Drew began, “I hate to say I told you so—”
“Yes, I’m sure it breaks your heart, so don’t,” Gabrielle cut in tartly, thoroughly annoyed by his amusement. “The lookout was probably mistaken anyway.”
And Richard joined in, “Oh, I say, is that Lady Malory he’s talking about?”
“Oh, good grief, Richard,” Gabby snapped. “Forget about her!”
Her friend winced, but then shrugged. “I’vetried,Gabby. Really I have, but I just can’t forget about my one true love.”
Drew sobered now and demanded, “Is he talking about my sister?”
“Why yes, he is,” Gabrielle fairly purred at the captain, though her eyes were glaring at him. “Fell quite head over heels for her. Won’t listen to sound advice, like her husband is going to break every bone in his body if he gets anywhere near her.”
“James will have to stand in line,” Drew growled as he stood up and took a step toward Richard.
That was unexpected and had Gabrielle instantly regretting that she’d provoked him. She leapt between the two men to try to defuse what she’d instigated.
“Oh, stop it,” she told Drew. “Georgina nearly slapped Richard’s face off the last time they spoke, so nothing untoward has or will ever happen between them. She’s a bulwark of resistance where any other man is concerned, simply because she loves her husband. You ought to know that.”
It was a tense moment. Drew obviously took protecting his sister seriously. Every line of his body said he was ready to rip Richard apart with his bare hands. But hewaspaying attention, thankfully, and Gabrielle’s last remark took the edge off his anger.
“I could have done without that reminder,” he said as he moved back to his seat.
Richard had drunk too much wine to be wary. “You should have let him have at me, Gabby,” he said. “He’s been itching to ever since he thought you and I…” The thought made him laugh before he finished it.
“That isn’t why I wanted to rip your head off,” Drew replied rather calmly, considering the subject matter.
“Ah, that’s right, it was because you couldn’t remember why Gabby can’t go back to England.”
Gabrielle drew in her breath sharply. “Richard, that’s enough.”
But Drew sat forward to ask, “Why can’t she go back?”
“With that rumor making the rounds that she’s a pirate? Give it a good guess, Captain. I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”
Gabrielle sat back and closed her eyes. She had a feeling she knew now why Richard had been invited to dinner. Drew had been fishing for information, obviously, something he thought they were keeping from him. Instead he had caught the one subject guaranteed to bring her anger back in full force.
Chapter 40
TIMOTHY TRIED TO REDIRECT THE CONVERSATIONto neutral subjects, but only he and Richard participated. With Drew just staring at Gabrielle, and she just staring at her plate, the tension in the room could have been cut with a knife. They left soon after, with Richard making a joking comment about being eager to get back to the hold, where the air wasn’t so frosty. Her anger had prompted that remark. With her scandal on the table, as it were, there was no way Gabrielle could conceal that anger from the man who’d caused it.
Alone with him now, he sat back in his chair, his glass of wine in hand. And he was still just staring at her. Waiting for her to explode? Another few moments and she probably would have.
But he lifted a tawny brow first and said casually, “Odd how I wasn’t the only one to guess, isn’t it?”
“Guess?”
“Or maybe not so odd,” he continued in the same tone, as if she hadn’t raised a question and wasn’t glaring at him. “I mean, look at the company you keep. And how often did you visit them in the seedier side of town?”
She snorted. “You don’t know where my friends resided, and besides—”
“But I do,” he cut in. “I followed you one afternoon. Not for any reason other than I was bored that day and, well, maybe a little curious. I must say I was a bit surprised at how easily you and your maid rebuffed those ruffians who tried to make your acquaintance that day. Thought I might have to reveal myself to intervene, but no, I suppose I’d back off, too, if I had two women angrily swinging their purses at my head. It didn’t take me long to realize you must be used to that sort of attention.”
She vaguely recalled the incident he was talking about, the day she’d gone down to the wharfs to warn Richard that Malory was going to murder him if he even so much as saw Richard again. She’d been very upset with Richard, enough to take it out on anyone who tried to delay her from reaching him so she could tell him just how upset she was over the very real threat now hanging over his head.
But what the devil did any of that have to do with the scandal that Drew had left her with? Or was he just trying to delay addressing that, or hoping he could entirely avoid giving her a reason for what he’d done? It was even possible that he didn’t have a reason, that he’d just done it on a lark.
And then, in the same casual tone he was maintaining, he said, “You know, sweetheart, if I didn’t make those assumptions about you myself, I never would have kissed you that day we went to the park.”
