No Choice but Seduction (30 page)

Anthony slumped a bit in his seat with a sigh. “I know. This has thrown me for quite a loop, you know. I’m not thinking clearly yet.”

“When do you ever?”

Anthony ignored the goad to add, “Adeline would have told me, wouldn’t she? I mean,
why
wouldn’t she? She could have come to me at any time. I was staying at Haverston. I was very accessible.”

“You’re not going to have your answers unless you pay a visit to the Millards yourself. You do realize that, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“And you’ll probably have to pry the facts out of them. They aren’t going to welcome you.”

“I’m aware of that, too.”

“Well, also keep
this
in mind. This could be a hoax cooked up by Letitia, for whatever reason. You admit she disliked you, unreasonably so. Katey shows up, giving her the means for a little revenge.”

“Revenge?”

“Exactly. How would you feel if you take Katey in, believing her to be yours, grow to love her, then several years down the road Letitia drops the bomb that she lied, that the chit isn’t yours at all.”

Anthony rolled his eyes. “That’s a bit far-fetched, but I get the point. I still have no idea why Letitia despised me, but I won’t just take her word on this. Oliver Millard is deceased, but Adeline’s mother is still alive. I’ll go straight to her.”

“If they let you in the door. You know, Katey never said, but considering Letitia’s note, I’d hazard a guess that she didn’t have a cordial visit with these relatives of hers. And she
was
in a tearing hurry to leave England, so much so that she was willing to let the Yank off the hook of his guilt by renting his ship. To put that unpleasant meeting behind her most likely.”

Anthony shot out of his seat with a gasp. Mention of Boyd recalled their last conversation with him. Oh, good God, he didn’t really advise Anderson on how to seduce his own daughter, did he?

James, guessing exactly what Anthony was thinking by the murderous look that came over him, began reasonably, “Now wait a minute, Tony—”

There was no place for reason in Anthony’s mind just then. He cut in, “If he’s already seduced her, I’m going to have to kill him.”

“We’re talking about George’s brother here,” James reminded him.

“No, we’re talking about
my
daughter.”

“A daughter you only just found out is yours. If she even is. So the lad has lusted after her. Why wouldn’t he? She’s a pretty chit. If he manages to get lucky, he’ll just have to marry her is all. You even said he’d make a good husband, if you’ll recall.”

“No,
you
said that, I didn’t. And you know bloody well I’m going to have to kill him if he’s laid even one inappropriate hand on her.”

James sighed. He did know that. He’d given what arguments he could merely for his wife’s sake, but the fact was, if Katey did turn out to be his niece, he’d be right there helping Anthony kill the Yank.

Chapter Thirty-Two

F
EELING ANY BETTER?”
Tyrus stuck his head around the door to ask.

“God, no.”

Boyd didn’t lift his head from the pillow to say it. He didn’t even open his eyes. Any sort of movement
at
all usually prompted another mad dash for the chamber pot. His seasickness didn’t take into account that his stomach was already empty.

“When’s the last time you ate?”

“Before we left Cartagena.”

Tyrus sighed sympathetically since that was nearly two days ago. “You’re going to starve yourself on this trip. I can’t believe you even suggested the Mediterranean to her, where she’s going to want to make port every few days. What was the point of you even coming along, when you knew you’d end up spending most of the voyage sick in bed?”

Boyd knew that very well. To make amends to Katey, he was going to go through this again and again, when he had thought he’d come to the end of this sort of suffering with his decision to landlock himself. But it wasn’t as if he weren’t used to this malady. He’d been dealing with it for over fifteen years. Grin and bear it had been his usual outlook. That just didn’t take into account having on board a woman who he wanted to spend every minute with.

“I need help, Tyrus, not criticism.”

“Would you like for me to get one of Philips’s drafts to knock you out till we make port again?”

He should.
The Oceanus
’s doctor made a potent concoction that could put him to sleep for a good ten hours whether he was tired or not. The ship could go down with a blast of cannons and he wouldn’t know it. And the drink didn’t even taste foul as most beneficial drafts tended to. But he wasn’t going to sleep through this voyage or, as Tyrus had said, he might as well have remained in England. This was his chance to win Katey, and he was going to do everything possible to accomplish that.
If
he could get his arse out of bed.

“I didn’t mean that kind of help,” Boyd said. “I’m serious about her. I want to marry her. But I made a really big mistake treating her like a criminal. I can’t court her properly because of that. It stands squarely between us.”

He’d told Tyrus about the Northampton incident. They’d been sailing together for over seven years. Sail into any port after a long voyage and they’d be off to find the nearest tavern together. Tyrus was probably the closest friend Boyd had aside from his brothers.

“Are you forgetting her confession?” Tyrus reminded him. “That she’s really married?”

Boyd snorted. “You missed her saying just the opposite the very next day. And looking damned guilty when she admitted she lied to us.”

“Which lie? I’m losing track.”

“She’s not married, Tyrus. While she was in England, she told my family she wasn’t, that she’d only pretended to be so men would keep their distance from her. It was a ruse that worked amazingly well on the Atlantic crossing, if you’ll remember.”

“I remember she had you so tied in knots that I couldn’t talk to you, no one could, without getting our heads snapped off. I don’t mind admitting I was afraid that’s how this voyage was going to go as well.”

“There’s a big difference between believing she isn’t available and knowing she actually is. I know damn well her confession the other day is true.”

“You mean it’s the one you
want
to believe,” Tyrus replied skeptically.

There was that, but he was onto her tactics now, simply because they were so obvious. Deliberate on her part? Was it a subtle, or rather, not so subtle point she was making? Or did she really think she could still fool him, after that kiss they’d shared?

God, that had been sweet, to finally taste her, touch her, hold her in his arms. His desire had gone through the roof, but he’d managed to keep it under control so he didn’t frighten her with it. He had no idea
how
he’d managed that, as much as he wanted her.

But she had shocked him with her remark about being married, right after that kiss. A definite cold dousing that had been. He hadn’t known what to believe. And he’d spent the rest of the day brooding over it in his cabin. And then she approached him the next morning on deck.

“I have a confession to make,” she’d told him, staring down at her feet instead of looking at him. “I lied.”

He’d tried not to growl at her. “Forgetful? You made that confession last night.”

She still wouldn’t look up at him. “That’s the lie I’m talking about. Really, I’ve never been married.”

“Then why—?”

“You shouldn’t have kissed me,” she’d said primly. “That isn’t part of our rental agreement.”

And so he understood, vaguely, what had prompted the lie. And once again, he was too delighted to get angry with her. He
had
been a little annoyed though. She couldn’t keep jerking his cords like that. But she didn’t stay there to discuss it. Pink-cheeked with embarrassment, she’d run off.

To his friend he said, “She’s changed that story three times already since we set sail, so it’s not just hopefulness on my part.”

“Three?” Tyrus choked out.

“That’s not even counting the first two times prior to this trip. So if I catch her in an appropriate mood, one where she doesn’t currently have a ‘husband,’ and drag her before you to marry us, do
not
ask questions. Just do it.”

“Just what do you mean by appropriate?” Tyrus asked suspiciously. “I’ll tell you right now, bucko, I’m not wedding anyone not properly dressed for it.”

Boyd actually laughed. “I didn’t mean straight from bedding her, though that would be about as appropriate as it gets, wouldn’t it?”

“Then what did you mean?”

Boyd took a moment to see if he could explain how he would know when the right time was. He’d had no difficulty recognizing it in Cartagena.

They had spent two days in that ancient seaport, there was so much to see, and Boyd had offered to escort Katey and her maid on tours through the old Roman forums, what little was left of the castle on the hill, and the Roman amphitheater where gladiators had once tested their skills and died, or went on to fight in other arenas across the extended Roman empire. There wasn’t much left of those ancient ruins since their building blocks were constantly being confiscated for the erection of new buildings, but enough was left for Katey to get the flavor of the area she wanted. Cartagena had passed through many hands over the centuries, and most of them had left their marks. All of which had put Katey in a delightful mood. In awe, bubbly with excitement, she’d actually been treating him like a friend instead of her worst enemy.

Forgetful? That’s probably all that was, the easy camaraderie, yet it had allowed him to get close to her again. And when he got too close he made her blush. And when she blushed, he knew he was affecting her so much that she had to hold up a “husband” like a sword to back him off. She’d done exactly that again, before they left Cartagena.

He said to Tyrus, “You already know she has this grand agenda of seeing the world, and it’s a fine goal, but because of it, she has it set in her mind that marriage can’t be part of this agenda. And yet I know that she isn’t immune to me. If anything, I get the feeling that she’s afraid her trip will end if she lets me into her heart.”

“But who better to marry than a man with a ship who can take her anywhere she wants to go?”

“Exactly.”

Tyrus chuckled. “What rotten irony, that you want to settle down on land—with a woman who wants to sail around the world.”

“I know.”

“But you still want her?”

“Absolutely. And if it means not retiring from the sea, so be it.”

“Does she know what the sea does to you?” Tyrus asked carefully.

“No, nor will she. My family doesn’t even know. You’re the only one who does.”

“She’s going to find out if you do manage to get yourself married to her before the end of this voyage. It will be hard to miss if you’re puking all over her in bed.”

“
Not
funny, Tyrus. But I’ll assure her that it’s not going to end her world tour.”

“Don’t be dense, man. If she loves you, she’ll end it—for your sake. And then she’ll always have it in the back of her mind, the regret that she gave up her goals for you. Bitterness will show up, then resentment, then—”