Romancing the Rogue (88 page)

“My brother is going to be furious.”

Georgina dropped her head into her palms. Bloody perfect. She was going to have to contend with an austere, regal, polished nobleman who also happened to be furious. Being thrown out in the streets without a reference seemed the more palatable option. Almost.

The earl murmured something to Nurse Talbert, the words indecipherable through the door.

He tried the handle again.

Adam went to open it.

Georgina gasped and flew across the room, her pale white skirts fluttering about her. She reached him before he turned the lock. “What are you doing?”

Adam’s lips twitched. “I assure you, Georgina, we will have to face him eventually.”

How could he possibly find anything humorous about their situation? The wheels of her mind spun. Surely there was something—

“Adam, the door.”

She jumped as Adam allowed the Earl of Whitehaven entrance.

Adam’s lips formed a rusty smile as he greeted the earl. “Hullo, brother.”

If looks could shoot fire, Adam would’ve been nothing more than a pile of ash at the earl’s feet. “What is the meaning of this? When I said you needed a diversion, this is most certainly not what I had intended.” His blue eyes, sparkling with fury did a quick survey of Georgina. He returned his attention to Adam. “I was called from my board meeting by the head nurse, who informed me that you had abducted one of her…”

“I’d hardly call it abducting,” Adam drawled.

The tight, drawn lines around the earl’s mouth indicted that he didn’t to care to debate the merits of word choice. He arched a perfectly ‘earlish’ brow.

Her stomach curled in knots. The earl of Whitehaven chose that moment to glance her way. His upper lip curled back as he looked down his aristocratic nose at her.

Georgina inched away from Adam, who shifted his attention to the earl.

Georgina saw her chance and took it. She pulled the door open and flew down the hall as though the hounds of hell were nipping at her heels. She might actually prefer those sharp-toothed dogs to the condemnation she’d seen in the earl’s eyes.

~~~~

By the time the thick fog of confusion had lifted, Georgina was gone. His heart threatened to pound a hole out of his chest. He’d not lose her now!

“Georgina!”

Nick planted himself in front of him. “Where do you think you’re going?” he snapped.

Adam took a step around him.

Nick again placed himself between Adam, and the freedom he craved.

Adam gripped him by the shoulders and snarled like the caged captive he’d been. “By God, if you stop me from going to her, I will thrash you within an inch of your life. Is that clear, Nick?”

Nick’s mouth fell open, but he remained frozen in place. “There will be a scandal,” he snapped. He waved his hand around the sterile office. “The staff here will talk. The other board members have already caught a whiff of scandal when I was summoned from the meeting. I will be damned if you throw away your reputation for a common maid…”

Red dots of fury nearly blinded Adam. A roar rumbled deep within his chest. He slammed his fist into Nick’s unsuspecting face.

Nick crumpled to the floor, landing hard on his knees. He pressed his fingers to a slightly-hooked nose and winced. He tugged a kerchief from his pocket and blotted the crimson blood. “By God, you broke my nose!”

Adam stood over him. “You’re my brother, and I love you. But if you disparage her, I will lay you flat again. Is that understood?” He held his hand out.

Nick knocked it aside and shoved to his feet without assistance. “I will not continue this dialogue in this very public forum. If you don’t have a care for your reputation, have one for mine and mother’s.” He glared around the edges of the embroidered fabric.

A twinge of remorse hit him. Nick was the type of brother who’d battle a thousand foes for his family. But being reunited with Georgina had set a blaze burning within him, and his thoughts raged like a conflagration, threatening to burn reason and logic to cinders. His brother would never understand, because he would never know the hell that had bound Adam and Georgina in an unbreakable bond. Still, he had to try. “I need to help her.”

From behind the kerchief, Nick’s eyes grew shuttered. “Tell me this is not the woman.”

Adam didn’t say anything.

Nick sighed. “Very well. I’ll have her summoned.” He walked over to the door…just as it was opened. The wood slammed into his nose with a sickening crack. He cried out.

The plump nurse with her silly white cap stood there wearing a nasty scowl. She had her fingers wrapped tight around Georgina’s forearm. Nurse Talbert spared a glance at Nick’s bloodied kerchief, and wrinkled her nose in a manner hardly befitting a nurse. “My apologies for injuring your nose, my lord,” she saidm with all the sincerity of a sinner taking sup with a man of the cloth. She didn’t make a move to help.

Adam’s gaze fell on Georgina. He tried to imagine her, a beautiful glowing nightingale, silenced by this harridan. The red curtain of rage fell back into place. “Release her now.”

Nurse Talbert released Georgina’s arm with alacrity.

Georgina’s downcast eyes and pale skin indicated it was her spirit that had been wounded. Having suffered at the hands of Fox and Hunter, he knew some things were far worse than physical pain.

It made him want to throw her over his shoulder and run off like a conquering lord, saving his damsel.

He slipped his hand into Georgina’s.

Nurse Talbert’s eyes nearly bulged from her head. She pointed a quivering finger at Georgina. “Your services are no longer required here.”

It was perhaps a testament to how helpless Georgina had become. She showed no outward reaction to what was surely a devastating turn of events. Somehow, the lack of emotion from Georgina was even more bothersome.

Nick flicked an imaginary piece of dust from his shoulder, looking for all the world as though he’d never been more bored. “I’m sure that is a bit extreme, Nurse Talbert.”

The woman’s lips flattened into a hard line. “I have a reputation to maintain, my lord. I cannot allow women of ill repute within my halls. And I most certainly will not allow this wanton to destroy my hard efforts.”

Adam had never hit a woman, but if ever a woman deserved it this was the one. “If you disparage Georgina Wilcox one more time, by God, I’ll see to it that you’ll never work in this hospital or any other hospital, again. Is that clear?”

Nick dabbed at his nose. The blood flow had trickled to a near stop. He folded the cloth and tucked it in his front pocket like it wasn’t completely blood stained. “I’m sure, Nurse Talbert, there is something we can work out so the woman—”

“Miss Wilcox.” Adam had tired of Nick’s lofty use of the term ‘the woman.’ He spoke of her as if she were a teacup or settee.

Nick gave him a pointed glare. “So Miss Wilcox might retain her position.”

“She doesn’t want her position,” Adam snapped.

“Yes she does!” Georgina said, hastily. She looked at Adam with such entreaty in the brown of her eyes, that he was struck speechless. She turned to his brother. “I do, my lord. I want my position here. I need my position here.”

Nurse Talbert was already shaking her head. “The moment you created that scandalous scene on the main floor, you sealed your fate.”

A muscle in Nick’s jaw ticked, a telltale indication of how very close he was to losing his temper. As the earl, he’d become unaccustomed to having people gainsay his wishes.

“Nurse Talbert, I’m going to say this just one more time. I would greatly appreciate it if Miss Wilcox was permitted to keep her position. Is that clear?” He raised a single brow.

Nurse Talbert raised her own brow. “Oh, it was quite clear, my lord.” She looked to Georgina. “Pack your things, my dear. This is your last day.”

Georgina pressed a hand to her mouth, as if she were trying to stifle a scream. Panicked eyes flitted around the office. They met his.

“I will help you, Georgina,” he said quietly. Surely, she had to know that?

The guilt that had robbed him of sleep pricked at him. Then again, what would make her believe he would help her? He’d abandoned her with those foul beasts.

Ever proud, Georgina dropped her trembling hand to her side. She tossed her head back. “Very well, Nurse Talbert.”

Like hell. He planted himself in front of Georgina, and effectively blocked her path. Over the crown of her head, he shot his brother a look.

Nick held his stare then sighed. “I’ll find work for Miss Wilcox in my household.”

Nurse Talbert snorted, indicating just what kind of work she expected Georgina Wilcox would find in the earl’s home.

Adam’s clenched his teeth. He had not survived the hell with Fox and Hunter to fear society’s snide recrimination. “She will not be working in my brother’s household.”

Georgina picked her head up. Her full, red lips quivered.

He reached down and stroked her cheek. It was like silk against his fingers. “She’ll be my wife. I’m marrying her.” He turned to Georgina. “Will you marry me?”

And indomitable Georgina Wilcox fainted dead-away in his arms.

Fox has made an innovation to the folding pike. The weapon can be concealed beneath one’s cloak and possesses a hinge. Fox and Hunter have now devoted their efforts to locating members of The Brethren.

Signed,

A Loyal British Subject

When Georgina came to, she realized several things at once.

First, she was in a carriage.

Two she was entirely too cozy, warm, and comfortable. In her twenty years, she’d been all those things…but never at the same time.

Thirdly, were the clipped tones of two men in a heated argument.

Her brow wrinkled.

Two men?

Arguing?

She came crashing down to earth, and her eyes flew open.

“Don’t fight me on this,” Adam fairly snarled. His hard body against hers thrummed with the same charge as a lightning strike. She expected most men would’ve cowered under Adam’s lethal glare.

Apparently, the earl of Whitehaven was not most men. He appeared bored, stifling a yawn with his hand. “You’ll do no such thing.”

What such thing?

“I’m marrying her.”

And she remembered. Adam was speaking of her. Not Grace Blakely. Her. Short, plain Georgina Wilcox. Her heart soared.

Until the earl spoke.

“You cannot wed her.” He looked down at her and realized she was awake. “She is a commoner. A mere maid. You will not marry a woman of her station.”

Georgina returned his bold stare. The earl was as broad and muscular as an old oak tree. From the harsh angles of his cheeks to the square jawline, this was a man who would rouse fear in man and child alike. Noblemen weren’t supposed to be hulking figures. They were supposed to be painted and clad in all the nauseating colors of an artist’s pallet. And he should’ve been wearing padding. Didn’t all nobles wear padding?

Her eyes narrowed on his waistline. It looked like it could be stuffing.

He shifted, and the expensive line of his sapphire coat tightened across the rippling muscles of his abdomen.

No, there was no stuffing involved.

Perhaps it was her bold perusal, or mayhap just his utter disdain, but his upper lip curled in a sneer and Georgina thought of the tale her father had told of grandmother’s murder. Was this how her grandmother had felt when the English guards spat on her.

She scrambled off Adam’s lap, landing on the floor with a loud thump.

“Georgina!” he cried. He picked her up and returned her to his lap.

Her face colored furiously. “You must release me, Ad…
Mr. Markham. This is highly improper.”

Adam held firm. “I am going to marry you.”

As if that would make any of this right? Surely he realized that what he proposed was not possible?

“You cannot marry me, Adam.” She shoved herself off his lap and sat down on the seat next to him.

“I can. I will.”

He fell silent and, tugging back the curtain, peered out at the passing scene.

Georgina studied him. When she had been a young girl, before she’d made her come out, she’d dreamed of her someday husband. He would be wickedly handsome, excessively kind, abundantly caring. To be precise, the man she’d dreamed of was Adam.

It had taken her no time at all to learn that marriage was reserved for beauties…
like Adam’s Grace. Georgina’s silly hopes had died a swift death when Father had paraded her around all the wealthiest merchants driven by their goals of securing an advantageous connection. Georgina had been a failure. A miserable failure, to be precise. After that, she’d not given much thought to marriage.

Until now.

She wanted to marry him with a physical hunger that ate at her. But there were too many differences, and lies, between them. “You can’t, Adam.”

The fabric fell back into place, and he jerked his neck around so fast, she imagined he’d given himself a wicked pain.

She glanced at the earl.

He stared back at her with a first faint sign of appreciation. “She’s correct. You cannot marry her.”

Adam cursed. “I’ve already decided I’m going to wed her. I ruined her reputation.”

It felt like her heart was being kicked around her chest. The only reason Adam wanted to marry her was because she’d been turned out of her position. His offer, which had never really been much of an offer, was driven by his sense of honor. Of course. Had she really been foolish enough to hope that he cared for her?

She curled her fingers into tight balls. Her nails dug into the flesh of her palms, but she welcomed the pain.

The earl folded his arms across his broad chest. “Have you asked Miss Wilcox what she wants?”

Adam’s gaze snapped to her. The green of his eyes was a stark contrast to the dreary gray of the cold, winter months.

There was the answer she wanted to give his irrational request for marriage. Then there was the answer the earl of Whitehaven expected of her.

“I don’t want to marry you,” she said, her voice hollow.

Adam flinched like he’d been kicked in the stomach. He pinned a glare on his brother. “It’s because of you.”

The earl shrugged. “The lady has her own mind.” The carriage rocked to a halt, ending the discussion.

Adam had different ideas. He leaned close to Georgina. “This is not finished.”

Nearly an hour later, she was perched on the edge of a small pale blue settee in a pale blue parlor, and it was still not done.

Georgina glanced at the ormolu clock on the fireplace mantle, watching the minutes tick by. After Adam had helped her out of the carriage, he’d led her up the front steps of the earl of Whitehaven’s home. The earl had marched ahead in stoic silence, and there was little Georgina hated more than silence. Quiet was a good indicator of many things
—
none of them usually good.

A bellow resonated from a distant room, and she clambered to her feet and all but climbed over the settee in her haste to use it as a protective barrier against the threat
—
that didn’t come. She drew in a shuddery breath, closing her eyes. Shouts of fury were usually accompanied by a heavy fist, or the sting of a lash.

“Well, I say, did you leap over that settee?”

Georgina shrieked and slapped a hand to her breast.

The young man in the doorway lounged with his hip against the frame, his arms folded across his chest. Not as tall as Adam, he still towered over Georgina by a good seven inches. He had a familiarly squared jaw with the tiniest hint of a cleft and pale blue-green eyes the color of sea foam. At her obvious inspection, full lips tipped up in an amused smile.

Heat rushed her cheeks.

This had to be Tony, Adam’s youngest brother.

She bowed her head and sank into a deep curtsy.

He shoved off the wall. “Tsk, tsk. Any lady who can jump as high as you shouldn’t be wasting her energy on things like curtsying and head-bobbing.”

She blinked.

He laughed, bowing low at the waist. “Anthony Devon Markham, at your service,” he said, confirming her suspicions. “But please, call me Tony.”

She’d do no such thing. She wasn’t nobility, but she’d suffered through enough governesses and instructors to know it was highly improper to be alone with a young man, exchanging introductions.

Another bellow shuddered through the house.

“Georgina Wilcox,” she said hastily.

Tony all but threw himself down onto the small blue sofa she’d occupied. He swung his legs over the arm of the chair and folded his arms behind his head. “I’m assuming you are the source of that.”

Georgina bit her lip. Perhaps it would be better to feign ignorance; it would invite less questions. “The source of what, Mr. Markham?”

“Tony,” he corrected. A thundering roar, like that of a wounded bear, rocked the room. “That is the
that
to which I referred.” His lips twitched with amusement again.

She felt like she’d been spun around in a dozen dizzying circles.

He clarified. “The shouting.”

She worried her lower lip. “Uh…yes, I did think that may have been the
that
to which you were referring.”

“You’re going to chew right through it, you know.”

Another shout, and Georgina jumped, looking back at the door. Finding no immediate threat, she turned back to Adam’s younger brother. “What did you say?” The last thing in the world she wanted to do in that moment was exchange banter with Adam’s vexing, if abundantly charming, brother.

He motioned to his lip. “You keep biting at your lip like that, and you’re going to go through it.”

“I’ve bit my lip enough times to assure you that will not happen.” As soon as the words left her mouth, she realized by the glittering specks of gold in his eyes that he was jesting. “Oh,” she said, another blush heating her skin. “You were making light of me.”

Tony shoved himself upright and frowned. “I wasn’t making light.”

She raised a brow.

He sighed. “Very well, perhaps I was. I apologize.”

Then he smiled. It fairly oozed roguish appeal. He was going to be deadly to the young debutantes—and, she’d venture, the older dowagers, as well.

“So, tell me, what’s that all about?” Tony nodded toward the doorway.

Georgina had her lower lip between her slightly crooked teeth before she realized he was looking at her pointedly. She stopped immediately. “I-I…have no idea,” she lied.

He snorted. Fortunately, he was wicked but not deliberately cruel, for he didn’t press her for details.

Not that Georgian would have given them. What was she to say?

Oh you see, my father abducted your brother, took him captive, but I helped free him. Now the honorable lummox has decided to marry me…
whether I like it or not.

“Mother is going to be quite disappointed that she’s missing all this,” Tony mumbled beneath his breath.

She fanned her cheeks. His mother! Goodness, Adam had brought her into his family’s home, through the front entrance no less. Why, the scandal would surely rock his family. Suddenly, taking her chances alone on the streets seemed infinitely preferable. She glanced at the window.

“Oh no. It’s far too high a jump.”

Georgina jerked her gaze back to Tony.

He nodded toward the window. “You look like you were thinking of jumping to freedom.” With a beleaguered sigh, he added, “I’ve considered it on many occasions myself.”

Being reunited with Adam, losing her position and security, being dragged into the middle of a battle between the earl of Whitehaven and Adam…all of it was suddenly too much. Georgina began laughing. She covered her mouth to stifle the giggle but it was little use. Laughter poured out of her like a torrential London rainstorm. Of course, it was infinitely better than crying, but there’d be time enough for that later, when Adam and the earl decided to include her in a discussion that pertained to the rest of her life.

Suddenly she was tired of waiting. To be rescued. To be taken care of. To have a decision made about her fate. She looked at Tony. “Will you show me the way to his lordship’s office?”

Tony smiled, revealing a very Adam-esque row of perfectly straight, pearl-white teeth. “It will be my pleasure, Miss Wilcox.” He held out his elbow.

~~~~

Nicholas sat with his hip perched on the edge of his mahogany desk. The façade of nonchalance was belied by his broken nose and crumpled clothing.

It had been a good six minutes since they’d last shouted at one another. It would appear they were making progress.

Nick swiped a hand across his brow, dashing back an errant trace of sweat. “Surely you see the wisdom in my words. You cannot marry this woman. Why, it would be ruinous.”

Apparently they were making far less progress than he’d hoped.

Adam closed his eyes and counted to ten. When he still felt like hitting his brother, he counted another five. He tried appealing to Nick’s sense of honor. “As a gentleman, you have to see that I’ve ruined Georgina? She is alone in the world. Without work…”

In a wholly un-earl-like show of emotion, Nick slammed his fist down on the desktop. “Christ, you are not thinking with your head!” He drew in a deep breath, and when he spoke again, his tone was even. “I don’t know anything about this woman other than that, in addition to being a maid, she was the reason for your overindulgence in whiskey.”

Adam looked away. His role with The Brethren precluded him from sharing key pieces of himself with his brother. He couldn’t mention how he’d come to know Georgina, nor did he care to get into details about Grace Blakely.

Nick placed his hand upon his shoulder, and Adam met his gaze square on.

“There is something about her I simply do not trust, Adam. You offer me very little about her background, and if I might speak plainly—”

Adam shrugged off his touch. “You haven’t been up to this point?”

Nick ignored his sardonic question and continued. “If this is about work, I’ll find her work. I am not suggesting you leave the woman to her own devices.”

Adam gritted his teeth. “Her name is Georgina.”

“Very well, then. I’m not suggesting you leave
Miss Wilcox
to her own devices. I can have my housekeeper set her up with a position in the household. Hell, set her up as your mistress but, by the good Lord, you cannot wed her!”