Itwastoo much, and just enough for Georgina’s oft-denied temper to explode for real. “Tell this wretched child of yours to let go of me, James Malory, or I’m going to kick him where it will really hurt!”
“Oh, I say, does she mean what I think she means?”
“Shut up, Percy,” someone said, Derek probably.
Georgina barely heard. She marched over to James, dragging Jeremy with her, because the scampstillhadn’t let go, and glared up at her husband, totally ignoring Anthony, Connie, and George Amherst, who crowded around him.
“I don’t give a fig what you say about it, so there!” she told him.
“Dare I ask, about what?”
“About where I went. If you hadn’t been an unnatural husband—”
“Unnatural?”
“Yes, unnatural! Denying me my own family. What is that if not unnatural?”
“Prudence.”
“Oh! Very well, maintain your ridiculous stand. But if you hadn’t beenprudent, then I wouldn’t have resorted to desperate measures, so before you get all hot under the collar, consider who’s actually at fault here.”
All James did was turn to Jeremy and ask, “Where did you find her?”
Georgina could have screamed at that point. She’d been trying to shake off Jeremy’s hand while she’d had her say but still couldn’t, and heaping guilt on James’s shoulders didn’t appear to have worked, either. And now the scamp would have his say, and she wouldn’t be surprised if James throttled her right there in front of brother, nephew, son, and assorted friends, all of whom were onhisside and not likely to lift a finger to her aid.
But then she gasped, finding herself jerked behind Jeremy’s broad back and hearing him say to his father, “It’s not as bad as you might be thinking. She was on the waterfront, aye, but she was well protected. She’d hired her own carriage and had these two huge, monstrously huge, drivers who weren’t letting anyone get near—”
“What a clanker,” Percy interrupted, chuckling to himself. “How’d she run smack into Derek’s arms, then, to almost get herself kissed?”
Derek, flushing from hot pink to hot red, reached over and grabbed Percy’s cravat, twisting it around his hand until the poor man was almost choking. “Are you calling my cousin a liar?” he snarled, his eyes a true green now, foretelling just how upset he was.
“Gad, no! Wouldn’t dream of it,” Percy quickly assured him, yet his confusion was evident, and he was heard to protest, “But I wasthereDerek. Ought to know what I seen.” The cravat twisted tighter. “Then again, what do I know?”
“Gentlemen, if you please,” Anthony’s dry tones entered the dispute. “My wife deplores bloodshed in her hall.”
Georgina, well shielded by Jeremy’s tall form, was sorry for all the bad thoughts she’d had of the lad. She’d already realized he’d kept hold of her to protect her from his father’s wrath, rather than to assure that she couldn’t escape it as she’d thought. He’d even lied for her, which had just endeared him to her for all time, but thanks to that double-damned Percy, it was all for naught.
She was afraid now to peek around his shoulder to see how James was taking all of this. He’d frowned when he first saw her, but other than that, he’d displayed his usual imperturbability, had just stood there and listened to her tell him what was what without showing the least bit of emotion.
From where she stood, or cowered, as the case were, she could see Anthony to one side of James, Connie on the other. Connie was grinning at her, plainly enjoying the situation. Anthony appeared to be bored with it all, a reaction that was usually James’s, but she didn’t think James would be showing the same just now. And when she felt Jeremy tense in front of her, she guessed she was right. And when Jeremy turned around and whispered to her, “I think you better run now,” she knew it for certain.
James didn’t move as he watched her race up the stairs, merely noting that she’d hiked her skirt up to accomplish her flight, leaving not only her ankles but her calves on display for everyone to see, and a glance about the hall told him everyone was indeed seeing, and admiring, which brought more fire to his eyes than had already been there. Not until the door slammed upstairs did his eyes return to Jeremy, the only one who hadn’t watched Georgina’s exit, who’d been warily watching his father instead.
“Switched loyalties, have you, lad?” James said very quietly.
It was the softness of his tone that had Jeremy squirming and blurting out, “Well, I didn’t want to see you going through what Uncle Tony did, just because you might get a little angry with the wench, and she might get a lot angry back at you. She’s got a bloody temper if you ain’t noticed.”
“You thought I’d have to find a new bed, is that it?”
“Something like that.”
Hearing his past difficulties aired so nonchalantly, Anthony let his assumed boredom drop clean away with a choking sound and then a growl, “If your father don’t blister your hide, youngun, I’m bloody well thinking of doing it!”
But Jeremy wasn’t concerned with his uncle’s chagrin just now, real or not. “What are you going to do?” he asked his father.
As if it were a foregone conclusion, James replied, “I’m going to go up and beat my wife, of course.”
No matter how mildly he’d said it, six voices rose in immediate protest. James almost laughed, it was so absurd. They knew him better than that, or ought to, yet even Anthony was suggesting he think about it first. He hadn’t said another word, or made a move to do as he’d said, but they were still arguing their points when Dobson opened the front door again and Warren Anderson pushed past him.
