Read Online Nowhere Near Respectable by Mary Jo Putney - Free Book Online Page A

that was a quiet warning not to become overattached to Damian Mackenzie. Lord, had Mackenzie told his old headmistress that Kiri had invaded his bedroom? Surely not. Better to talk about the horse. “After I say good-bye to Chieftain, I’ll be ready to leave. He’s a fine mount.”
    “He’ll be home by the end of the day,” Lady Agnes promised as she stood and offered her hand. “I’m glad we’ve had a chance to become better acquainted, Lady Kiri. We’ll meet again in London, I’m sure.”
    Since she had virtually nothing to pack except the pouch that held her jewelry, she walked out to the stables when she finished her breakfast. Chieftain looked content, if tired. He delicately lapped sugar from her palm when she offered a chunk, then nuzzled her shoulder in hopes of more.
    As she stroked the horse’s glossy neck, she thought about her unexpected adventure. Running away from Grimes Hall might have been reckless, but it made sense given what she’d overheard. If she’d stayed, she might have broken someone’s neck. She had a history of being reckless, with the saving grace that she was as good at getting out of trouble as she was at getting into it.
    But recklessness had dissolved into pure madness once Mackenzie kissed her. What had she been thinking? By the cold light of day, her behavior with Mackenzie had moved beyond reckless into mad folly.
    She hadn’t been thinking at all, simply reveling in that bright, fierce passion. Consequences be damned, she’d cared only for the moment. If not for Mackenzie’s hard-won restraint, they would have become lovers. Which might have been wonderful, but the potential for disaster had been very, very high.
    She gave Chieftain a last pat, then pivoted and headed out to where the coach waited in front of Westerfield Manor. Under normal circumstances, she and Mackenzie would never have met. The likelihood was that they’d never meet again.
    But if they did meet—well, next time she would think through what consequences she was willing to face before she behaved like a damned fool.

    Within half an hour, Kiri was on the road home in Lady Agnes’s plush carriage. The maid who accompanied her was a quiet older woman who worked on mending when the roads were smooth enough. Kiri spent much of the journey gazing out the carriage window at the vividly green landscape.
    The events of the previous day seemed almost dreamlike. Lady Norland’s sneering words still stung, but not as much. Kiri guessed that the Hitchcock family would be more upset at losing a horse than a mixed-blood heiress.
    She was lucky to be going home with no damage to her person or her reputation. But she couldn’t stop thinking about Mackenzie. If he wasn’t owner of a scandalous gambling club, perhaps courtship would be possible.
    But given his business, any kind of involvement with him would risk not only her own reputation, but that of her family. Her younger half brother and sister, Thomas and Lucia Stillwell, were mixed blood, like her, and Lucia was close to marriageable age. Anything Kiri did would reflect on them, and on her mother.
    Why could logic be so compelling, yet leave her feeling so empty?

    By the time Mac arrived home in London, he was weary to the bone. He’d been unable to sleep after Kiri Lawford visited him, so he’d left Westerfield Manor at dawn. He wrote Lady Agnes a quick note thanking her for taking them in, saying he must return to London immediately and that he knew she would take good care of Lady Kiri. All true, if cowardly. He wondered if Kiri had slept any better than he.
    Mac checked in with his manager, Jean-Claude Baptiste, to be sure no disaster had occurred at Damian’s during his absence. Baptiste laughed and sent him home, which was easy since Mac lived next door to the club.
    He was making up for two-and-a-half days without sleep when stealthy footsteps jarred him out of blessed unconsciousness. Mac came awake with a dagger in his hand, his gaze scanning the