“Men do get married, you know,” Georgina said reasonably, if a bit sarcastically. “They even do it on a regular basis, same as women do. So would someone mind telling me why the first and so far unanimous reaction to James’s getting married is shock, followed closely by disbelief? For God’s sake, he’s not a monk.”
“You’re absolutely right. No one could ever accuse him of being that.” And the speaker went into a round of giggles.
Reggie, or Regan, as the case were, turned out to actually be Regina Eden, viscountess of Montieth. But she was a very young viscountess, only twenty years old, and no bigger than Georgina. And no one could deny that she was a member of the Malory clan, at least Anthony and Jeremy’s side of it, for she had the same black hair and cobalt-blue eyes that they’d been born with. But Georgina was to learn that they were the exceptions, along with Amy, one of Edward’s daughters. All of the other Malorys resembled James, being blond and mostly green-eyed.
Georgina also found, to her relief, that Regina Eden was immensely likable. In quick order she found her to be lively, charming, open, teasing, and quite, quite outspoken. She’d been bubbling with good humor ever since she’d arrived earlier that afternoon, but especially after she’d asked James, “And which mistress did you lend my clothes to?” since she hadn’t been home for the borrowing of them. And while James was mulling over the easiest way to break the news, Anthony simply couldn’t resist answering, “The one he married, puss.” Fortunately, the girl had been sitting down at the time. But Georgina had heard at least nine times, “I don’t believe it”—she was counting—and there’d been a good ten times, “Oh, this is famous!” and that in the space of only a few hours.
Georgina was upstairs now having her hair artfully arranged by Roslynn’s maid, Nettie MacDonald, a feisty Scot of middle years whose soft brogue and softer green eyes had Georgina thinking how Mac would really like this woman. Roslynn and Regina were also present, supposedly to make sure she was turned out just right to meet the elders, James’s older brothers, but actually they were making sure she didn’t get nervous by regaling her with amusing anecdotes about the family and answering all her questions.
“I suppose it does seem a bit strange to someone who isn’t familiar with Uncle James’s history.” Regina had quieted down enough to answer Georgina’s question. “This is a man who swore he would never marry, and no one doubted he was absolutely serious. But to understand why, you have to realize he was a…well, he…”
“Was a connoisseur of women?” Georgina supplied helpfully.
“Why, that’s a splendid way to put it! I’ve said the same myself.”
Georgina only smiled. Roslynn rolled her eyes. She’d heard her Anthony described the same way by this minx, but she preferred to call a rake a rake.
“But Uncle James wasn’t just a connoisseur,” Regina went on to explain. “And if I may be blunt…?”
“By all means,” Georgina replied.
But Roslynn warned first, “Now don’t try to make her jealous, Reggie.”
“Of past peccadilloes?” The girl snorted. “I for one, am eternally grateful for every one of my Nicholas’s past mistresses. Without the experience—”
“I think we get your drift, m’dear,” Roslynn cut in, and couldn’t help grinning. “And we might even agree,” she added, seeing that Georgina was smiling, too.
“Well, as I was saying, Uncle James was a bit more than just a connoisseur of women. For a while after he first embarked on what was to be a very jaded career, you might have called him a glutton. Morning, noon, and night, and never with the same woman.”
“Oh, bosh,” Roslynn scoffed. “Morning, noon, and night?”
And Georgina nearly choked, holding her breath, waiting to hear that ridiculous “never with the same woman,” questioned, too, but apparently that part wasn’t in doubt.
“It’s perfectly true,” Regina insisted. “Ask Tony if you don’t believe me, or Uncle Jason, whose misfortune it was to try and curb James’s wildness while he was still living at home—unsuccessfully, I might add. Of course, half of what Uncle James ever did was just to rile Jason. But James was wild. From the youngest age, he always went his own way, always had to be different from his brothers. It’s no wonder he had his first duel before he was even twenty. ’Course he won that one. He’s won them all, don’t you know. Jason was a superb marksman, after all, and he taught all his brothers. Anthony and James, though, developed a fondness for fisticuffs, too, and many of their challenges were seen to in the ring rather than the dueling field.”
“At least that’s not so lethal.”
“Oh, he never actually killed anyone on the field of honor, at least not that I recall hearing about. It’s the angry challenger who usually tries to kill his opponent.”
“Anthony used to ask his opponents where they would like to receive their wounds,” Roslynn put in. “A question like that really undermines a chap’s confidence.”
Regina giggled. “But who do you think he picked that habit up from?”
“James?”
“The very one.”
Georgina was beginning to wish she hadn’t started this. “But you still haven’t really answered my question.”
“It’s all part and parcel, m’dear. By the time Uncle James moved to London, he was already a disreputable rakehell. But he no longer chased everything in skirts, because he didn’t have to. By then, they were chasing him. And most of the women throwing themselves at him were married women.”
“I think I’m beginning to understand,” Georgina said.
“I thought you would. Most every challenge issued to him was quite legitimate, all from husbands. The irony is, James might have taken what was offered, but he never kissed and told. Those batty women were so impressed with him—well, he was a devilish handsome man when he was younger, too—that they did the bragging if he so much as looked at them. So it stands to reason that he wouldn’t have much respect for the married state, seeing firsthand nothing but constant infidelities.”
“Which he contributed to,” Georgina said a bit testily.
“No one can deny that.” Regina grinned. “He was, after all, the most notorious rake in London. He even put Tony to shame, and Tony was quite scandalous himself in his day.”
“I’ll thank you to leave Anthony out of this,” Roslynn said. “He’s a totally reformed rake.”
“Well, so is my Nicholas, I’ll have you know. But as for Uncle James, after so many years of seeing only the worst side of marriage, it was no wonder he despised the hypocrisy of it, and unfaithful wives in particular, with which the ton abounds. He swore he’d never have one of his own, and we all thought he meant it.”
“I’m sure he did mean it. He didn’t ask to marry me, after all.”
Regina didn’t question that. She’d already been told that James had been forced to marry, and by James himself—before Anthony could. But she did question the “forced” part.
“I have to wonder about that, Georgie,” she said thoughtfully. “You just don’t know my Uncle James—”
“But that’s what you’re doing, telling me about him. It’s rare that I get anything of a personal nature out of him, after all. Is there anything else you think I ought to know?”
“Well, the fact that the family disowned him for a while might come up tonight. He was gone from England for about ten years during that time. ’Course, he’s reinstated now. I don’t suppose he told you about any of that?”
“No.”
“Well, that’s one subject that you’ll have to ask him about, since it’s not my place to say—”
“That he was the infamous Captain Hawke?”
Regina’s eyes flared. “So he did tell you?”
“No, he admitted it to my brothers, after they’d recognized him. I suppose you could say it was the worst luck that two of them happened to meet up with James on the high seas before he retired from pirating.”
Regina gasped, “You mean your brothers all knew? Good Lord, it’s lucky they didn’t hang him!”
“Oh, they wanted to, at least Warren did,” Georgina said in disgust. “But James was so full of confessions that night, he deserved hanging.”
“And how is it…he didn’t hang?” Regina asked carefully.
“He escaped.”
“With your help?”
“Well I couldn’t let Warren have his way, just because he was furious at James because of me. He’s a womanizer himself, that hypocrite.”
“Well, all’s well that ends well, as the saying goes,” Roslynn said, and got a snort out of Regina.
“It doesn’t sound like all’s well to me, not when Uncle James has her whole family against him.”
“Come now, Reggie, you don’t really think he’s going to let a little thing like that bother him, do you? Particularly when he’s here and they’re a whole ocean away. When he’s ready, I’m sure he’ll make it up with them, for Georgie’s sake.”
“James?”
Roslynn’s rich chuckle filled the room at Regina’s exaggerated incredulity. “Perhaps you’re right. He’s a man who doesn’t go out of his way to forgive or forget. Your poor husband has learned that firsthand, hasn’t he?”
“Don’t remind me. And I’m sure Nicholas is going to quite enjoy getting in a few digs tonight, especially if he hears that James married under the same circumstances as Nicholas married me.” At Georgina’s questioning look, she added, “Your husband was not the only one who got shoved up to the altar. In Nicholas’s case, it took a little blackmail, a little bribery, and of course Tony praying he’d refuse so he could cut Nicholas into little pieces.”
“And James?”
“Oh, he wasn’t part of that. We didn’t even know he was back in England yet. But as it happens, my husband also clashed with Captain Hawke on the high seas at one time. So if they appear to be mortal enemies tonight, think nothing of it.”
At that Georgina burst into laughter.