So there was motive to his madness? He’d felt slighted? And for that petty, vengeful little reason, he’d destroyed her reputationandwhat she felt for him? Well, she could be grateful for the latter. To think she’d actually been eating herself up with grief because she thought she would never see him again. Now shewishedshe’d never see him again.
“Oh, well, how thoughtless of me,” she said in a purringly brittle tone as she pushed to her feet, “and soooo easy to rectify.Goodbye, Captain Malory.”
Georgina brushed passed him, ready to make the most splendid exit of her life, and came face-to-face with her brothers, all looking at her, and all having heard every word of her heated exchange with James. Howcouldshe have forgotten they were in the room?
Chapter Thirty-four
“Well now, it’s plain to see that you two arewellacquainted.”
Georgina frowned at Warren’s snide remark, her defenses rising along with her embarrassment and underlying anger. “And what’s that supposed to insinuate, Warren? I spent five weeks on his ship in the capacity of a cabin boy, as he sothoughtfullyinformed you.”
“And in his bed?”
“Oh, are we finally getting around to asking me?” A single brow rose in a perfect imitation of James’s affectation, and she wasn’t even aware that the royal vernacular “we” she had just used was also his habit, not hers. Sarcasm was not her forte, after all, and in attempting it, it was only natural to draw from a master. “And here I thought you didn’t need any further confirmation beyond an admitted pirate’s word. Thatiswhy you four pounced on the man and tried to kill him, isn’t it? Because youbelievedhis every word? It didn’t even once occur to you that he might be lying?”
Clinton and Boyd were feeling enough guilt over that to give themselves away with red faces. She couldn’t see Drew’s reaction behind her, but Warren was obviously feeling justified.
“No man in his right mind would claim lawless activities if it weren’t true.”
“No? If you knew him, Warren, you’d know it’s just like him to admit to something like that whether it was true or not, just for effect and reaction. He thrives on dissension, you see. And besides, who says he’s in his right mind?”
“Now I object to that, George, indeed I do,” James protested mildly from the sofa, where he had moved his sore body. “Furthermore, your dear brothers recognized me, or have you forgotten that?”
“Rot you, James!” she threw over her shoulder at him. “Can’t you keep quiet for a few blasted minutes? You’ve made more than enough contributions to this discussion—”
“This is not a discussion, Georgina,” Clinton interrupted, his voice sternly disapproving. “You were asked a question. You might as well answer it now and save yourself all this procrastinating.”
Georgina groaned inwardly. Therewasno getting around it. And she shouldn’t feel so—so ashamed, but these were her brothers, for God’s sake. You just didn’t tell overly protective brothers that you’d been intimate with a man who wasn’t your husband. Such things weren’t discussed without a great deal of embarrassment even if youweremarried.
For about half a second she considered lying. But there was the proof that would start showing itself soon in the form of her baby. And there was James, who wasn’t likely to let her get away with denying it after he’d taken such pains to make their intimacy known, just to appease the blasted vanity she’d wounded.
Frustrated and backed into a corner, she opted for bravado. “How would you like to hear it? Should I spell it out, or will it suffice to say that in this case, Captain Malory was telling the truth?”
“Ah, hell, Georgie, a blasted pirate?”
“Did Iknowthat, Boyd?”
“An Englishman!” from Drew.
“Now there’s a fact I couldn’t miss,” she said dryly. “It comes out of his mouth with every word he speaks.”
“Don’t get snippy, Georgie,” Clinton warned her. “Your choice in men is deplorable.”
“At least she’s consistent,” Warren interjected. “From bad to worse.”
“I don’t think they like me, George,” James put his two cents in.
It was the last straw, as far as she was concerned. “You can all just stop it. So I made a mistake. I’m sure I’m not the first woman to do so, and I won’t be the last. But at least I’m not foolishly blinded anymore. I know now that he set out to seduce me from the start, something the lot of you practice on a regular basis, so you’d be hypocrites to blame him for that. He was very subtle about it, so subtle I didn’t know what he was doing. But then I was under the misconception that he thought I was a boy, which I now know to be false.Ihave reason to be furious, but you don’t, since I can picture at least half of you doing exactly as James did if presented with similar circumstances. But regardless of the ways and means, I was a willing participant. I knew exactly what I was doing. My conscience can attest to that.”
“Yourwhat?”
“Well said, George,” James remarked behind her, rather amazed at how she’d blamed and defended in the same breath. “But I’m sure they’d much rather have heard that you were raped, or in some other dastardly way taken advantage of.”
She swung about, eyes narrowed on the cause of her woes. “Youdon’tthink I was taken advantage of?”
“Hardly, dear girl. I wasn’t the one who confessed to being nauseous.”
She flamed red, noticeably red, at that reminder. Oh, God, he wasn’t going to tell them aboutthat, was he?
