“I need a bloody drink,” was James’s only response, and he headed back into the parlor to find one.
Much as he would have liked it otherwise, the whole lot of them followed. By the time the rest of the congratulations had died down, James was on his way to being quite foxed.
“Little George wasn’t too far off the mark when she described her brothers, was she?” Anthony remarked, still quite amused over the whole affair. “Are they all as big as that one?”
“Just about,” James mumbled.
“He’ll be back, you know,” Anthony speculated. “And likely with reinforcements.”
James disagreed. “The others happen to be a bit more levelheaded. Not by much, mind you, but a bit. They’ll go home now. What can they do, after all? She’s my wife. They saw to it.”
Anthony chuckled, not believing a word of it. “That ghastly word’s coming easier to you, is it?”
“What word?”
“Wife.”
“Go to the devil.”
Chapter Forty-six
Georgina couldn’t believe it. He’d locked her in. And no matter how much she’d pounded on the door all through the night, finally giving up in exhaustion, no one had come to let her out. And they were still ignoring her this morning. HowcouldWarren do this to her? And after she’d defied her husband’s dictates just to relieve his mind about her welfare.
She wished now that she’d never heard his voice last night, raised so loud as he shouted at her husband in the hall below. But she did, and of course it had drawn her out of her room with every intention of rushing right down to him.
But before she’d reached the stairs, she’d heard James refuse to let Warren see her, and she knew she’d only get him angrier at her than he already was if she just went down to join them. So she thought she’d been real clever in deciding to sneak out the back way once again so she could come around to wait for Warren to leave. And she didn’t doubt that he’d be leaving. James’s refusal had been more than adamant.
So she’d waited out front and surprised Warren when he stormed out of the house. She’d wanted to assure him she was all right. She’d wanted to tell him not to worry about her anymore. She hadn’t expected him to thrust her into his carriage and drive off with her. Devil take it, why couldn’t James have thought to lock her in instead, then she wouldn’t be here, on Warren’s ship, panicking because he had every intention of taking her home, not to James, but to Connecticut. And he wouldn’t listen to the fact that she didn’t want to go. He hadn’t listened to anything she’d had to say. She was afraid, too, that he wasn’t even going to tell the rest of her brothers that he had her!
In that she was wrong, as she found when the door opened and Thomas stepped into the cabin. “Thank God” were her first words, because it was her one brother who didn’t let temper affect his judgments.
“My sentiments exactly, sweetheart,” he said as he held out his arms to her and she quickly entered them. “We’d about given up hope of finding you.”
“No, I didn’t mean…” She leaned back to demand, “Did you know Warren had locked me in?”
“He did mention it last night when he returned to the hotel and told us what had happened.”
She pushed away from him. “You mean you left me here all night!”
“Calm down, sweetheart. There was no point in letting you out sooner, when you aren’t going anywhere.”
“The devil I’m not!” she said furiously on her way to the door. “I’m going home!”
“I don’t think so, Georgie.” This from Drew, who appeared in the doorway right then to effectively cut off her exit. To Thomas, he said, “Well, she looks fit enough, doesn’t she? No bruises. Spitting mad.”
Georgina felt like spitting, or screaming. Instead she took a deep breath, took another, then asked in a perfectly calm voice, “Warren didn’t tell you, did he, that I wasn’t in need of rescuing? Right? He forgot to mention that I’m in love with my husband? Is that why neither of you bothered to let me out of here sooner?”
“He didn’t mention the love part, no,” Thomas admitted. “I seriously doubt he believes it. But he did say you’d demanded to be taken back to your husband. He thinks you’re suffering under misplaced loyalty because you’re going to have the man’s baby. How are you feeling, by the way?”
“I’m…How did you know?”
“Malory told Warren, of course. He used that as one of the reasons he’s keeping you.”
One of the reasons? It was probably the only reason, and why hadn’t she thought of that before? Because she’d begun to think James really hadn’t heard her when she’d told him about the baby, since he’d never once mentioned it to her.
She moved over to the bed and sat down, trying to fight the depression that was sneaking up on her. She couldn’t let the reasons matter, she just couldn’t. She loved James Malory enough for the both of them. And as long as he wanted to keep her, then she wanted to stay with him. There, that settled that. So why didn’t she feel any better?
Thomas startled her when he sat down next to her. “What did I say to upset you, Georgie?”
