Gabrielle felt her body tense up. She was certain that upon seeing the expression on James’s face, any other man would have backed off and run the other way. But the two Americans just laughed at their reminiscing. They really weren’t afraid of James Malory. Because he was their brother-in-law? Actually, as they continued ribbing him, she realized it was because they’d tangled with him before and lived to tell the tale.
“Malory, you are, without a doubt, superlative with those lethal fists of yours,” Boyd said with some very real admiration.
“Don’t ever mention that in front of my brother Tony,” James replied. “He thinks he’s as good as I am in the ring.”
“Now, that’s a fight I’d love to see,” Boyd said. “And wasn’t Warren taking lessons from him there for a while?”
James nodded. “Your brother Warren was determined to take me on.”
“Did he ever get around to it, before he owned up that he was in love with your niece?” Drew asked curiously.
“Indeed. One of my fonder memories, too, that fight.”
“Warren was always pretty good with his fists. We rarely beat him, Drew and I. And you took him by surprise, that time you fought us all in our home in Bridgeport.”
“You have a point to make in all that rambling?” James asked dryly.
Boyd chuckled. “Just wanted to know how badly you wiped the floor with him in that last fight.”
“You don’t give your brother enough credit. He acquitted himself rather well.”
“But still lost?”
“Of course.”
“Who are you raking over the coals?” Georgina wanted to know as she joined them.
James refused to answer, merely raised a brow at her brothers. Boyd explained, and as James had probably guessed, she began scolding both brothers for discussing violent subjects in front of Gabrielle.
Drew, whether teasing or not, pointed out, “A pirate’s daughter would be used to hearing even worse subjects discussed. Isn’t that right, sweetheart?” he asked Gabrielle.
Somehow she dredged up a smile for him. “Oh, certainly. We don’t thrash our victims with fists, we gut them with swords.”
She walked away before he realized he’d insulted her, and she was gratified to hear Georgina begin to chew his ear off for using thatwordagain. But he’d already used it an awful lot tonight, without Georgina overhearing. To get a rise out of her? Or to remind Boyd of her background? It was hard to tell. But she wasn’t going to forget the conversation she’d overheard the other day in which Boyd had said, “When I do settle down, it sure as hell won’t be with a wench whose father is a pirate.”
While Boyd seemed not to share Drew’s aversion to marriage, he did seem to harbor more resentment against pirates. Not that it mattered. She might find him quite handsome, and he seemed to be taken with her despite his feelings for pirates, but he didn’t cause any fluttering in her stomach like his aggravating brother did.
She was still having fun, despite the little annoyances. And she didn’t care why Drew was there, she was just glad that he was. Actually, she was glad Boyd was, too. In their bickering and in trying to outdo each other for her benefit, the brothers inadvertently were revealing things about the Andersons and the Malorys that she might never have heard of otherwise.
She learned that one of the Malory ancestors had actually been a gypsy. This was apparently a rumor that had circulated for many years, but the brothers confirmed it was true. They called James an ex-pirate, but it was said in jest, so she didn’t believe it. They implied the head of the Malory clan, Jason Malory, Third Marquis of Haverston, had married his housekeeper! She didn’t believe that either. Drew and Boyd talked about their three other brothers and mentioned that they were straitlaced New Englanders, though Boyd teased that Drew certainly didn’t fit that mold. She had no trouble believing that.
She was also able to begin her campaign to end the animosity between her and Drew. Not a single sour look crossed her countenance, and she managed to control her sensitivity to Drew’s teasing. Even when he told his brother earlier in her hearing, “Stop apologizing for every ‘blast and damn’ out of your mouth. Pirates win hands down when it comes to vulgarity,” Gabrielle had managed not to pay him back in kind, though she had to grit her teeth to keep her mouth shut.
The rest of the play was just as amusing as the first two acts. It was a story about an English family trying to marry off their daughter. She didn’t relate it to her own situation at all and wouldn’t have if Drew didn’t lean close during the last act to whisper, “Who do you think the heroine is going to choose? The safe, proper young lord, though damn, he’s clumsy, isn’t he? Or the blackguard she keeps swooning over?”
She shouldn’t have answered him. Really, it wasn’t a serious question. He was merely rubbing it in, her own situation, sinceheobviously related it to the comedy they were watching.
Without really thinking, she said, “The suave blackguard will win hands down.”
She heard his softly indrawn breath before he asked, “Why?”
“For the obvious reason. She loves him.” And then she grinned. “Care to bet?”
He sounded annoyed now when he answered, “No, you’re probably right. It’s a comedy, after all. The silly chit is being portrayed as not having any sense, and certainly not enough to realize she’d never be happy with a rogue.”
“Nonsense,” she disagreed. “She could go through the rest of her life without realizing what a blackguard he is, or she could find out and not care. Happiness is a matter of the heart, after all.”
“Is it? You think you’ll be happy when you fall in love?”
