"Good. Too many folks in rooms like this mistake exhaustion for agreement."
Annie looked from one woman to the other. "Mama, is he really going to talk to us?"
"Yes."
"Is that bad?"
Lena opened her mouth, then closed it again. "It depends on whether he remembers you're a child and I'm your mother."
Margaret handed Annie the cardigan. "Put this on, sweetheart. Big rooms always get colder after pretty things happen."
Annie obeyed, slipping her arms into the knit sleeves. "Miss Margaret?"
"Yes, honey."
"If somebody promises something in a room full of people, do they have to mean it?"
Margaret's eyes flicked to Lena before returning to Annie. "Decent people do."
The word *decent* stayed with Lena. She had spent years around people who knew exactly how to appear respectable, but that was not the same thing.
When the formal part of the gala finally ended, the guests began moving toward dessert stations and smaller clusters of conversation. The pressure in the room shifted from spectacle to gossip. Lena could feel it passing near her in fragments.
*"That's the child."*
*"He actually said adopt."*