“But—”
“No more buts,” Katey had cut in, still too angry for long explanations.
That picnic excuse Grace had been given had just fueled Katey’s anger, since she would wager Boyd hadn’t once thought about her servants and how her absence would be explained to them. Or did he actually think they wouldn’t notice that she wasn’t on the ship all day? Or maybe he thought she was a thoughtless, imperious employer who merely gave her servants orders without taking the time to explain anything to them.
Tyrus had come up with the excuse of a picnic, which had been better than no excuse at all, and certainly better than the truth, which he had been privy to. But that excuse still made it look as if Katey had been inconsiderate for not giving Grace prior warning.
“I’m sorry I didn’t think to leave you a note,” she said to Grace now as she sat up in her bed looking as guilty as she felt. “It was a—a spur-of-the-moment decision to go ashore. Boyd wanted me to catch the sunrise from the beach.”
Lying to her maid! Not for the first time, of course, but that was a real lie, not the sort she cooked up to entertain Grace.
“Did you?” Grace asked curiously as she set about unpacking Katey’s trunks again.
“No, but we saw it from the rowboat on the way in. It was lovely, reflecting on the few thin clouds near it, and on the water.”
Katey blushed immediately. She wasn’t used to lying for real, certainly not to Grace. She needed to stop elaborating and just change the subject!
“It sounds like a nice outing,” Grace said with a sniff. “What turned it sour?”
Katey groaned inwardly. “When does that man not do something to annoy me? He brought up the subject of marriage again and wouldn’t drop it.”
Grace turned to her wide-eyed. “Again? When was the first time?”
“That was on the spur of the moment, too. Out of the blue, without even leading up to it, he just asked me to marry him. I was insulted.”
Grace gasped. “How can you be insulted over a compliment like that?”
Katey was not going to tell her maid that Boyd had mentioned bedding her in the same breath. “It was his abruptness,” she hedged. “For some reason he doesn’t think that I might like to be courted first.”
Grace chuckled at that and said in her superior I-know-more-than-you voice, “I had a feeling you were smitten. I don’t know why you’ve kept it to yourself. Why don’t you put both of you out of your respective miseries and marry the man?”
“I’m not smitten.”
Grace snorted. “I know you, remember? You’ve been giving all the signs since you met up with Boyd Anderson again. You’re well and truly smitten, so don’t try to deny it.”
Katey shook her head. “Attracted, certainly. How could I not find him handsome? Infatuated, maybe a little. But his emotions run in extremes and I’m not so sure I’d want to deal with that for the rest of my life.”
That was the biggest lie yet. She’d found out today what Boyd was like when he wasn’t lusting after her. He’d shown a completely different side of himself, as if he were two different men. And the relaxed, playful one would be easy to fall in love with. Too easy.
“I wasn’t planning on marrying until I’ve finished this trip.”
“Love doesn’t care about plans, Katey. It never does. It just happens.”
“I disagree. It can be avoided, nipped in the bud. Steps can be taken to keep it from happening.”
“So that’s why we’ve jumped ship, as they say? It’s not just because you’re furious with him again, you’re running from love?”
Katey gritted her teeth. “No, I already told you. The Malorys came here to fetch me, at least that’s what they said. And it seemed a good time to take a vacation from Boyd Anderson. A permanent one.”
“Because you’re furious with him.”
“Fine! Because I’m furious with him!”
Back came Grace’s I-know-more-than-you tone. “Putting distance between yourself and him isn’t going to weaken what you’re feeling.”
Since what Katey was feeling was rage, she certainly hoped that wasn’t the case. She wouldn’t like to sail all the way back to England stewing with this anger. But she knew that wasn’t what Grace was talking about.
“I don’t love him,” she insisted again. “It might have been sneaking up on me a little, but it’s already fading. And never seeing him again will take care of any remaining feelings I have for him.”
Please let that be true, she said to herself. As for her anger, she could curb that, she was sure. It might take a few days to settle down, but with the cause of it no longer in her immediate vicinity, it would be much easier to set aside than if she had to see Boyd every day.
“I’m still incredulous that you wanted to abandon ship just because of a spat with him,” Grace remarked.
“I can’t enjoy this trip if I’m constantly in an aggravated state.”
“Well, that’s true enough, I suppose.” Grace added, “He followed us, you know.”
“What?”
“They even had a shouting match from ship to ship when The Oceanus sailed up alongside this ship.”
“What?!”
Grace nodded. “I went up on deck to listen, but that blond lord ordered me to return to my cabin, and, well, I didn’t feel like arguing with him.”
Katey stared at her maid wide-eyed for a moment, but then she almost grinned over her last remark. Perfectly understandable for Grace not to want to argue with James Malory. Neither would Katey.
She tried to sound nonchalant as she asked, “So you didn’t hear what they were shouting?”
“No, but what do you think? He’s asked you to marry him, but they’re hying off with you. He no doubt wants you back on his ship so he can finish courting you.”
Katey rolled her eyes. “He was not courting me. I doubt he knows the first thing about it.”
Grace snorted. “Neither do you. Sure, you don’t have a house where he can come calling on you, but what do you think all that was about in Cartagena, when he spent the entire day with you? And that picnic? And wanting to watch the sunrise with you?”
Katey would have banged her head on a table if there had been one in front of her. Two out of three of the things Grace had just mentioned were lies, and the one that wasn’t just didn’t wash when she knew very well that every single thing that man had done was because of his physical desire for her, not because he wanted to court her.
But Grace wasn’t finished. She had only paused long enough to dig a small box out of one of Katey’s trunks. “And this?” Grace said, handing the box to her. “I found it in your cabin when you went on that picnic. It could have been delivered earlier. Since it’s still unopened—you didn’t see it?”
“No.” Katey frowned as she took the little package and removed the thin silk wrapping.
When she opened the small wooden trinket box, her eyes widened. Dangling from a gold chain was a lovely scrimshaw pendant, delicately carved and an immediate reminder of home—and Boyd. She draped the chain over her neck before she examined it more closely.
Grace was smirking now. “Pretty, but of course he couldn’t have given it to you because he was courting you. Not that it matters now. His ship is no longer following us, or if it is, it’s fallen far behind. I went up to check before I came to tell you the Malorys are holding dinner for you.”
Katey blinked and flew off the bed, yelling, “Why didn’t you say so?!”
“I just did. And there’s no need to fly into a panic. So you keep them waiting. It’s—”
“No, I do not keep them waiting.” Katey grabbed one of the dresses that Grace had just put in the standing wardrobe. “One brother scares the heck out of me. And you. Don’t deny it, you just said as much. He seems to be cloaked in menace all the time, that one! I’ve yet to feel relaxed in his presence. The other, Judith’s father, well, he’s been nothing but nice. I can’t deny that. But I get this strange feeling around him that
nearly makes me just as nervous.”
“Strange how?”
Katey didn’t pause in changing her clothes. “It’s hard to describe. It’s as if for Judith’s sake, I want to impress him. He saw me as his daughter’s heroine.”
Grace laughed. “You can’t get much more impressive than that.”
“I know. And I guess I just don’t want to tarnish that image he has of me. I shouldn’t care, but for some reason I do.”
Grace fastened the back of Katey’s dress. “Impressing and not disappointing are pretty much the same thing so it’s understandable that you’d feel that way about Judith’s father. You did form a fast close bond with that child. I don’t doubt you and Judith will remain friends and keep in touch.”
“You think that’s all it is?”
“Why else would you worry about what Sir Anthony Malory thinks of you?”
Chapter 44
IT WAS AN UNPLEASANT DINNER. Katey couldn’t think of a more appropriate word to describe it. She was uncomfortable. The two Malory men were just as uncomfortable. And it didn’t help that James had nearly insulted her when he’d remarked on the pendant she was wearing close to her heart, asking if it was made of ivory.
She’d smiled and told him, “No, it’s called scrimshaw, carvings that have become popular in New England recently. It’s made of whalebone.”
He’d looked appalled. “You’re wearing—whale?”
She’d stiffened and said, “I think it’s beautiful. A lot of thought and talent went into making it.”
“Quite right,” he’d amended. “Very pretty.”
For whatever reason, they seemed to be as nervous as she was tonight. Or perhaps they were just responding to her mood.
The food was delicious though. The Malorys even attempted to make normal conversation, but it was pretty terse. And she caught quite a few pointed looks between the brothers, as if they were communicating without words. Their odd behavior began to worry her. She had intended to ask what they were doing in the Mediterranean. Now she was quite sure she didn’t want to know.
“Pure foolishness on his part, taking you through that particular sea,” James was saying to her. “There is ample warm weather in the Caribbean. That’s where Boyd should have sailed you.”
“I didn’t want to travel that far yet,” Katey replied. “He did suggest it. I declined.”
“Then the fault was yours, m’dear,” James didn’t hesitate to scold. “You have to take into account what is happening in the part of the world you intend to visit. Most of the pirates in the Caribbean were done away with toward the end of the last century. The few that are still operating there are mostly just the annoying sort that will ransom you back to your family if you’re captured.”
“What my brother is getting at,” Anthony added, “is that pirates are much more prevalent in the Mediterranean. The governments who have suffered losses because of them haven’t become sufficiently annoyed to declare war on them. They will eventually, but in the meantime, if those pirates capture you, they won’t ransom you to your family, they’ll sell you into slavery. A very big difference.”
Katey didn’t take offense. When someone scolded her out of concern for her, she tended to feel guilt, not anger. But Katey felt neither emotion now. At least they were no longer tiptoeing around with their words, which enabled her to relax just a little.
“I was assured that we would be relatively safe if we avoided the Barbary Coast, which we did,” Katey told them. “Was I misinformed? Is that why you came looking for us? Do you know something about this area that Boyd and his captain don’t know?”
“My brother is being overly dramatic,” Anthony said. “You were probably fine.”
“Not so fine,” Katey was forced to say. “Had we stayed on ship, we would have been, no doubt. But going on that outing so far from any settlements left us exposed. Some pirates did show up today. They spotted us on the beach and came ashore to capture us. Boyd took care of both boats they sent it. You didn’t notice their ship scurrying away at the first sight of The Oceanus?”
“We saw the smaller vessel, but since you were on the empty side of a populated island, we assumed they were merely local friendlies who stopped to see if you wanted a ride out of there.”
“Two boatloads, eh?” James said thoughtfully. “What was the head count?”
“Six per boat. Boyd wasn’t quite done with the first group when the second boat arrived.”
“He had weapons?”
“If you want to call his fists weapons. With the apparent intent to sell him into slavery, they were doing their best not to seriously hurt him. They thought they could bring him down with their bare hands. They thought wrong.”
To that James raised a golden brow at his brother. “Feeling better, old man?”
“That he’s good with his fists?” Anthony grumbled. “Or that after bruising them on twelve faces he was still good with his fists?”
James ended up chuckling. “Good point.”
But Anthony said to her with a frown, “You must have been terrified.”
Katey blinked with the realization that she’d been nothing of the sort, at least she hadn’t really been afraid for herself. In fact…
“I was worried, yes, but at first about Boyd. He’d hid me inland, then went back to ‘take care of them,’ he’d said. I was too nervous to stay put. When I got back to the beach, I saw another boat landing, but Boyd wasn’t quite finished with the first group, and he couldn’t see the new arrivals. That’s when I panicked. I was afraid the new group would surprise Boyd and overwhelm him. So I stepped out to draw their attention to me, to give him a little more time to finish with the two he was still fighting.”
“They didn’t try to overwhelm you?”
Her lips twisted with disgust. “They probably would have, but they were too busy laughing at my attempt to hit them with the rocks I’d gathered. Not one of the stones I threw landed anywhere near them. It was a pathetic attempt to do them harm, but it worked rather perfectly as a distraction, if I do say so myself.”
Anthony sat back in amazement. “So once again you come to the rescue.”
She chuckled at him. “Certainly not. I merely gave Boyd time to sneak up behind them and drop two of them with his club before they even knew he was there! You know, as I look back on it, and I can say this now that the danger is over, it was quite an exciting adventure, the second I’ve had since I began this journey. I even managed to knock one of the pirates out when they turned their backs on me to deal with Boyd’s timely arrival. And he made quick work of the last three. You should have seen him. He was quite magnificent, particularly since he barely took a scratch himself.”
The brothers exchanged glances before Anthony asked carefully, “Katey, you haven’t developed fond feelings for Boyd Anderson, have you?”
“No.”
She said it so quickly, Anthony didn’t delve further. He merely added, “Glad to hear it, because he’s not exactly in our good graces just now.”
James grinned. “When has that barbarian ever been?”
Anthony disagreed. “You weren’t here, old man, but I had reason to be grateful to the Yank recently.”
James feigned a surprised look. “Never say so.”
“It was certainly brief, mind you, but I felt it nonetheless.”
“And long gone,” James said.
“Most definitely,” Anthony agreed with a sour look. “But I’ll have to allow it sounds as if he acquitted himself rather well today—before we arrived.”
“You can allow that if you must, but I bloody well won’t,” James said to his brother, then glancing at Katey, he added, “Katey, m’dear, don’t make the mistake of seeing my annoying brother-in-law as your hero just because he managed to take down twelve miscreants today. With those pirates not wanting to hurt him, as you said, the advantage was completely his. Any man who is the least bit handy with his fists could have done the same thing.”
“Oh, I would
n’t make the mistake of thinking that,” she said tight-lipped. “Certainly not.”
Especially since they would never have been on that isle to begin with, or run into those pirates, if Boyd hadn’t jumped on his golden opportunity, as he’d put it, to get them there. But she wasn’t about to mention that to the Malory brothers.
James, however, picked up on her tone and remarked thoughtfully, “That’s right, you’re currently annoyed with him, aren’t you?”
“Whatever gave you that idea?” she said sarcastically.
James replied with a grin, “The ‘pretend you don’t know me’ remark you made to him would have sufficed, but we could also see that you’d been chewing his head off on the beach.”
She groaned inwardly, realizing they’d probably had spyglasses trained on the island. But this was one subject she wasn’t going to discuss. The Malorys, however, apparently felt they knew her well enough by now to delve.
One of James’s golden brows went up. “Would you like to discuss it?”
“No.”
“It’s nothing that would require punishment?” James pressed in a more menacing tone. He even rubbed his knuckles against his cheek so she’d understand what sort of punishment he was talking about.
“No, don’t hurt him!”
“Wouldn’t dream of it, dear girl,” Anthony assured her, albeit with some color in his cheeks.
James chuckled to himself. Katey had no idea why. She saw nothing amusing about the subject. But then these English lords did seem to have a quirky sense of humor.
With dinner pretty much finished and the conversation no longer to her liking, Katey waved away the dessert that was offered to her. “I should be getting back to my cabin,” she told her companions. “It’s been a long, eventful day.”
Anthony said quickly, “Katey, don’t go yet. I need to have a few words with you.” He looked at his brother. “Would you mind?”
James understood, but he started laughing in reply. “Leave?” In other words, he wasn’t budging.