Nowhere Near Respectable by Mary Jo Putney Page B

would accept me.”
    “Because of my dowry,” Kiri said bitterly. “I was about to enter the morning room when I overheard your mother conversing with your aunt, Lady Shrimpton. They said . . .” She hesitated, feeling the painful words in her viscera.
    “They said what?”
    Kiri took a deep breath. “That I was a vulgar foreign slut barely redeemed by my dowry. Good enough for an expensive younger son. Such a mercy that your older brothers had sons so future Lord Norlands wouldn’t be tainted by my Hindu blood.”
    Godfrey gasped, but Kiri continued inexorably, “That was bad enough, but what they said about my mother was . . . unforgivable. I knew I had to leave immediately, or I would start smashing china. Civility was not possible. Now do you understand?”
    Godfrey looked ill. “I can’t believe my mother would say such things!”
    “Can you really not believe it?” Kiri said in a hard voice.
    He started to speak, then shook his head. “She is . . . very old-fashioned in many ways. Very proud of the family bloodlines. But I thought she liked you. You are a beautiful, vibrant girl who can charm the stones from the fields. Your lineage is better than mine, and naturally a good dowry is appreciated.” He swallowed hard. “Perhaps because I wanted her to welcome you into our family, I didn’t see anything else.”
    “She would welcome my dowry. No doubt she would have been civil to me until the day she became angry, or drank too much sherry, and explained how much she despised me.” Kiri turned back to the door. “I regret telling you this, but you did ask.”
    “Don’t leave yet,” he pleaded. “I swear that I do not share my mother’s prejudice. Will you try to believe that?”
    She remembered the very enjoyable kisses they’d shared. Was he free of prejudice, or was it that he desired her enough to overlook her heritage? Some of both, perhaps. Even he probably didn’t know for sure. “I accept your word,” she said, wanting to end the unpleasant scene. “Now there is nothing left to be said. Good-bye, Godfrey.”
    “So the sins of my mother are to be visited on me?” There was real pain in his eyes. “It is me you would marry, not my mother. We need have nothing to do with her.”
    He was sincere, she thought, but when she looked at Godfrey, she saw a boy, not a man. In the last days, she’d realized that she wanted a man. “A marriage joins families almost as much as it joins a man and a woman. I will not marry into a family that doesn’t want me, nor do I wish for you to be estranged from your own mother.” She held out a hand. “Go in peace, Godfrey.”
    He held her hand, squeezing it for a long moment before releasing her. “Thank you for your honesty and graciousness, Lady Kiri. I’m sorry you were hurt by my mother’s narrow-mindedness.”
    She shrugged. “I’m grateful that the countess’s true feelings were revealed before it was too late.”
    He sighed, but inclined his head in agreement before he left. It was only a matter of time until he found a nice blond English girl who would suit his family. Kiri returned to her room and found a maid unpacking the luggage Godfrey had delivered.
    Kiri smiled wryly. At least she now had more clothes to wear.

    Sarah gasped as she stared up at the glittering dome that arched over the club’s ballroom. “Damian’s is everything I’ve heard, and more!”
    Kiri agreed. Even for someone who had experienced sumptuous Hindu temples, Mackenzie’s club was dazzling. The ballroom was a great circular chamber topped by the flamboyantly painted dome and lit by a vast, sparkling gas chandelier. Kiri had seen some of the new gas streetlights, but this was the first gaslit building she’d been in.
    The masquerade was in full swing and the ballroom was crowded with laughing, chattering guests. Some treated the dominos as cloaks that swept back over their shoulders to show off rich garments and jewels. Others, like Kiri and Sarah, concealed