“Seven or eight,” he replied with a careless shrug. “My memory seems to be quite faulty, though Captain Malory’s hostility does seem to jog it remarkably well.”
James laughed at that point, but it wasn’t a pleasant sound by any means. “Blackmail now, to go along with coercion? Threats of violence and mayhem? And you bloody colonials call me the pirate?”
“We only mean to turn you over for trial, but as Boyd and myself are the only witnesses against you…”
The rest was left unsaid, but even Georgina grasped what Thomas was implying. If James would cooperate, nothing would come of his so-called trial, for lack of positive testimony. She even started to relax, until another brother was heard from.
“Your memory might get mucked up with sentiment, Thomas,” Warren said. “But I very clearly heard the man’s confession. And I’ll damned well bear witness to it.”
“Your strategy boggles the mind, Yanks. Which is it to be? Vindictiveness or vindication? Or are you under the misconception that the one complements the other?”
James’s mordant humor threw sparks on Warren’s frothing enmity. “There won’t be any vindication if I have anything to say about it, and there’s no need to dangle that carrot before you, Hawke.” The name was said with such contempt, it had the distinct sound of an epithet. “There’s still your ship and your crew. And if you don’t care about the one, what you decide right now will determine whether your crew should be brought up on charges alongside you.”
It took a considerable lot to overset the smooth urbanity of James’s personality these days. He’d long ago mastered the dangerous temper of his youth, and although he still got angry occasionally, it took someone who’d known him for years to even notice. But you didn’t threaten his family and hope to come away unscathed, and half of his crew was like family to him.
He started toward Warren slowly. Georgina, watching him, had a suspicion that her brother had prodded him too far, but not that the dangerous capabilities she and Mac had both sensed in the man at their first meeting had just been unleashed.
Even his voice was deceiving in its soft abrasion as he warned, “You go beyond your rights as pertains to this business in bringing my ship and crew into it.”
Warren snorted with disdain. “If she’s a British vessel lurking in our waters? Furthermore, a ship suspected of piracy? We are clearly within our rights.”
“Then so am I.”
It happened so fast, everyone in the room was held momentarily in shock, in particular Warren, who felt the incredibly strong hands tightening inexorably around his throat. He was no weakling himself, but his fingers couldn’t break the hold. Clinton and Drew, each jumping forward to grab one of James’s arms, couldn’t manage to pull him off, either. And James’s fingers were slowly, relentlessly squeezing.
Warren’s face was purpling vividly before Thomas found something heavy enough to knock James unconscious with. But he didn’t have to use it. Georgina, with her heart in her throat, had leaped on James’s back and was screaming in his ear, “James, please, he’s my brother!” and the man simply let go.
Clinton and Drew did likewise, to catch Warren as he started sinking to the floor. They helped him to the nearest chair, examined his neck, and decided nothing was crushed. He was coughing now as he labored to fill his starved lungs.
Georgina slid off James’s back, still shaken by what he’d almost done. Her anger hadn’t set in yet, but as he turned to face her, she saw that his was still in full bloom.
“I could have snapped his bloody neck in two seconds! Do you know that?”
She cringed under the blast of his rage. “Yes, I—I think we do.”
For a moment he just glared at her. She had the feeling that he hadn’t released nearly enough of his anger on Warren, that he had a good store of it in reserve for her. It blazed from his eyes, showed in the tension in his big body.
But after the intense moment passed, he surprised her and everyone else in the room by growling, “Then bring on your parson before I’m tempted again.”
It took less than five minutes to locate the good Reverend Teal, who was a guest at the party still going on in the rest of the house. So in short order, Georgina was married to James Malory, viscount of Ryding, retired pirate and God only knew what else. It was not exactly how she had imagined her wedding would be, all those years she had thought about it as she waited patiently for Malcolm to return to her. Patiently? No, she realized now it had been merely indifference. But there was nothing of indifference in any of the occupants gathered in the study.
James had given in, but with complete ill grace. Resentment and ire were just a few of the inappropriate emotions he was displaying at his wedding. And Georgina’s brothers were no better, absolutely determined to see her married, but hating every minute of it, and showing every bit of it. For herself, she’d realized she couldn’t play stubborn and let her pride prevent this farce as she wanted, not with a baby to think about who would benefit from its father’s name.
She’d wondered briefly if anyone’s attitude would change if they knew about the baby, but she doubted it. James was being forced to marry either way, and there was no getting around that humiliating fact. Maybe afterward it might make a difference to him, lighten the blow, as it were. She’d have to tell him sometime, she supposed…or maybe she wouldn’t, if Warren had his way.
And he had his way the moment the good reverend pronounced them man and wife. “Lock him up. He’s already had all the wedding nights he’s going to get.”
Chapter Thirty-five
“You don’t really think that will work again, do you, Georgie?”
Georgina poked her head over Clinton’s desk where she’d been trying to break into the locked drawer. Drew was standing there, shaking his dark golden head at her. Boyd stood next to him, looking baffled over Drew’s question.
Georgina stood up slowly, furious that she’d been caught. Double-damn, she’d been so sure they’d all gone to bed. And Drew was too discerning by half, having guessed what she was up to. She brazened it out anyway.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Aye, you do, sweetheart.” Drew grinned at her. “Even if you got your hands on it, that vase becomes insignificant next to what that Englishman did to you. Warren would sacrifice the vase rather than let Captain Hawke go.”
“I wish you wouldn’t call him that,” she said, wearily dropping into the chair behind the desk.
“Am I hearing this right?” Boyd demanded. “You want to let that blackguard go free, Georgie?”
Her chin rose a notch. “What if I do? All of you have overlooked the fact that James came here because of me. If he hadn’t, he wouldn’t have been recognized by you and Thomas, wouldn’t be locked in the cellar right now. Do you think my conscience could bear it if he goes to trial and gets sentenced to hang?”
“He could also be cleared in a trial if Thomas has anything to do about it,” Boyd pointed out.
“I’m not taking that chance.”
Drew’s brows narrowed speculatively. “Do you love him, Georgie?”
“What nonsense,” she scoffed.
“Thank God.” His sigh was quite loud. “I’d truly thought you’d lost your senses.”
“Well, if I did,” she retorted stiffly, “I’ve thankfully regained them. But I’m still not going to let Warren and Clinton have their way.”
“Clinton couldn’t care less that he’s the infamous Hawke,” Drew said. “He just wants him never to darken our door again. He’s still smarting that he couldn’t get the better of him.”
“Neither could you two, but I haven’t heard you calling for the rope.”
Boyd chuckled. “You’ve got to be kidding, Georgie. Weren’t you watching the man? We were so outclassed, it was a joke even trying to take him on. There’s no shame in losing to someone that skilled with his fists.”
Drew just smiled. “Boyd’s right. There’s a lot to admire in the man, if he weren’t so—
so—”
“Antagonizing? Insulting? Disparaging in his every remark?” Georgina almost laughed. “I hate to be the one to tell you, but that happens to be the way he is all the time, even to his close friends.”
“But that would drive me crazy,” Boyd exclaimed. “Didn’t it you?”
Georgina shrugged. “Once you get used to it, it’s kind of amusing. But as habits go, it’s a dangerous one, since he simply doesn’t care if he rubs someone the wrong way…like tonight. But regardless of his habits, or his past crimes, or anything else, I don’t think he’s been dealt with fairly by us.”
“Fair enough,” Boyd insisted, “considering what he did to you.”
“Let’s not bring me into this. You don’t hang a man for seducing a woman, or you’d both be in trouble yourselves, wouldn’t you?” Boyd had the grace to blush, but Drew just grinned maddeningly. “I’ll put it another way,” Georgina continued, giving Drew a disgusted look. “I don’t care if he was a pirate, I don’t want him to hang. And his crew should never have been brought into it, either. He was right about that.”
“Maybe so, but I don’t see what you can do about it,” Boyd replied. “What you’ve said isn’t going to make the least bit of difference to Warren.”
“He’s right,” Drew added. “You might as well go to bed and hope for the best.”
“I can’t do that,” she said simply and slumped back in her chair.
She was starting to feel that insidious panic again that had brought her in here to try desperate measures. She forced it back. Panic didn’t help. She had to think. And then it came to her as she watched her two youngest brothers head toward the liquor cabinet, likely what had brought them both here. She wasn’t surprised they needed a little help sleeping tonight, as bruised as they both were. She tried not to think of how much worse James had been injured.
She began by stating the facts. “James is your brother-in-law now. You all saw to that. Will you two help?”
“You want us to wrestle the key away from Warren?” Drew grinned. “I’m all for that.”
Boyd, in the process of taking a sip of brandy, choked. “Don’t even think about it!”
“That’s not what I had in mind,” Georgina clarified. “There’s no reason for either of you to get in Warren’s bad graces, no reason for him to know that any of us did anything, for that matter.”
“I suppose we could break that old lock on the cellar door easy enough,” Drew allowed.
“No, that won’t do, either,” Georgina said. “James won’t leave without his crew or his ship, but he’s in no condition to free either one. He may think he is, but—”
“So you want us to help him with that, too?”
“That’s just it. As angry as he is just now, I honestly don’t think he’d accept your help. He’d try to do it all himself and end up caught again. But if we free his ship and crew first, then it will be an easy matter for them to break James out and help him back to his ship. Then they’ll be gone by morning, and Warren will have to assume that his men missed one or two of them, who were able to help the rest escape.”
“And what about the guard Warren has left on the Maiden Anne who will tell him exactly who came aboard?”
“Those men can’t tell him if they don’t recognize anyone,” Georgina said confidently. “I’ll explain on our way there. Just give me a few minutes to change my clothes.”
As she came around the desk, though, Drew grabbed her arm to ask softly, “Will you go with him?”
There was no hesitation or emotion in her reply, “No, he doesn’t want me.”
“Seems I heard something different.”
She stiffened at the reminder that they’d all heard James say she’d make a fine mistress. “Then let me rephrase that. He doesn’t want a wife.”
“Well, there’s no arguing with that. And neither Clinton nor Warren would let you go, anyway. They might have married you to him, but I can tell you true, it wasn’t with the intention of letting you live with him.”
And she couldn’t argue with that, nor did she want to live with James. She’d meant it earlier when she said she didn’t love him. She didn’t anymore, she really didn’t, and if she kept saying it often enough, it was going to be absolutely true.
Chapter Thirty-six
Forty minutes later, the three youngest Andersons found the small bay where the Maiden Anne was still anchored. Warren’s crew had captured her with the pretense of an official boarding by the harbor master, and there’d been little Conrad Sharpe could do since he didn’t know whether Bridgeport had jurisdiction over this area of the coast or not. Fortunately, no one had been hurt. The deceit had worked perfectly in getting enough of Warren’s crew transferred over from the Nereus to the Maiden Anne for them to then take control of the unsuspecting ship. And since Warren hadn’t given his men orders to bring either the ship or crew into Bridgeport, his men had simply locked the Maiden Anne’s crew in their own hold and left a small contingent of men to guard them and the ship. The Nereus hadn’t even remained behind, but had returned to Bridgeport with most of her crew.
With the whole thing having been accomplished from ship to ship, Georgina was hoping there would be a skiff somewhere along the shore that James had used to land, and they could use to get out to the ship. But after ten minutes of searching, it appeared that James had merely been dropped off.
“I hope you know I hadn’t figured on a midnight swim being part of this crazy scheme. It’s the middle of October, if you hadn’t noticed. We’re going to freeze our…you-know-whats…George.”
Georgina flinched at the new name both her brothers had been ribbing her with since she surprised them by coming downstairs dressed in her old boy’s togs, which James had so thoughtfully returned to her. Drew had gone one further to really embarrass her in remarking, “I really don’t like you in those breeches, now that your Englishman has pointed out what parts of you can be so easily admired in them.”
“I don’t know what you’re complaining about, Boyd,” she said testily now. “Imagine how much more difficult this would have been had they brought her into the harbor where we’d have the watch on every nearby ship to contend with, not just Warren’s men.”
“Had they done that, little sister, you’d never have gotten me to agree to this business in the first place.”
“Well, you did agree,” she said testily. “So get your shoes off and let’s get it over with. These men do need some sort of head start, just in case Warren gets really ridiculous and decides to go after them.”
“Warren might be feeling justified where your captain is concerned,” Drew pointed out, “but he’s not suicidal. Those aren’t toy cannon poking out of those gunports on yonder ship, sweetheart. And the Hawke says he’s retired?”
“Old habits die hard, I imagine,” she said in James’s defense, which was becoming a habit she ought to break. “Besides, he was sailing in the West Indies, where pirates do still roam.”
That piece of logic brought chuckles from both brothers, with Drew remarking, “That’s rich, an ex-pirate worried about attack from his old buddies.”
With memories reminding her how true that statement was, Georgina only said, “If you two don’t show a leg, you can stay with the horses. I’ll go on without you.”
“Clinton was right, by God,” Drew told Boyd as he hopped on one foot to get the boot off his other. “Bossy, that’s what she’s become, plain and…Now hold on, Georgie, you aren’t going up that anchor cable first!”
But she was already in the water, and they both had to scramble to catch up with her. As they were strong swimmers, it didn’t take long, and soon the three of them were gliding smoothly across the bay. Ten minutes later, they neared the ship and swam around to the anchor cable, which they would now have to use to climb aboard.
The original plan had included the use of James’s skiff, to just brazenly approach the ship in it and claim they’d found another of the Maiden Anne’s crewmen in town and had br
ought him out for safekeeping with the others. Georgina would have done the talking and stayed in front, since she was the least likely of the three of them to be recognized. Drew would have kept behind them, and Boyd was to be the “prisoner” in the middle. Then as soon as she got close enough to one of the guards, she was to duck and let Boyd bash him. Very simple. But since they weren’t likely to swim out to the ship with a prisoner in tow, those plans had to be abandoned, at least until the deck was secured. And neither Drew nor Boyd was about to let Georgina participate in that, which left her twiddling her thumbs in the water while they both disappeared over the side of the ship.
She waited, but none too patiently, as the minutes passed and she had no way of knowing what was happening above. The lack of any noise was heartening, but what might she really hear with the water lapping in her ears, and her ears covered by the woolen cap which completed her disguise? And with nothing to distract her, it wasn’t long before her position in the water began to work on her imagination.
Were there sharks in the area? Hadn’t one of her neighbors caught a shark just last year when he’d gone fishing up the coast? In the shadow of the ship, she couldn’t see anything on the surface of the water, much less anything swimming around under her.
Once the question arose, it was less than a minute before Georgina was out of that water and climbing the anchor cable. Not to go all the way up, though. She’d been told to wait with an added “or else,” and had no intention of getting Boyd and Drew angry with her after they’d been so obliging to help her. But intentions didn’t take into account that her hands weren’t made for dangling from a thick cable. In fact, she only just barely made it to the top rail before her hold gave out. And considering that she would have gone splashing back into what she was now absolutely positive was shark-infested water, she was pretty relieved to pull herself over the side—until she saw the dozen men standing there ready to greet her.
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