Captive of My Desires (7 page)

“He didn’t tell you?” James queried.

“No, it was all so sudden, his decision to send me here. And then I was quite disappointed that he couldn’t sail with me because he had some business to finish up. I wanted to wait for him, but with the Season already under way, he wanted me here soonest. Anyway, I never got around to asking him.”

“I’m rather curious myself,” Georgina admitted, glancing at her husband. Just what is this debt you owe? That letter didn’t say.”

“How do you put a price on a life? Brooks saved mine. I didn’t ask him to.”

“When was this?” Georgina asked.

“Long before I met you. I’d picked a fight in the wrong place at the wrong time, had about twenty drunken sailors trying to tear me apart.”

“Only twenty?” She snorted. “And you consider that life-threatening? To you?”

James chuckled. “Appreciate the vote of confidence, m’dear. But they’d already stabbed me, shot me, and pronounced me dead.”

A frown of concern immediately appeared on her face. “Were you really almost dead?”

“No, but one of the sailors had also cracked my head open, so I was no longer paying attention, and they were too drunk to notice I was still breathing.”

“You were unconscious?”

“Quite. But since they were convinced I was dead, they were determined to get rid of the evidence. They tossed me off the wharf there in St. Kitts. It was a deep dock. And the water didn’t revive me. Apparently I had no trouble sinking to the bottom.”

“So Nathan Brooks fished you out?”

“To hear him tell it, he nearly drowned himself trying,” he said.

“But he obviously succeeded.”

“It was luck all the way around, m’dear. His ship was docked there. I’d happened to be tossed in the water right next to it. But it was late at night. No one was around, and he wouldn’t have been there either to hear the commotion if he hadn’t come back to his ship to fetch some map he’d forgotten. Nor would he have bothered to fish out a dead body, but he happened to hear one of the crowd ask if they were sure I was dead. So he dove in to check. I woke up soaking wet, lying under the dock where he’d left me.”

“Then how do you know—”

“Let me finish. He’d been unable to carry me farther. He’s a tall man, but I’m rather heavy at a deadweight. He’d left to get one of his men to help, the Oriental you met today. Then he took me to his house to mend. And there you have it.”

“A very simple favor he’s asked in return,” Georgina said with a smile. “I would have paid him a fortune if he’d asked for it, for saving your life.”

James gave his wife a very tender look, which appeared rather odd to Gabrielle, on the countenance of such an intimidating man. “That’s because you love me, George, so I’m bloody well glad he didn’t ask for it.”

H
AVING TURNED THEIR UNEXPECTED GUEST OVER
to the housekeeper to get her settled, Georgina promptly dragged her husband into the parlor to find out what he really thought about this turn of events. But she’d forgotten Boyd was still sleeping on the sofa in there. And Judith, Anthony’s daughter, had spent the night. Both she and Jacqueline had sneaked into the parlor and were amusing themselves in a corner of the room.

The girls had been quiet enough not to wake Boyd, and he’d also slept through the noise in the hall. He had stumbled in that morning right after she and James had come down for breakfast, had given her a sloppy kiss and hug, then promptly passed out on the sofa in the parlor. She hadn’t bothered to wake him to tell him to go find a bed. He’d still been quite foxed from a full night of revelry.

Two years older than she was, Boyd was the youngest of her five brothers. He was also the prankster in the family. He’d pulled some good ones over the years, some that were really funny, some quite embarrassing, even a few that she, at least, had considered dangerous, though her brothers hadn’t thought so. But she’d only for the briefest moment wondered if Gabrielle Brooks might be one of his pranks gone awry, because he wasn’t awake to put a stop to it before it got out of hand. Unless he’d been so drunk when he’d set it up that he hadn’t thought to add contingencies to assure that the joke was revealed before it went too far. No, she couldn’t believe the young woman’s arrival was his doing. He liked pranks, but he wasn’t stupid enough to irritate her husband with one.

Boyd was, however, the most hotheaded in the family now. Their brother Warren used to have that distinction, until he’d married Amy Malory. Hardly anything disturbed Warren these days, he was so happy in his marriage.

Georgina turned to find a different room where she and James might talk, but James wouldn’t budge. He stood solidly in her path as he said, “You can fess up now, George. You put a good face on it, but we both know how much you were looking forward to that trip to Connecticut.”

“Yes, I was, and I still will be. We can just as easily go next year.”

“This year was convenient, even if it was a spur-of-the-moment decision on your part, because one of your brothers was here to take you. Next year they might not be.”

“True, so I’ll just have to make sure that my own ship,
The Amphitrite,
will be in port to take us next year. I’ll have plenty of time to arrange it. I’m sure you’d like that better anyway, since you could captain her.”

“Absolutely,” he agreed.

“I should wake Boyd, don’t you think?” She wrapped her husband’s arms around her waist, belying her intention to tend to her brother.

“Leave him. He hasn’t had enough time to sleep off whatever he drowned himself in last night. And other than standing in as a punching bag for me, there’s not much else he’d be good for.”

She hadn’t thought of that, but having Boyd and James in the same house when James was seriously annoyed was going to make for a powder keg. And only James could control that, since Boyd was too impulsive, throwing punches before thinking.

She glanced at her husband sharply. “That wasn’t the least bit funny. You will try to contain your annoyance.”

It was an order, not that he’d obey it, but she felt he should know her druthers.

“You worry too much, George,” he said laconically.

“That statement might work at any other time, but you know very well—”

“Lower your tone before the girls hear you.”

She refrained from snorting and merely rolled her eyes instead. “When those two are whispering to each other, the rest of the world ceases to exist.”

He glanced at the two girls sitting cross-legged across the room, their shoulders touching, their heads, one blond, one copper with golden streaks, leaning toward each other. Jack was grinning as she whispered to her cousin. Judy was nodding, then laughed softly and quickly put a hand to her mouth to stifle it. Both immediately glanced at him and slightly blushed, as if they were worried they’d been overheard. Which was an impossibility. No one ever overheard those two. They had whispering down to a fine art.

“Beside the point,” James conceded, which almost brought a grin to her lips. But then he squeezed her slightly before he let her go and added, “And you might want to convince one of your brothers to extend his visit for a while. Or I will.”

She blinked. “You? Why? You’re usually pushing them out the door!”

“Because I know you’re going to want an escort for all those parties that will soon be on your agenda, and it bloody well won’t be me.”

She laughed. “I see. The debt is yours but I get to pay it back single-handedly?”

“You’ll have to admit, this is your cup of tea, not mine. Think I didn’t notice that gleam in your eye when you said this sounds like fun?”

“Don’t look for an argument.” She grinned at him. “I quite agree. And since you’d never mentioned any of this before, I take it you incurred this favor during your wild and reckless days at sea?”

“I was never reckless, George.”

“Considering the occupation you took up, you most certainly were,” she disagreed. “Which is the part I don’t understand. How the deuce did this man know to find you here, if he met you in the Caribbean? You weren’t in the habit of going by your real name back then, were you?”

“’Course not. Hawke was the only name I used back then. But apparently I did some talking in my sleep due to the medications I was given to help with my wounds, and some of it was about my family. He gained knowledge of who I was and ended up telling me his life story as well. We actually became friends after that.”

“So who is he? An Englishman? Is that why he sent his daughter here for her coming out?”

“Do you really need to know?”

She frowned at that answer. “To launch her and find her a husband
here,
yes, I do need to know her background. You know how damned particular you aristocrats are about bloodlines,” she added with some disgust.

“Don’t include me in that package, just because you Americans don’t like aristocrats. You
did
marry one, and I
didn’t
marry one. I rest my case.”

She laughed and punched him lightly in the chest at the same time. “Just answer my question.”

“You won’t like it. In fact, you just might be slamming doors shut on me again.”

“Oh come now, it can’t be that bad.”

“Beg to differ, m’dear. She’s the daughter of a pirate, not one who just dabbled at it like I did, but one who’s made it his life’s career.”

“Who’s the daughter of a pirate?” Drew asked as he entered the room behind them.

A
PARTY ALREADY?
Gabrielle hadn’t yet had a chance to relax since she’d arrived at the Malory townhouse. Her nervousness might have decreased a bit during her talk with James and Georgina Malory, but it hadn’t dissipated completely. And she was expected to attend a party tonight?

After she’d been shown to a room upstairs, she’d done nothing but pace until Margery had arrived a few hours later. The housekeeper had elected to stay behind at the inn when they couldn’t find a carriage big enough to accommodate all of them that morning, and to come over later with the baggage and Miss Carla.

She missed Ohr and Richard already. They hadn’t intended to stay in the same house with her, merely to make sure she was welcome. But Malory had made it clear
they
weren’t welcome. Her friends wouldn’t be deserting her entirely, though, just the neighborhood. The original plan included their waiting in England until Nathan arrived, since it was quite possible he’d be on his way to join them before they got back to the Caribbean, so they were going to rent a flat near the docks where they could watch for
The Crusty Jewel
’s arrival. She’d guessed her father had simply ordered them to remain here to keep an eye on her.

Her father took care of incidentals like that without telling her, though she usually found out. His overprotective nature had been a surprise to her, had even included having reports sent to him regularly over the years about her progress and activities as she was growing up. Her mother’s gardener had been in Nathan’s pay. No wonder that old man had always questioned her extensively about what she was up to!

When Nathan had fessed up about the gardener, she’d realized he must have also been informed about her mother’s affair with Albert. He didn’t say so, and she certainly didn’t mention it, but she’d felt bad for months, thinking about it, and had a feeling that his parrot hadn’t been taught derogatory remarks about Carla until after her father had knowledge of her mother’s unfaithfulness.

Georgina Malory came up with Margery when she arrived, to tell Gabrielle they would be attending a soiree that night being given by her niece by marriage. “I wasn’t intending to go,” the lady admitted. “Regina has so many parties when she’s in London that I don’t feel the need to attend more’n a few of them. But as it happens my brothers Drew and Boyd are both in town for a visit and would make fine escorts. So it occurred to me that this will be the perfect opportunity for you to get your feet wet, as it were. So we’ll go.”

Gabrielle would have preferred to keep her feet dry, but she wasn’t rude enough to say so. She had several perfect excuses to decline, such as no suitable wardrobe yet and exhaustion from her trip, but she didn’t use them. She’d already inconvenienced this nice lady with her presence, which had forced Georgina to cancel her own plans. She was determined not to disrupt her plans in any other way.

“Your brothers don’t live in London?” she asked.

“London? Goodness, no, not even in England. In fact, while our family home might be in Connecticut, you could say all five of my brothers actually live at sea. My family owns Skylark Shipping, you see, and each of my brothers commands his own vessel.”

Sailors, Gabrielle thought with some amusement. She couldn’t get away from them even in England. But at least these two from Georgina’s family were only visiting. And she might even like them. She’d never marry one, but she did have a lot in common with sailors, after all.

“About the party tonight,” Gabrielle said. “I have one dress that would be appropriate, but I’m going to need to visit a seamstress tomorrow. I’ve brought the funds with me for a wardrobe for the Season, so I really should get started on that right away.”

“I agree, and you needn’t wait until tomorrow. I’ll send for mine today. She’s very good at producing miracles on short notice.”

“That would be wonderful,” Gabrielle allowed. “I’ll just need to know how many ball gowns I should order. Can you hazard a guess?”

“A half dozen at least.”

Gabrielle blinked and gasped out, “That many this late in the Season?”

“Oh, yes,” Georgina said with a roll of her eyes. “It’s due to the competition among the ladies who typically host these gatherings. If one of them outdoes another who’s already given her ball, then she simply
must
give yet another ball to get back in the lead of who’s ball was the best of the Season. It’s all quite silly in my opinion, but it’s why we get deluged with so many invitations near the end of summer. By the by, why
did
you wait so long to come to London? There are only a few weeks left of the bigger gatherings. You do realize that many of the best eligible bachelors will already have made their choices and be committed?”

Gabrielle nodded and added, “I’d be surprised if the pickings weren’t thin. The timing wasn’t by choice, it was merely my father suddenly realizing that I’m long overdue in getting this done and sending me off posthaste.”

Georgina chuckled. “Getting this done? That’s a rather unique way of looking at it.”

Gabrielle grinned. “Well, to be honest, coming here wasn’t my idea. I would have preferred to find a husband at home in the islands. But I’m rather excited about this now that I’m here. I just hope that I can persuade whomever I do marry to at least take me back to the Caribbean occasionally. I know I’m going to miss my father dreadfully if I only see him rarely like before.”

“Before?”

“I missed out on his presence while growing up. I lived here with my mother; he works out of the West Indies. It was very rare that he came to visit us.”

“Ah, that explains it, why your diction is so cultured. So you actually grew up here in England?”

“Yes, near Brighton. My mother would have seen to my being launched into society. She knew all the right people. But she died when I was seventeen, so I went to live with my father. He didn’t explain this in the letter?”

“No, he didn’t mention your background at all.”

“Good grief, you’ve taken me in without even knowing that my credentials are up to snuff? You’re too kind, Lady Malory.”

Georgina laughed. “No, I’m an American. We don’t put much stock in titles where I come from, so please don’t use the one my husband saddled me with. If I could get rid of it without getting rid of him, you can be sure I would.”

Gabrielle wasn’t surprised. She’d met enough Americans in the Caribbean to know that they preferred to stand on their own merits, not those of their ancestors. But in England people took bloodlines much more seriously, at least the nobility did, especially when it came to marriage.

Before she could reassure the lady, Margery glanced up from her unpacking to volunteer, “She’s got a couple earls she can dig out of the pantry.”

Gabrielle blushed to hear it put that way, but felt it prudent to add, “Several generations removed, so I have no title. But then I’m not looking for a title either.”

“But you wouldn’t turn one down if it comes to that?”

“No, of course not.”

Georgina grinned. “I only asked because
I
would have.”

“But you didn’t.”

“Only because I was already married before I found out James has a title!”

Gabrielle didn’t know whether to commiserate with Georgina or congratulate her, but Miss Carla saved her from remarking on it when Margery moved her cage off of the next trunk she was about to open, and the bird squawked, “Lemme out, lemme out!”

Georgina gasped and said, “Is that what I think it is?”

Gabrielle decided to uncover the cage so the lady could see for herself. It was better to be forewarned anyway, because the parrot could be quite loud, and she didn’t want anyone breaking down her door to find out what the racket was. But the oddest thing about parrots was that women found it hard to resist talking to them, and Georgina Malory was no different. She came over to the cage to examine Miss Carla and immediately started saying hello to her.

“Dumb bird,” the parrot replied.

Gabrielle’s cheeks went up in flames, but Georgina burst out laughing and said, “That was amazing. Does it say anything else?”

“Too much,” Gabrielle mumbled. “She belonged to my father. He gave her to me after I got attached to her, but he’d already taught her some outlandish phrases, all of which are too embarrassing to mention.”

Georgina raised a brow. “Too vulgar for young ears?”

“I would say very much so.”

The lady sighed. “Well, that’s too bad. I would have suggested you bring her downstairs occasionally to amuse my family, but my oldest daughter is only seven and too impressionable. She already hears more than she should from the men in this family.”

“I’ll try to keep her quiet.”

Georgina chuckled. “And I’ll try to keep Jack from investigating.”

“Jack?”

“My daughter Jacqueline.”

“Ah, I see.”

“No, you don’t, but then nobody understands my husband’s propensity to give the females he’s fondest of unusual nicknames.”

“Not unusual, George,” James said from the open doorway. “Just names that no one else would consider. Now come along and let the girl get settled. She’ll want to rest before you drag her off to Regan’s tonight.”

“Regan?”

“Another one of those names, this one for his favorite niece, Regina,” Georgina explained, then added with a frown, “Do you need to rest?”

“No, I’m fine.”

“Good, then expect the seamstress within the hour. I’ll send for her now.”