Nicholas said nothing to that. He stared at his wife, probably trying to ascertain if she were serious or not. But he was going to laugh. Georgina could see it in his eyes. He held back only until he saw James’s chagrined look.
Surprisingly, Anthony didn’t join Nicholas in his laughter. He’d either gotten it all out of his system the previous night, or, more likely, he just didn’t want to share anything with the young viscount, even something they both found vastly amusing.
“Reggie, puss,” he said with marked displeasure. “I don’t know whether to strangle you or send you to your room.”
“I don’t have a room here anymore, Tony.”
“Then strangle her,” James said, looking as if he actually meant it, until his eyes dropped to his niece with a mixture of fondness and exasperation. “You did that on purpose, didn’t you, sweet?”
She didn’t even try to deny it. “Well, you two always stand solidly against him, which is hardly fair, now is it, two to one? But don’t be mad at me. I’ve just realized thatI’mgoing to have to listen to his crowing about it a lot more than you will. I live with him, after all.”
That did not, by any means, make it better, when Nicholas Eden was standing there grinning from ear to ear. “Perhaps I ought to come live with you myself, Regan,” James said. “At least until the townhouse Eddie boy found for me is refurbished.”
At that, Nicholas was brought up short. “Over my dead body.”
“That, dear boy, can be arranged.”
And at that moment, Edward joined them. “By the by, James, in all the excitement of your wonderful news, I forgot to mention that a chap stopped by the house this evening looking for you. Would have told him where you could be found except, well, dash it all, he was rather hostile in his inquiry. Figured if he were a friend, he’d have better manners.”
“Did he leave a name?”
“None a’tall. He was a big chap though, very tall, and an American by the sound of him.”
James turned slowly toward Georgina, his brows drawn together, storm clouds gathering in his eyes. “Those barbarous louts you’re related to wouldn’t have followed us here, would they, m’dear?”
Her chin rose a little in defiance of his reaction, but she still couldn’t conceal the amusement that touched her eyes. “My brothers happen to care about me, James, so perhaps if you’ll recall Drew’s and Boyd’s last sight of me on your ship, you’ll have your answer.”
His frame of mind that memorable night of their wedding might have been a little off center with volatile emotions, but he did recall that he’d brought her aboard his ship gagged, and that he’d kept her close to hand, under his arm, actually.
Now he said quietly, but with feeling, “Bloody everlasting hell.”
Chapter Forty-four
“Devil take it, you can’t be serious!” Georgina said furiously. “I have to at least see them. They’ve come all this way—”
“I don’t give a bloody damn how far they’ve come!” James shot back just as furiously.
She hadn’t had a chance to broach the subject of her brothers last night, since she had gone up to her room soon after the elders left, and though she’d waited and waited for James to join her, she’d fallen asleep before he did. Now, this morning, he’d flatly refused to take her to the harbor, flatly refused to arrange a carriage for her when she asked for that instead, and finally told her in words she couldn’t possibly misunderstand, that she wouldn’t be seeing her brothers at all, and that was that.
She drew herself up now and tried to inject some rationality into the discussion by asking calmly, “Would you mind telling me why you’re taking this attitude? You must know they’ve only come here to assure themselves that I’m all right.”
“Like bloody hell!” he snarled, unwilling or unable to be rational, reasonable, or anything moderate just now. “They’ve come to take you back.”
It was a question she could no longer put off. “And isn’t that what you intended all along, to send me back?”
She held her breath while he continued to scowl at her for several long moments. And then he snorted, as if she’d asked something utterly ridiculous.
“Where the deuce did you get that notion from? Have I ever said as much?”
“You didn’t have to. I was at our wedding, remember? You were not an eager groom by any means.”
“What I remember, George, is that you ran off from me without a by-your-leave!”
She blinked in surprise at hearing that brought up at this late date, and not at all in connection with what she’d asked. “Ran off? What I did was go home, James. Thatiswhat I was doing on your ship in the first place—going home.”
“Without telling me!”
“Now that wasn’t my fault. I would have told you, but theTritonhad already sailed by the time Drew was done yelling at me for showing up in Jamaica, when he’d assumed I was at home. Was I supposed to jump overboard just to tell you goodbye?”
