Chapter 9

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.