapped her hands together, “so this is exactly what I meant that we all should come together as a family. Harper, I think you’ve made the right decision here and shown Joseph that his good intentions must be honored, instead of punished.”
“It’s true,” Temperance added in. “We’re all quite... Well, we’re happy to see this change in you.”
“A change?” Harper challenged, raising his brow. “I still want the best for my son, as I always have.”
“But now you’re responding to it in a different manner,” Albina said, impressed. “I think that’s growth, and it seems that we might have rubbed off on you more than you let on.”
Harper locked eyes with Temperance again.
“I suppose I cannot deny that.”
Once again, Temperance began to flush and she thought back to the moment in the terrace. Their moment had been interrupted half-way, and she was only now beginning to understand that under no possibility could she go back to pretending as though nothing had happened.
“Temperance,” Harper was speaking to her directly now, though Albina was more than curious as she observed the two. “Do you mind if we speak?”
Her heart was thudding again, but before she could respond in either a yes or a no, a polite cough interrupted them.
Elias Talbot emerged from behind one of the pillars in the direction where the terrace door had been.
She was thinking about this when she heard the sound.
“Elias?” Temperance exclaimed, surprised. All the guests were supposed to leave by now.
“I apologize for interrupting,” his eyes darted around the room. “I thought I would wait until things had settled, I hope that was not presumptuous.”
“Not at all,” Albina said quickly.
Elias came further into the room, seeming entirely comfortable with the whole situation even though it was a strange one.
“I wanted to speak to Miss Hosmer,” he said. “Before I spoke to His Grace, if you are willing.”
The tension in the air returned, and Temperance looked back at Harper, who had gone very still. She remembered at once of the abandoned conversation on the dance floor, and guilt settled onto her features.