No Choice but Seduction (2 page)

Boyd hurried down to the docks. He knew she was going to try to climb up those crates to reach the bird, which would be dangerous. The crates were stacked five high, which was at least twice her height, and instead of being tied down as they should have been, they were stacked in a pyramid, with the larger ones at the bottom so the stack would be less likely to topple over.

Boyd arrived too late. She’d already climbed up to the third crate, her toes perched on the edge, and had reached the bird. She was trying now to coax it into the basket.

Boyd held his tongue, afraid that if he said anything, it would distract her and she’d fall. For the same reason, he didn’t try to climb up and yank her down. But he wasn’t about to let her get hurt. He wasn’t leaving until she was safely on the ground again.

The bird, lured by the food in the basket, finally toppled into it. The young woman had managed to get up there with the basket hooked to her arm, but now that the basket had a live occupant, it wasn’t going to be as easy getting down. She must have realized that as she glanced down at her feet.

“Don’t move,” Boyd called out. “Give me a moment and I’ll take that basket for you, then help you down.”

She turned her head and looked down at him. “Thank you!” she called back, dazzling him with her smile. “I had no idea this was going to be much more difficult than it first appeared.”

He used a small, empty barrel as a stepping-stone to reach the top of the first crate. He didn’t need to go any higher to take the basket from her, and he merely jumped back down to set it aside. But she didn’t wait for his assistance. She was lowering herself to the second crate when her hold slipped and she tumbled backward. Boyd moved quickly and caught her in his arms.

Her eyes were wide with shock. So were his. What an unexpected boon. He couldn’t seem to move. He looked down into her dark emerald-green eyes, and her face…. God, his eyes had deceived him. She was much prettier up close. And holding her cradled in his arms like that, with the fingers of one hand touching one of her breasts and his arm wrapped around her derriere, his body responded, and all he could think about was kissing her.

Unnerved that he could desire a woman so intensely and so quickly, he set her down instantly. Away from him.

She straightened her lavender skirt before she glanced back at him. “Thank you so much. That was—alarming.”

“You are most welcome.”

With a friendly nod she introduced herself. “I’m Katey Tyler.”

“Boyd Anderson. I own
The Oceanus
.”

“Do you? Well, I own one of the cabins on it, at least until we reach England.” She grinned.

God, there were those adorable dimples again. His body wouldn’t calm down. He was surprised he was even capable of conversation—if he could call it that. What the devil had induced him to mention that he owned the ship? He never did that! It smacked of bragging—or trying too hard to impress.

“Is Katey short for Catherine?” he got out.

“No, my mother liked to keep things simple. She knew she was going to call me Katey, so she figured why not just skip the Catherine part and name me that.”

He smiled. She looked like a Katey somehow. Sleeves rolled up, hair braided instead of tightly bound in a severe coiffure, climbing dockside crates! Boyd had a very, very strong feeling that he’d found his future wife.

“I’ll take the bird,” Boyd offered. “Our doctor can tend to it.”

“What a perfect idea! I think it’s broken its right wing. I was going to look for an older child who would like to care for it.”

Boyd’s smile deepened. She was beautiful
and
she had a kind heart. “I can’t tell you how delighted I am, Katey Tyler, that you’re going to be sailing with us.”

She blinked at him uncertainly. “Well—thank you. You can’t imagine how much I’ve been looking forward to this—oh!”

All of a sudden she ran off. Boyd turned around and saw her running toward a child who had wandered over to the edge of the dock. Only a few years old, the child was precariously leaning over, looking down at the water, and was in danger of falling in. Child in hand now, Katey was looking all around her, probably for the child’s parents, then she marched off into the crowd.

Boyd started to follow her, but decided against it. She might think he was being too forward. She’d seemed startled when he’d expressed his pleasure at sailing with her. Had he been too direct, perhaps even improper? Well, he wasn’t exactly used to the ways of courting. But he was sure he could be as charming as his brother Drew if he put his mind to it.

After taking a thorough ribbing from Philips about his having to waste his doctoring skills on a tasty snack, Boyd returned to the deck. The gangplank hadn’t been lifted yet; the last few supplies were still being loaded. And Katey Tyler was on board.

His eyes, then his feet, went right to her. She was standing at the rail near the plank, gazing at the town as he had earlier done. He stopped right behind her.

“We meet again.”

He’d startled her, possibly with the husky tone of his voice. She turned around so swiftly, she brushed against him. No, he’d been standing too close, smelling the lilac scent of her hair, so she couldn’t have avoided the collision. But she was blushing now as she tried to move away and couldn’t with the rail behind her. Loath to lose the contact, Boyd was a bit slow in stepping back to give her room.

“You don’t hail from Bridgeport, do you?” he said.

“How did you know?”

“Because I’m from Bridgeport. Believe me, if you had lived here, I would have been coming home much more often.”

His words and his smile might have been a bit too bold because she was obviously flustered. She glanced down, then started to turn back toward the dock, but something else caught her attention.

“Who would have thought they’d be so troublesome,” a carrot-haired young woman said as she came up to them, holding a toddler in each hand. “We’re going to have to hover over them if we bring them up to the deck again.”

Katey bent down and picked up one of the children and set it on her hip, ruffling its hair. Boyd couldn’t tell if the tot was a boy or a girl.

“That’s not a bad idea, Grace. They are a bit too inquisitive at this age,” Katey said.

“Well, here, give her back. I’ll get them settled belowdecks before we sail.”

“Yours?” Boyd asked as soon as the other woman walked off with the two children.

He was joking, but Katey glanced at him with a frown on her pretty face. Then her eyes widened and she said, “Yes! Actually, I didn’t think to mention it, but I’m married and on my way to join my husband in England. I should go and help my maid. Those two darlings can be a handful.”

She rushed off. Boyd was left standing there poleaxed, no doubt about it.

Tyrus came up to him, clapping a hand on his shoulder. “Ain’t that always the way? The good ones are already taken.”

Boyd shook his head and groaned. It was going to be a long voyage.

Chapter One

London, England, 1826

T
HE NOTE WAS DELIVERED
by a scruffy child who didn’t know he had the wrong house. The mistake wasn’t his fault. He hadn’t been told there were many different Malory houses in London. He’d come to the first one he’d been directed to, pleased that it hadn’t taken long to earn the few coppers in his pocket. And just as he’d been told to do, he’d run off before Henry could question him.

Henry and Artie, two crusty old sea dogs, had shared the job of butler at James Malory’s house ever since James had retired from his life at sea and they’d both retired with him. But recently James had gone back to sea, briefly, to rescue his brother-in-law Drew Anderson, who’d got himself into a coil when according to one of his crewmen who’d managed to escape, pirates had stolen his ship right out of London harbor! With him on it! Henry and Artie had tossed a coin to see who would sail with James for the rescue. Henry had lost.

Henry tossed the note without reading it onto the mountainous pile of calling cards and invitations that had come in from people who didn’t know the Malorys of this particular household weren’t in residence. A normal butler would never have let the tray on the hall table overflow with invitations and letters. But in the eight years since Henry and Artie had begun sharing the job, neither of them had learned how to be a proper butler.

That afternoon when Boyd Anderson returned to the Malory house in Berkeley Square, he found the note on his tray, along with a few other cards that had slid off the larger pile next to it. He didn’t usually have a tray of his own in his sister Georgina’s house, but then he usually only visited for a week or two, never as long as several months as this visit had turned out to be. Nor was it the first time Georgina’s mail had got mixed up with his.

Despite having given it a lot more thought, Boyd still hadn’t made up his mind yet about settling in England. But that wasn’t why he was still here. He hadn’t returned to sea yet because he was doing his sister a favor. Although Georgina had married into the large Malory family and any one of her numerous in-laws would have been delighted to take care of her children while she was gone, Georgina’s seven-year-old daughter, Jacqueline, balked at joining her young twin siblings at the country home of their cousin Lady Regina Eden, because she didn’t want to be that far away from her best friend and cousin, Judith. Other Malorys in London could have taken her, but since Boyd was staying at her London house, Georgina had asked him to keep an eye on Jacqueline until he sailed again.

He would have preferred to go along for the rescue. That would have been a fine bit of work to tease his brother Drew about. But he had, in fact, done Georgina another good turn by not insisting on going, since her husband didn’t get along well with any of her brothers, himself included. The man didn’t even get along with his
own
brothers. And there was no way he and James Malory wouldn’t come to blows if they ended up on a ship together. Besides, the look on James’s face when Boyd had suggested accompanying him, well, it had made Boyd glad he had an excuse to stay behind after all.

“We all know where she’d rather stay,” Georgina had remarked. “But Roslynn mentioned in passing that she
might
be enceinte again, so she needs peace and quiet in her household just now, which won’t be the case with Judy and Jack in residence. When you’re ready to sail will be soon enough to deposit her there.”

Roslynn Malory turned out not to be pregnant. Boyd ended up not sailing as expected. And Jack, as her father had named her at birth, was happy enough where she was, since she still got to visit with her cousin Judith as often as she liked.

Boyd wasn’t exactly worried about Drew, anyway. Georgina did enough worrying for all of them. But Boyd knew his brother well and had no doubt that he’d extricate himself from whatever trouble he’d gotten into long before Georgina and her husband arrived to help. Hell, considering how long they’d been gone, he was beginning to suspect they hadn’t even caught up to Drew’s ship yet!

Georgina hadn’t expected Boyd to stay in London this long. No one had, himself included. But when his ship,
The Oceanus
, returned from the short run he’d sent her on, instead of leaving with her, he sent her off again. And gave more thought to giving up the sea for good.