“Yourmemory might get mucked up with sentiment, Thomas,” Warren said. “But I very clearly heard the man’s confession. And I’ll damned well bear witness to it.”
“Your strategy boggles the mind, Yanks. Which is it to be? Vindictiveness or vindication? Or are you under the misconception that the one complements the other?”
James’s mordant humor threw sparks on Warren’s frothing enmity. “There won’t be any vindication if I have anything to say about it, and there’s no need to dangle that carrot before you,Hawke.” The name was said with such contempt, it had the distinct sound of an epithet. “There’s still your ship and your crew. And if you don’t care about the one, what you decide right now will determine whether your crew should be brought up on charges alongside you.”
It took a considerable lot to overset the smooth urbanity of James’s personality these days. He’d long ago mastered the dangerous temper of his youth, and although he still got angry occasionally, it took someone who’d known him for years to even notice. But you didn’t threaten his family and hope to come away unscathed, and half of his crew was like family to him.
He started toward Warren slowly. Georgina, watching him, had a suspicion that her brother had prodded him too far, but not that the dangerous capabilities she and Mac had both sensed in the man at their first meeting had just been unleashed.
Even his voice was deceiving in its soft abrasion as he warned, “You go beyond your rights as pertains to this business in bringing my ship and crew into it.”
Warren snorted with disdain. “If she’s a British vessel lurking in our waters? Furthermore, a ship suspected of piracy? We are clearly within our rights.”
“Then so am I.”
It happened so fast, everyone in the room was held momentarily in shock, in particular Warren, who felt the incredibly strong hands tightening inexorably around his throat. He was no weakling himself, but his fingers couldn’t break the hold. Clinton and Drew, each jumping forward to grab one of James’s arms, couldn’t manage to pull him off, either. And James’s fingers were slowly, relentlessly squeezing.
Warren’s face was purpling vividly before Thomas found something heavy enough to knock James unconscious with. But he didn’t have to use it. Georgina, with her heart in her throat, had leaped on James’s back and was screaming in his ear, “James, please, he’s my brother!” and the man simply let go.
Clinton and Drew did likewise, to catch Warren as he started sinking to the floor. They helped him to the nearest chair, examined his neck, and decided nothing was crushed. He was coughing now as he labored to fill his starved lungs.
Georgina slid off James’s back, still shaken by what he’d almost done. Her anger hadn’t set in yet, but as he turned to face her, she saw that his was still in full bloom.
“I could have snapped his bloody neck in two seconds! Do you know that?”
She cringed under the blast of his rage. “Yes, I—I think we do.”
For a moment he just glared at her. She had the feeling that he hadn’t released nearly enough of his anger on Warren, that he had a good store of it in reserve for her. It blazed from his eyes, showed in the tension in his big body.
But after the intense moment passed, he surprised her and everyone else in the room by growling, “Then bring on your parson before I’m tempted again.”
It took less than five minutes to locate the good Reverend Teal, who was a guest at the party still going on in the rest of the house. So in short order, Georgina was married to James Malory, viscount of Ryding, retired pirate and God only knew what else. It was not exactly how she had imagined her wedding would be, all those years she had thought about it as she waited patiently for Malcolm to return to her. Patiently? No, she realized now it had been merely indifference. But there was nothing of indifference in any of the occupants gathered in the study.
James had given in, but with complete ill grace. Resentment and ire were just a few of the inappropriate emotions he was displaying at his wedding. And Georgina’s brothers were no better, absolutely determined to see her married, but hating every minute of it, and showing every bit of it. For herself, she’d realized she couldn’t play stubborn and let her pride prevent this farce as she wanted, not with a baby to think about who would benefit from its father’s name.
She’d wondered briefly if anyone’s attitude would change if they knew about the baby, but she doubted it. James was being forced to marry either way, and there was no getting around that humiliating fact. Maybe afterward it might make a difference to him, lighten the blow, as it were. She’d have to tell him sometime, she supposed…or maybe she wouldn’t, if Warren had his way.
And he had his way the moment the good reverend pronounced them man and wife. “Lock him up. He’s already had all the wedding nights he’s going to get.”
Chapter Thirty-five
“You don’t really think that will work again, do you, Georgie?”
Georgina poked her head over Clinton’s desk where she’d been trying to break into the locked drawer. Drew was standing there, shaking his dark golden head at her. Boyd stood next to him, looking baffled over Drew’s question.
Georgina stood up slowly, furious that she’d been caught. Double-damn, she’d been so sure they’d all gone to bed. And Drew was too discerning by half, having guessed what she was up to. She brazened it out anyway.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Aye, you do, sweetheart.” Drew grinned at her. “Even if you got your hands on it, that vase becomes insignificant next to what that Englishman did to you. Warren would sacrifice the vase rather than let Captain Hawke go.”
“I wish you wouldn’t call him that,” she said, wearily dropping into the chair behind the desk.
“Am I hearing this right?” Boyd demanded. “You want to let that blackguard go free, Georgie?”
Her chin rose a notch. “What if I do? All of you have overlooked the fact that James came here because of me. If he hadn’t, he wouldn’t have been recognized by you and Thomas, wouldn’t be locked in the cellar right now. Do you think my conscience could bear it if he goes to trial and gets sentenced to hang?”
“He could also be cleared in a trial if Thomas has anything to do about it,” Boyd pointed out.
