Kate ignored the question. “I can’t stay long, Mother. I’m only passing through.”
“But to where?”
“I . . .” She shook her head. “I wanted to see you and tell you I was well. Are you well?”
“Of course! Very well.”
Kate nodded and made herself continue. “And I wanted to find out . . .”
Her mother watched her with clear, guiltless eyes.
“After I was sent away, Father told everyone I had died.” Her mother’s only response was a slow blink. “Is that true?”
“Well, yes, I’m afraid it is. I can’t pretend I liked it. It was all so incredibly awkward. But . . . your father thought it best.” Ah, yes. This was always her mother’s response. How many times had Kate heard that as her things had been packed for Ceylon? As she’d begged her mother to intervene? Kate tried to bite back that old rage.
“I just want to know why. Why would he say I’d died? And why would you let him?”
“He did what he thought best—”
“You always say that!” she fumed. “Always!”
“He was the head of this family, Katie. He knew what was best.”
“Do you honestly believe that? That it was best to send me to the ends of the earth to live with a stranger?”
“Well, he did not know, did he? He thought Mr. Gallow was a gentleman. He came with the highest recommendations. By the time your father heard about his troubles—”
“Troubles?”
“He was quite distressed that Mr. Gallow had presented himself as a respected member of the English community of Ceylon when in reality, he was . . . less than . . .”
“He’d gone native, Mother. That’s what they call it when a white man takes up with a native woman. He did not want me. He only wanted the illusion of a white wife because the governor had threatened him with arrest!”
Her mother’s cheeks turned bright red. “If your father had known—”
“Oh, certainly! There is nothing at all wrong with sending your only daughter across the sea to marry a stranger! Nothing at all! So long as he is a respectable stranger.”
“Katie, please don’t speak of your father in such a—”
“He told everyone I was dead!”
Her mother shook her head so hard that her cheeks quivered. “He thought it was best, Katie.”
“Best?” Kate screamed. “Are you mad? Can you even hear yourself?”
“Once your father realized that the circumstances were . . . less than respectable . . . Well, it was too late to stop the marriage. You’d sailed two weeks earlier, and he was only afraid that it would appear mercenary. . . .”
Kate was so overwhelmed with confusion that she collapsed weakly into a chair. “Mercenary?”
“To have it known that he’d betrothed you to a man of such low moral fiber. The title, the family name . . . He was quite upset with Mr. Gallow for his dishonesty. He wrote and told him that he wasn’t to use your name. He wasn’t to advertise the family connection. It appeared . . . sordid.”
“It was sordid, Mother.”
“Yes,” she finally conceded, her gaze falling to the floor. “I’m sure it was, my sweet girl.”
Sweet, Kate thought with a sneer, feeling anything but sweet. “So he dusted off his hands as if he’d taken me out to the rubbish pile. He had his money—”
“Katie!” her mother gasped, still horrified by the mention of something so base.