“Well, let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. We are reasonable men, after all.”
“Warren isn’t.” Drew grinned.
“James isn’t, either.” Georgina frowned.
“But I’d like to think the rest of us are,” Thomas said. “We
will
settle this thing, Georgie, I promise you, even if your James has to be reminded that he provoked our hostilities in the first place.”
“Well, that’s sure to make him amiable.”
“Is she being sarcastic?” Drew asked Thomas.
“She’s being difficult,” Thomas replied.
“I’m allowed,” Georgina retorted, scowling darkly at them both. “It’s not every day that I get abducted by my own brothers.”
T
homas and Drew had managed to convince Georgina, somehow, to remain in the cabin so they wouldn’t have to lock her in again. But an hour had passed since they’d left her, and she was beginning to wonder why she was going along with their crazy scheme when she knew very well it wasn’t going to work on someone of James’s unpredictable temperament. You just didn’t force him to do something against his will and expect him to blithely go along with it. He was more likely to dig in his heels and
never
change his mind about allowing her to see her family…that was assuming he got her back, which wasn’t a guaranteed outcome just now. After all, her brothers could be stubborn, too.
Why was she just sitting here, waiting for circumstances to determine her future, when all she had to do was sneak off the
Nereus
and make her own way home to James? After all, it would be easy to find a hack on the dock, and she was still wearing the same clothes she’d made her escape in yesterday, so her pockets were still lined with the money that both Regina and Roslynn had forced on her when they’d learned that James was deliberately keeping her without funds. And for all she knew, James might have already had a change of heart after she’d proven to him yesterday how serious she was about seeing her
family again. She’d never gotten a chance to argue that out with him last night. Warren’s high-handed abduction of her just might have ruined whatever headway her risk taking had gained her.
Annoyed now that she’d backslided into letting her brothers make her decisions for her again, she was on her way to the door when it opened, and Drew announced grimly, “You’d better come up. He’s arrived.”
“James?”
“The one and only. And Warren’s furious that Malory actually managed to get on board when he had his crew watching for him just so he could prevent it.” Drew grinned then, despite the seriousness of the situation. “I think our brother expected James to bring an army with him, and that’s what everyone was watching for. But your Englishman is either fearless or foolhardy, because he’s come alone.”
“Where’s Thomas?”
“Sorry, sweetheart, but our mediator left to meet Clinton.”
She didn’t waste any more time after hearing that. God, they’d probably killed each other already, without Thomas there to help control Warren’s temper. But when she rushed on deck, it was merely to hear Warren ordering James to get off his ship. But that didn’t mean violence wouldn’t follow. Warren was up on the quarterdeck, gripping the rail, his body stiff with malice. James had gotten no more than a few feet on deck before a solid line of sailors had appeared to block him from going any farther.
Georgina started straight for James, but Drew yanked her back and pushed her toward the quarter
deck instead. “Give the plan a chance, Georgie. What harm can it do? Besides, they won’t let you get to him, anymore than they’re going to let him through. They’ve got their orders, which only Warren can rescind, so if you want to talk to your husband, you know whose permission you’ll have to get first…unless of course, you’re up to shouting back and forth at him.”
Drew was grinning after that.
He
was finding this amusing, the rogue. She wasn’t, and neither was anyone else, in particular James. Finally able to see him clearly from the quarterdeck, she thought he looked like hell warmed over.
He felt like it, too, though she didn’t know that. Waking up with a head-pounding hangover, discovering he’d passed out in the parlor along with all six of last night’s drinking companions, then girding himself for the confrontation with his wife only to find her gone again—this had
not
put him in a very good mood. The only thing that he could look on with favor this morning was that he’d already discovered where the three Skylark ships were berthed, and the first one he’d boarded happened to be the one his wife was hiding on. And that she was hiding wasn’t the worst of his conclusions. He had little doubt that she’d decided to leave him to go home with her brothers. Why else would she be here?
Georgina had no idea what conclusions James had drawn, but actually, it wouldn’t have mattered if she did. She still had to defuse this situation before it got out of hand, no matter who he was furious with.
“Warren, please—” she began as she came up beside him, but he didn’t even glance down at her.
“Stay out of this, Georgie,” was all he said.
“I can’t. He’s my husband.”
“That can and will be rectified.”
She gritted her teeth over such hard-nosed stubbornness. “Didn’t you hear a single thing I said to you last night?”
But by then James had noticed her appearance, and was heard to bellow, “George, you are
not
leaving!”
Oh, God, did he have to sound so arbitrary? How could she reason with Warren when James was standing down there making belligerent demands? And Drew was right. She would have to shout to him if she wanted to talk to him, and how could she say anything personal that way? And if Thomas was to be believed—and looking at Warren she didn’t doubt it—even if she could get James to concede, Warren still wouldn’t let her go back to him. Without the rest of her brothers there to back her up, nothing could be settled one way or the other. Drew might be there, but he’d never been able to sway Warren to anything, so he’d be no help.
She’d waited too long to answer James. He’d begun taking matters into his own hands, or fists, rather.
He’d already flattened two of Warren’s crew when Warren shouted, “Throw him o—”
Georgina’s elbow meeting her brother’s ribs cut him off temporarily. The glowing fury that had leaped into her eyes kept him quiet a bit longer. And she was furious now, not just with him, but James, too. Double-damned idiots! How dare they totally ignore her wishes, as if it weren’t
her
future that was at issue here?
“James Malory, stop it right now!” she shouted down to the deck just as another sailor went flying.
“Then get down here, George!”
“I can’t,” she said, and meant to add “not yet,” but he didn’t give her a chance to finish.
“What you can’t do is leave me!”
He was thrown back. There were still six crewmen standing against him. That wasn’t deterring him in the least, however, which only infuriated her the more. The fool man was going to get tossed in the river yet.
She might do it herself. She was, after all, fed up with being told what she could or couldn’t do. “And why can’t I leave you?”
“Because I love you!”
He hadn’t even paused in throwing another punch to shout that. Georgina, however, went very still, and breathless, and nearly sat down on the deck, her knees had gone so weak with the incredible emotion that welled up inside her.
“Did you hear that?” she whispered to Warren.
“The whole blasted harbor heard it,” he grouched. “But it doesn’t make the least bit of difference.”
Her eyes rounded in disbelief. “You must be joking! It makes all the difference in the world, because I love him, too.”
“You wanted Cameron, too. You don’t know what you want.”
“I’m not
her
, Warren.” He looked away at the mention of the woman who had played him so false, the one who was responsible for the cold way he treated women now, but Georgina caught his face between her hands, forcing him to look into her eyes.
“I love you. I know you’re trying to do right by me, but you have to trust me on this, Warren. Malcolm was a child’s fancy. James is my life. He’s all that I want, all that I’ll ever want. Don’t try and keep me from him any longer, please.”
“Are we supposed to just stand back and let him keep you from us? That’s what he means to do, you know. We’ll never see you again if he has his way!”
She smiled now, knowing she’d swayed him, that he was merely objecting now to what she knew they all feared. “Warren, he loves me. You heard him. I’ll see it set right, but let
me
do it. You only manage to bring out the worst in him.”
With total ill grace: “Oh, for God’s sake, go on then!”
She gave a glad cry and hugged him, but wasted not another second in swinging round…and slamming right into a brick wall.
“So you love me, do you?”
She didn’t wonder how he’d gotten up there. A few loud groans from the lower deck told that story. She didn’t care, either, that he’d obviously heard what she’d told her brother. She just took advantage of the fact that she was already pressed tightly to him, and slipped her arms around him to keep it that way.
“You’re not going to yell at me in front of my brothers, are you?”
“I wouldn’t dream of it, brat.”
But he wasn’t smiling, and he wasn’t staying there. She gasped as he swung her up into his arms and turned to leave.
“It would go over much better if it didn’t look like you were
taking
me away,” she told him.
“I
am
taking you away, dear girl.”
Well, all right. She hadn’t really thought the rest was going to be easy.
“At least invite them to dinner.”
“Like hell I will.”
“James!”
There was a low growl deep in his chest, but he stopped and turned back. Only it was Drew he looked at, not Warren. “You’re bloody well invited to dinner!”
“For God’s sake,” she said as he continued on his way. “That was the most graceless, ill—”
“Shut up, George. You haven’t seen it
set right
yet.”
She winced, wishing he hadn’t heard that bit of confidence on her part. Yet she was confident. He’d already made the first concession, with ill grace, true, but it was a definite start.
“James?”
“Umm?”
“You’re going to enjoy my efforts to make you give in.”
One golden brow crooked as he glanced down at her. “I am, am I?”
She ran a finger slowly over his lower lip. “You are.”
He stopped right there on the dock, a long way yet from his carriage, and started kissing her. Georgian wasn’t sure how they got home.
“J
ames, shouldn’t we go down? The carriages have been arriving for the last hour.”
“That’s my family showing up for this momentous occasion. With luck, yours won’t find the house.”
She twisted a lock of his golden hair about her finger and gently tugged. “You aren’t still going to be difficult, are you?”
“I’m never difficult, love. You just haven’t convinced me yet to forgive your brothers.”
Her eyes flared, then flared some more when he rolled over on the bed, putting her beneath him again. Her temper wanted to flare, too, but when James rested between her thighs, anger was the farthest thing from her mind.
Still, she reminded him, “You invited them here.”
“I invited them, but it’s Tony’s house. He can bloody well kick them out.”
“James!”
“So convince me.”
The horrid man was grinning at her, and she couldn’t help grinning back. “You’re impossible. I never should have said that you’d enjoy this.”
“But you did…and I am.”
She giggled as his lips trailed along her neck, then down to capture the peak of one already pebbled nipple. But then she gasped as her desire ignited fully,
pulled from her with the suction of his mouth. Her hands moved down over his back, loving the feel of him, all of him, everywhere.
“James…James, tell me again.”
“I love you, my darling girl.”
“When?”
“When what?”
“When did you know?”
His mouth came back to hers for a long, deeply stirring kiss before he replied, “I’ve always known m’dear. Why do you think I married you?”
Carefully, hating to mention it at a moment like this, she reminded him, “You were forced to marry me.”
One kiss, one grin, and he said, “I forced your family to force me, George. There is a difference.”
“You did
what?
”
“Now, love—”
“James Malory—”
“Well, what the bloody hell else could I do?” he asked indignantly. “I’d sworn I’d never get leg-shackled. The whole bloody world knew it. So I couldn’t forswear myself and actually ask you, now could I? But I remembered how that bounder my darling niece calls husband got himself wed, and I figured what’s good enough for him would do me as well.”
“I don’t believe I’m hearing this. All deliberate? They beat you senseless! Had you counted on that?”
“The price one pays to get what he wants.”
Hearing that, the heat went right out of her, the angry heat, that is. The other kind was coming back.
But she shook her head at him. “You amaze me. I always suspected you were a madman.”
“Just a determined man, love. But I was bloody well amazed myself. I don’t know how you did it, but you crawled into my heart and wouldn’t get out. I’m learning to accept your presence there, however.”
“Oh, you are, are you? It’s not too crowded?”
“There’s room for a few offspring to join you there.” He grinned at her.
And that got him a kiss, until she recalled, “So why did you have to confess to being the Hawke? They were already determined that you would marry me.”
“Are you forgetting they’d recognized me?”
“I could have convinced them they were mistaken if you’d kept your mouth shut,” she huffed.
He shrugged. “It seemed only reasonable to get it out of the way, George, rather than let it cause unpleasantness later, after we’d settled into married bliss.”