“What will people say?”
“She has no notion what she’s proposing.”
“No morals, you see. No notion of what is fitting.”
“No notion of what is practical, I should say. What will she live on?”
“Where will she live? Who’ll look after her?”
“I’m sure these thoughts never cross her mind.”
“She always was the most heedless creature.”
Papa said nothing, but he was studying her face. He’d always understood her far better than any of her siblings had. He waited, leaving it to her.
She took courage from his trust in her. “I shall take my jewels and take a different name, as has been suggested,” she said.
“Jewels?”
“What jewels?”
“She never mentioned jewels.”
“She means some trumpery gewgaws from the bazaar.”
“I mean rubies and diamonds and pearls and emeralds and sapphires,” Zoe said.
The sisters stilled. Priscilla froze with a piece of cake halfway to her mouth. Gertrude set down her cup.
“Gold and silver bracelets and necklaces,” Zoe went on. “Jewelsis the correct word, is it not? Karim was fond of me, and he was most generous. I thought I must sell all of my treasures to pay for my return home, but it was not nearly as costly as I had supposed. I was glad of that, because I had hoped to share my possessions with the women of my family. But if it is troublesome for me to remain here, the jewelry will allow me to live in another place. I was told that Paris and Venice were not as expensive as London.”
Her sisters were looking at one another.
When it came to jewelry, women the world over were the same. If her future and everything for which she’d risked her life had not been at stake, she’d have laughed, because her sisters behaved exactly like the harem women they scorned.
She kept her expression serene. “I would rather stay here,” she said.
The silence continued while the sisters mulled this over.
Sometimes the wisest course was simply to offer others a strong motive to solve the problem.
“I don’t see how it could be arranged,” said Augusta after a moment.
“Even if one were to reeducate her—”
“It won’t matter what she does or how she behaves. All everyone will see is the Harem Girl.”
“How could one persuade a hostess to have her?”
“No one will haveuswhile she’s about.”
“I doubt the Prince Regent himself could make her welcome in the Beau Monde.”
“Unless he married her.”
Bitter laughter at this.
“But he’s already married, whether he likes it or not.”
