“I’m not taking that chance.”
Drew’s brows narrowed speculatively. “Do you love him, Georgie?”
“What nonsense,” she scoffed.
“Thank God.” His sigh was quite loud. “I’d truly thought you’d lost your senses.”
“Well, if I did,” she retorted stiffly, “I’ve thankfully regained them. But I’m still not going to let Warren and Clinton have their way.”
“Clinton couldn’t care less that he’s the infamous Hawke,” Drew said. “He just wants him never to darken our door again. He’s still smarting that he couldn’t get the better of him.”
“Neither could you two, but I haven’t heard you calling for the rope.”
Boyd chuckled. “You’ve got to be kidding, Georgie. Weren’t you watching the man? We were so outclassed, it was a joke even trying to take him on. There’s no shame in losing to someone that skilled with his fists.”
Drew just smiled. “Boyd’s right. There’s a lot to admire in the man, if he weren’t so—so—”
“Antagonizing? Insulting? Disparaging in his every remark?” Georgina almost laughed. “I hate to be the one to tell you, but that happens to be the way he isallthe time, even to his close friends.”
“But that would drive me crazy,” Boyd exclaimed. “Didn’t it you?”
Georgina shrugged. “Once you get used to it, it’s kind of amusing. But as habits go, it’s a dangerous one, since he simply doesn’t care if he rubs someone the wrong way…like tonight. But regardless of his habits, or his past crimes, or anything else, I don’t think he’s been dealt with fairly by us.”
“Fair enough,” Boyd insisted, “considering what he did to you.”
“Let’s not bring me into this. You don’t hang a man for seducing a woman, or you’d both be in trouble yourselves, wouldn’t you?” Boyd had the grace to blush, but Drew just grinned maddeningly. “I’ll put it another way,” Georgina continued, giving Drew a disgusted look. “I don’t care if he was a pirate, I don’t want him to hang. And his crew should never have been brought into it, either. He was right about that.”
“Maybe so, but I don’t see what you can do about it,” Boyd replied. “What you’ve said isn’t going to make the least bit of difference to Warren.”
“He’s right,” Drew added. “You might as well go to bed and hope for the best.”
“I can’t do that,” she said simply and slumped back in her chair.
She was starting to feel that insidious panic again that had brought her in here to try desperate measures. She forced it back. Panic didn’t help. She had to think. And then it came to her as she watched her two youngest brothers head toward the liquor cabinet, likely what had brought them both here. She wasn’t surprised they needed a little help sleeping tonight, as bruised as they both were. She tried not to think of how much worse James had been injured.
She began by stating the facts. “James is your brother-in-law now. You all saw to that. Will you two help?”
“You want us to wrestle the key away from Warren?” Drew grinned. “I’m all for that.”
Boyd, in the process of taking a sip of brandy, choked. “Don’t even think about it!”
“That’s not what I had in mind,” Georgina clarified. “There’s no reason for either of you to get in Warren’s bad graces, no reason for him to know that any of us did anything, for that matter.”
“I suppose we could break that old lock on the cellar door easy enough,” Drew allowed.
“No, that won’t do, either,” Georgina said. “James won’t leave without his crew or his ship, but he’s in no condition to free either one. He maythinkhe is, but—”
“So you want us to help him with that, too?”
“That’s just it. As angry as he is just now, I honestly don’t think he’d accept your help. He’d try to do it all himself and end up caught again. But if we free his ship and crew first, then it will be an easy matter for them to break James out and help him back to his ship. Then they’ll be gone by morning, and Warren will have to assume that his men missed one or two of them, who were able to help the rest escape.”
“And what about the guard Warren has left on theMaiden Annewho will tell him exactly who came aboard?”
“Those men can’t tell him if they don’t recognize anyone,” Georgina said confidently. “I’ll explain on our way there. Just give me a few minutes to change my clothes.”
As she came around the desk, though, Drew grabbed her arm to ask softly, “Will you go with him?”
There was no hesitation or emotion in her reply, “No, he doesn’t want me.”
