No Choice but Seduction (17 page)

W
ELL, GOOD
G
OD
, J
AMES,
you could have given us some warning,” Anthony said to the new arrival. “When did you get back to town?”

“Just this afternoon.”

A lot suddenly happened at once. Jeremy bolted across the room and enveloped the large blond man in a bear hug. That would surely have knocked a slighter man back out of the room, but not this one, which was a good thing, since he wasn’t alone. Entering the parlor right behind him were a woman and a child.

Katey scurried out of the way. The big man might look downright menacing, but obviously he wasn’t, and even more obvious, he was yet another member of Judith’s family. Judith bolted across the room, too, but to hug the little girl who had come in with her parents and pull her aside to start whispering in her ear.

The woman who had come in with them—good grief, yet another beauty!—was making her way around the room hugging everyone, as if she hadn’t seen them for months. And perhaps that was the case, she thought, when she heard Anthony questioning the blond man named James.

“How did that trip go?” he asked. “You were able to find Drew?”

“Yes, and Gabrielle Brooks was with him as we’d suspected. We just hadn’t thought that she was the one who’d commandeered his ship.”

“She actually stole it? How?”

“She had some help from her father’s loyal crew. And she was desperate. They’d brought her word that her father was being held prisoner by a bunch of rogue pirates who
used
to be his associates.”

“But why’d she steal it? Wasn’t Drew her escort while she was here in London?” Anthony asked. “She could have just asked him to take her to the Caribbean, couldn’t she?”

“You don’t recall that scandal about Gabby that made the rounds right before she left?” James’s wife asked Anthony. “Drew was responsible for that, so she wasn’t about to ask him for anything at that point.”

“Ah, an angry woman with the means for revenge,” Anthony guessed with a knowing grin. “I quite understand.”

“Thought you might,” James said drily. “But they patched up their differences by the time we found them.”

“So Drew didn’t need to be rescued after all?”

“Not a’tall. But Gabby’s father still did, and that was a grand fight if I do say so m’self, pulling him out of that pirates’ nest. Sorry you missed the fun, old chap. You would have enjoyed it.”

“Did Drew return with you?” Roslynn asked.

“No, he’ll be staying in the Caribbean for a while. We attended his wedding before we sailed home.”

Anthony laughed. “Don’t tell me, more pirates in
your
family now?”

That got him a glower from the handsome blond man and Katey abruptly changed her mind. James Malory
was
absolutely menacing. Could expressions be lethal?

“Don’t be an ass, they’re your family, too,” James replied.

Anthony was either very brave or he simply didn’t notice the other man’s glower, because he said with a grin, “Beg to differ, old man. You’re the one with five barbarian brothers-in-law, not me.”

“And
our
nephew by marriage is one of them,” James pointed out.

“Bloody hell, forgot about him,” Anthony grumbled, then put an arm around his brother’s wide shoulders to steer James toward Katey. “Well, come and meet Judy’s heroine. You heard what happened? I know Judy rushed over to see Jack the very day after she got home.”

“Yes, Jack told us all about it in less than ten seconds. We’d barely got in the door! But you know how she will string all her sentences together when she’s excited.”

“Indeed.” Anthony rolled his eyes. “Judy does the same thing. She didn’t get that habit from me! I swear we were never that excitable when we were that age.”

“We weren’t girls” was James’s droll reply. But then on a sober note, he added, “Sorry I wasn’t here to help, Tony.”

“Not to worry, old man. Your son and brother-in-law filled in for you nicely. And it’s over, thank God, so no need to belabor it.”

When they reached Katey, Anthony made the introductions. Even though James Malory wasn’t that much taller than she was, when he wrapped those massive arms around her—he actually hugged her!—she felt very, very small.

“We are in your debt,” James told her. “You helped my dearest niece, who is also my daughter’s best friend. If you ever need anything, Katey Tyler, anything of any sort, you come to me.”

She didn’t doubt he was quite sincere. And she had a feeling “anything” really meant anything, even of the dangerous sort.

His wife, “George,” joined them to add her thanks. And listening to them, Katey got the impression that while James Malory could easily be a danger to some people, his friends and family certainly had nothing to fear from him, and Katey had just been placed in the latter group, which banished that brief bit of nervousness she’d felt earlier at his arrival.

One more person had arrived with James and his family, but he’d been tardy in coming through the door. Unfortunately he’d snuck in behind Katey. If she’d had just a little warning, she might not have made a fool of herself.

“Mrs. Tyler?”

She swung around to face Boyd Anderson. With the most derision she’d ever mustered, she said, “Ah, if it isn’t the man who would make criminals out of innocents. It’s a shame the Malorys have to call a blackguard like you a relative.”

Shamefaced, he said, “I’ve come to apologize for not believing you.”

“Apology denied,” she replied coldly. “Now go away.”

“Please—”

“Deaf as well as stupid?” she cut in without pity. “Then let me see if I can make you understand. You could beg on your knees, and it would make no difference. You, sir, are an idiot!”

He got down on his knees. She snorted, took out her pistol, and shot him. She missed, of course, but it was nice to see him looking fearful.

Unfortunately, all of that only happened in her imagination afterward and
not
in a room filled with a dozen witnesses. Boyd did surprise her. She did swing around to face him with a gasp. He was dressed more elegantly than the last time she’d seen him, in a well-tailored black jacket that fit snugly to his wide shoulders, a white, lacy cravat tight to his neck, his gold-streaked brown curls in fashionable disarray. But the sight of this handsome man didn’t steal her breath; instead her instinct for self-preservation overrode her good sense, and she snapped, “Don’t talk to me! Don’t you dare even come near me. Actually—”

She turned to Sir Anthony, who was now frowning as he glanced between them. She felt a hot blush coloring her cheeks because the Malorys couldn’t have helped but hear her being so rude to their relative. She simply couldn’t stay here now.

“I’m sorry, but I need to leave immediately,” she told her host. “Thank you for your hospitality.”

She didn’t give him a chance to reply, didn’t pause but a moment on her way out the door, just long enough to bend down and hug Judith and whisper to her, “I’ll visit again before I sail, but right now I have to go.”

She almost reached the front door, but Boyd was fast on her heels. His hand on her arm stopped her briefly and brought her around to face him.

“Katey, you have to let me explain.”

“Get your hand off me!” She stared down at it until Boyd removed it, then told him, “I don’t
have
to do anything except ignore you, which is going to be very easy to do.”

“Will you please listen to me for a—”

“Like you listened to me? You dragged me across the countryside against my will—
in
a storm, I might add. You manhandled me, locked me in a room, all without listening to me even once!”

“Maybe I didn’t manhandle you enough, since you managed to escape,” he said in frustration. “I could have tied you down in that room, but I didn’t.”

She gasped indignantly. “Do you actually think that exonerates you? I can’t believe I’m even talking to you, but no more. I will give you exactly the same courtesy you gave me, though. Whatever you say will fall on deaf ears. Isn’t that how it went?”

She was glad to see at least a slight tinge of color mount his cheeks, but that’s all she stood there to see. She turned and rushed out the door. She heard him call her name again, shouting it actually, but she didn’t stop and even ran down the outer stairs. The coach Anthony had sent to fetch her was still in front of the house, and within moments she was inside it and on her way back to her hotel.

Chapter Eighteen

B
OYD’S FIRST INSTINCT
as he stood at the door and watched Katey drive away was to follow her, but James had sent their coach home and it wouldn’t be returning for several hours. It was Edward’s habit to do the same thing. Since Piccadilly was a high-traffic street, the family preferred not to add to the congestion of it by leaving their vehicles at the curb.

Derek’s driver was the only one left, and while he probably wouldn’t hesitate to take a Malory anywhere he or she requested, he’d no doubt want permission first to drive off with an Anderson. And then there’d be no catching up to the coach, which was already disappearing in the distance. But Boyd knew that someone inside Anthony’s house had to know where Katey was staying because she’d been invited here.

He’d found out she was innocent of the charges he’d laid on her as soon as he got back to London. Anyone who didn’t have his mind
and
body clouded with desire as Boyd had been would probably have believed her immediately, since she
had
been telling the truth. But he’d gone straight to Anthony’s house to assure himself that Judith was home.

As soon as he’d walked into the parlor, Jeremy, still there and sitting with Judith on a sofa, said to him, “D’you know what it’s like being scolded by a seven-year-old who’s too smart to be condescended to?”

And Judith piped in, “I just wanted to thank Katey properly. You would have, too, if someone had risked her life to save you. You could have taken me back for just a few minutes to do that. But you had us miles down the road before you even listened to me!”

Jeremy gave Boyd a you-see-what-I-mean? look. However, to his young cousin, he said, “So it would have taken more’n a few minutes, wouldn’t it, puss, as far down the road as we were? But I’ll find out where she’s staying when she gets to London and take you to visit her m’self so you can thank her properly. I’ll be wanting to thank her as well. Hell’s bells, the whole family’s in her debt. So stop worrying about it, she’ll get thanked.”

But Judith had asked Boyd directly, “Did
you
at least thank her before you left?”

Boyd didn’t know how he’d managed to get a single word out, he’d been so poleaxed, but he said by way of excuse, “I was overcome by her beauty, so that might have slipped my mind.” Jeremy rolled his eyes at that, but Boyd quickly continued, “But you can be sure I’ll help to find her to rectify that oversight.”

“Would you?” The child beamed at him, driving the ax in a lot deeper.

He’d gotten out of there fast before they could notice how guilty he felt. He’d even thought about riding back to Northampton that night, but he doubted that Katey would still be there. Besides, he felt she’d be looking for him as soon as she got to town, with a gun, or a club, or a parasol to break over his head. And it would be easier for her to find him than for him to find her, since she could locate him through the Malorys.