“Actually, it’s not. Warren takes your welfare very personally, perhaps more personally than any of the rest of us do, because youarethe only woman he cares about. If you take that into consideration, then it’s not so surprising, this hostility he feels for your husband, particularly after everything the man said and did when he showed up in Bridgeport.”
“Whydidhe set out to ruin your reputation that night, Georgie?” Drew asked her curiously.
She made a face of disgust. “He felt slighted because I sailed off with you without saying goodbye to him.”
“You must be joking,” Thomas said. “He didn’t strike me as a man who would go to such extremes for petty revenge.”
“I’m just telling you what he told me.”
“Then why don’t you ask him again. You’ll probably hear a completely different reason.”
“I’d rather not. You don’t know how infuriated that night still makes him. After all, you men throttled him, married him off, confiscated his ship,andlocked him in a cellar to await hanging. I don’t dare mention your names to him.” Saying all that made her realize how hopeless their plan really was. “Devil take it, he’snotgoing to change his mind, you know. What he’ll probably do is bringhiswhole family down here and tear this ship apart.”
“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. “Wewillsettle 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.”
Chapter Forty-seven
Thomas 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 andneverchange 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 theNereusand 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 quarterdeck 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.Hewas 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 hadnotput 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.
