And when James dropped the news on them? Well, at least their disbelief didn’t last nearly as long as Anthony’s.
“I had doubts that Tony would ever settle down, but James? Good God, he was a lost cause,” Jason commented.
“I’m amazed, James,” Edward said, “but of course delighted, absolutely delighted.”
Georgina couldn’t doubt her welcome into the family. Both older brothers looked at her as if she were a miracle worker. Of course, they hadn’t been told yet the rest of the circumstances of her marriage, and Anthony, for once, kept his mouth shut. But she couldn’t help wondering why James was letting them all think that everything was swell-dandy-fine.
It would be rather awkward for him to explain if he sent her home now, but she knew that wouldn’t stop him if he was going to. So was he going to? If the question weren’t so damned important, she’d put herself out of misery and ask it again, and pray that this time she’d get a straight answer. But if he didn’t have plans to live with her permanently, she really didn’t want to know it now, when she was starting to have hope again.
Edward had arrived with his wife, Charlotte, and Amy, the youngest of his five children. The others all had had previous commitments, but had promised to drop by during the week. Derek, Jason’s only son, was supposedly out of town, likely committing deviltry—word was he was fast following in his younger uncles’ footsteps—at least no one had been able to locate him. And Jason’s wife, Frances, never came to London, so her absence was not unexpected. Regina had, in fact, confided that Frances had only endured marriage to provide Derek and Regina with a mother figure, and now that they were grown, she preferred to live separately from her austere husband.
“Don’t worry, you’ll figure out who’s who in no time,” Roslynn had assured her. “It’s when dear Charlotte regales you with theton’s latest scandals that you’ll get confused. Somany, you know, and yet you’re likely to meet everyone involved eventually.”
Meet the cream of England’s aristocracy? She could do without that, thank you. And yet she nearly choked with wry humor when she realized that aside from Connie and Jeremy, every single person in the roomwasa titled aristocrat, herself now included. And irony of ironies, she didn’t find them the least bit contemptible, snobbish, or unlikable…well, with the possible exception of her youngest brother-in-law. Anthony, with his provoking taunts and innuendos, was not endearing himself to her at all. Quite the opposite.
It wasn’t much later, however, that Georgina had her first opportunity to see how Malorys banded together. No sooner did Nicholas Eden, viscount of Montieth, walk into the room, than Anthony and James stopped going for each other’s throats and went for his instead.
“You’re late, Eden,” Anthony greeted him with cool curtness. “And here I was hoping you’d forgotten where I live.”
“I’ve tried, old man, but the wife keeps reminding me,” Nicholas replied, his tight smile anything but congenial. “You don’t think Ilikecoming here, d’you?”
“Well, you’d best pretend otherwise, puppy. Your wife has noticed that you’ve arrived, and you know how annoyed she gets when she sees you provoking her dear uncles.”
“Meprovoking?” The poor man nearly choked in strangled outrage.
But when he glanced over to where Regina was embroiled in conversation with Amy and Charlotte, his whole countenance changed. She signaled she’d join him in a minute. He winked and smiled at her with unbelievable tenderness. Georgina was trying to be neutral, even though she’d heard the stories about why these three men were so at odds with one another and thought it ridiculous that it had gone on for more than a year. But after just watching that tender exchange, she favored Nicholas Eden’s side…until he turned back to the three of them and his eyes lit on James.
“Back so soon? And here I’d so been hoping you’d sink at sea or something.”
James actually chuckled. “Sorry to disappoint you, lad, but I had precious cargo this trip, so was extra careful. And how have you been? Sleeping on the couch lately?”
Nicholas scowled. “Not since you’ve been gone, you bloody sod, but I suppose that will change now,” he grumbled.
“Depend upon it, dear boy.” James grinned devilishly. “We do love to assist in a good cause, after all.”
“You’re all heart, Malory.” And then those amber eyes dropped to Georgina, standing between the brothers, but with James’s arm draped over her shoulders. “And who is this, as if I need to ask?”
The insinuation was clear, and Georgina bristled at being demoted back to mistress. But before she could think of a scathing enough reply, and before James could retaliate even more harshly, Anthony came to her defense, shocking not only her, but Nicholas, too.
“Get that sneer out of your tone, Eden,” he said, his anger all the more telling for its quietness. “That’s my sister-in-law you’re dragging through the gutter of your thoughts.”
“I beg your pardon,” Nicholas said to Georgina, thoroughly embarrassed and contrite to have made such a horrid mistake. And yet his confusion quickly took over. To Anthony, he said, with a good deal of suspicion that he might have just had his leg pulled, “I thought your wife was an only child.”
“She is.”
“Then how can she be…?” Those beautiful amber eyes jumped back to James, widened incredulously now. “Oh, Good God, you can’t meanyou’vetaken a wife! You must have had to sail to the ends of the earth to find a woman who wouldn’t be scared off by your sordid reputation.” He looked to Georgina again to add, “Did youknowyou were getting a bloody pirate for a husband?”
“Thatwasmentioned before the wedding, I believe,” she answered wryly.
“And did you know that he carries grudges to the ends of time?”
“I’m beginning to see why,” she countered, causing both Anthony and James to burst into laughter.
Nicholas grudgingly smiled. “Very good, m’dear, but did you also know he is a philandering rogue, so jaded—?”
James interrupted at that point with a soft growl, “Keep it up, lad, and you’ll force me to—”
“Force you?” Regina said as she came up beside her husband to slip her arm through his. “Youtoldhim, Uncle James? Famous! I could have sworn that was one little tidbit you wouldn’t have wanted Nicholas, of all people, to know about. After all, you do so hate to have anything in common with him, and that you were both forced to wed is having alotin common, isn’t it?”
