Say You Love Me (11 page)

Jason was scowling now at Derek’s humor, and as was frequently his way, he turned the tables around with the remark “By the by, who’s the chit you brought home the other night to the London house?”

Derek rolled his eyes. He always found it amazing, the things his father knew about that
he shouldn’t know about, and how quickly he knew about them.

“Just someone who needed a little help.”

Jason snorted. “I had conflicting reports, Hanly calling her a tart, Hershal calling her a lady. Which was it?”

“Neither, actually. She’s had a superior education, prob’ly better than most ladies, but she’s not gentry.”

“Merely caught your interest?”

There was no merely about it, but Derek would prefer his father didn’t know that, so he said with an expression of indifference, “Yes, something like that.”

“You
will
refrain from bringing her home again?”

“Certainly. That wasn’t very wise of me, I admit. But really, Father, she’s nothing to concern yourself over. You won’t be hearing about her again.”

“It’s the servants that I don’t want hearing about her, neither those in London nor here. This family has supplied more than enough gossip for the mills, enough for several lifetimes. We don’t need to be contributing anymore.”

Derek nodded, in perfect agreement. After all, other than the fact of his birth, he’d always managed to keep his affairs discreet enough that no scandal had ever been attached to him. He prided himself on that fact. And intended to keep it that way.

13

Derek never did get back to Bridgewater. He had
stayed the rest of the day at Haverston to visit with his father, and had left the next morning to return to London to go through his mail and get a long letter off to Bainsworth. And as long as he was there, he started checking on a house to rent for Kelsey.

It would have been much easier if he could have gone to his Uncle Edward. Edward owned property all over London that he rented, and more than likely had available just what Derek was looking for. But Edward would ask what he required it for, and that wasn’t something he wanted to divulge to the uncle who was closest to his father. With his other two uncles, there would have been no problem. They would have understood perfectly, having each kept countless mistresses themselves—at least previous to their marriages. But Edward was a family man, had always been a family man.

Unfortunately, his uncles Tony and James didn’t own rentals in the city, or if they did,
they left them to Edward to manage, as he did all of the family’s investments. So Derek was forced to go through a normal search, and that had him running about the city, looking at town houses that were either too large, too expensive, or in need of too much repair. By the time he found just what he was looking for, it was the day before his cousin Amy’s wedding. So there was no point in hieing off to Bridgewater then, just to turn right around and return to the city.

On the other hand, there was no point in keeping Kelsey in the country any longer either, when he had a signed six-month lease on a town house for her that came fully furnished and was ready for immediate occupancy. The only thing still needed for it was a small staff of servants, which she should be involved in the hiring of anyway. So he sent off a missive to his driver to fetch her back to the city.

Actually, he was too eager to see her again to wait until after Amy’s wedding, when he would be free to fetch her himself. This way, she would be ensconced in the London flat by the next night, and they could get around to starting their relationship on a more intimate level a day sooner.

It wasn’t often that the entire Malory family gathered under one roof at the same time. Even the two newest members of the family, James and Georgina’s daughter Jacqueline, and Anthony and Roslynn’s daughter Judith, were tucked away upstairs so their mothers
wouldn’t have to return home to feed them. Reggie’s son was up there too, though he was old enough to feed himself now.

Reggie looked around the room at her expanding family. The other newest member of the family was, of course, the bridegroom, Warren Anderson, well and truly leg-shackled now, after that beautiful wedding ceremony they’d all just come from. Reggie smiled fondly at the newlyweds across the room. They made such a lovely pair, Warren taller than any of the Malorys at six feet four, with his golden brown hair and light lime-green eyes, and Amy, a stunning bride all in white, with her black hair and cobalt-blue eyes.

Reggie had that same coloring, as did Anthony and Jeremy, and Reggie’s mother, Melissa, who’d died when Reggie was only two. The five of them were the only ones in the family who had taken after Reggie’s great-grandmother. Everyone else was on the fair side, mostly all blond and green-eyed, with only Marshall and Travis taking after their mother, Charlotte, with brown hair and eyes.

The reception was in Uncle Edward’s mansion on Grosvenor Square. Large, jovial, always good-humored, unlike the rest of her uncles, Edward was beaming proudly even as he patted the hand of his wife, Charlotte, who was quietly sniffling beside him. In fact, Aunt Charlotte had cried all through the ceremony. But, then, Amy was her youngest child—although, come to think of it, Aunt Charlotte cried at
all
weddings.

All of Reggie’s other cousins were scattered about the room. Edward’s brood included Diana and Clare, with their husbands, and Amy’s brothers, Marshall and Travis. Reggie’s cousin Derek, Uncle Jason’s only child, was talking with her husband, Nicholas, and her uncles Tony and James. Derek and Nicholas had been best of friends ever since their school days, long before Reggie had ever met Nicholas and fallen hopelessly in love with him. But she had to worry anytime her two youngest uncles were around her husband.

Reggie sighed, wondering if they would
ever
get along. Not likely. In Uncle Tony’s case, he hadn’t thought Nick was good enough for her, Nicholas having been a rake. In Uncle James’s case, well, feelings ran a little deeper, since Nick had unfortunately had a run-in with James on the high seas during James’s pirating days. James had lost that battle, and his son Jeremy had been injured in it, though not seriously. But that had been the start of many confrontations between those two, the last serious one ending with Nicholas so soundly beaten he’d nearly missed their wedding; James had ended up in jail and nearly hung for piracy.

Of course, now that Nicholas was a member of the family, and had been for several years, they no longer tried to kill each other at each meeting. It was quite possible they even liked each other now, though neither one of them would ever admit it, and listening to them, you’d certainly never guess it. Mortal enemies
is more what they sounded like when they were together. And Reggie didn’t doubt for a minute that they both enjoyed baiting each other. But that did run in the family, leastwise with the men in the family.

It was a known fact that the four Malory brothers were happiest when they were arguing among themselves, though they would stand united against any other opposition. The bridegroom and his four brothers were a prime example of that, at least where Tony and James were concerned.

It was James who had been at complete odds with them because of his unorthodox courtship of their sister Georgina—and that he had previously disabled a couple of their Skylark ships when he’d been known as the Hawk didn’t help. They’d beat James soundly and were going to turn him over for hanging, but he’d escaped and stole Georgina right out from under their noses.

However, tenacious Americans that they were, they’d followed him back to England to retrieve their sister, only to find that she was quite in love with him by then. But it had been an uncomfortable beginning. When the two families had finally met socially every one of the Malorys had stood firm behind James until he himself had made an overture of welcome to the American Andersons—albeit grudgingly and at Georgina’s prompting.

Reggie’s cousins got along well with the Americans. Derek and Jeremy had, in fact, taken the younger two Andersons under their
wing, but Drew Anderson, the fourth youngest brother, was a devil-may-care flirt just like Jeremy, and Boyd, the youngest and much more serious, was still more inclined toward frivolous pursuits, so he enjoyed himself with them as well.

Reggie sighed. Now that it had been decided that Warren would remain in England to run the Skylark Lines shipping office, for the large fleet of merchant ships owned by the Anderson family, Reggie didn’t doubt that her husband would become quite chummy with Warren. They had so much in common, after all, both disliking James Malory so intensely. And Reggie would have worried about Nicholas’s becoming friends with the Yank if Anderson hadn’t changed so drastically after he’d finally asked Amy to marry him.

Before that, Reggie had never met a man with such a chip on his shoulder. It was as if Warren carried a grudge against the entire world. And that grudge came part and parcel with a very explosive temper. But you’d never guess that to look at the man now. Happy was what he was, and Amy Malory was responsible for that.

Reggie became uneasy when she noticed that Derek had left her husband alone with her uncles. Nicholas usually always ended up quite annoyed whenever he crossed words with those two, always coming out the loser under Uncle James’s sardonic barbs. She was about to go rescue him when he walked away himself, and he was smiling.

She smiled herself. Much as she loved her two youngest uncles, they having always been her favorites, she loved her husband even more. And if he had just managed to come out ahead in one of their many verbal spats, she was pleased for him. But, then, the very reason they were all gathered together that day gave him all the ammunition he needed to annoy James. After all, James couldn’t be very pleased that another of his prime adversaries had just become a member of the family. No, not very pleased at all.

“This makes it official,” Anthony Malory remarked to his brother as they both gazed at the newly married couple. “He’s definitely part of the family now. ’Course, he was already
your
brother-in-law, more’s the pity, but at least he wasn’t related to the rest of us—until now.”

“Brother-in-laws can be ignored. My George does a good job of ignoring you, don’t she?” James replied.

Anthony chuckled. “That dear girl is quite fond of me and you know it.”

James snorted. “’Bout as fond of you, Tony, as I am of her family.”

Anthony grinned. “When are you going to stop blaming the Yank for trying to hang you, when
you
instigated the whole silly debacle?”

“Don’t blame him for that a’tall,” James admitted. “It was threatening to hang my crew along with me that earned him my everlasting ire.”

“Yes, I suppose that would do it.” Anthony nodded.

James had captained the
Maiden Anne
for a good ten years, and during that time his crew had become like a second family to him—or a first family, as it were, since back then his own family had disowned him. But he was reinstated into the Malory fold now, having retired from his unsavory career of gentleman pirate years before, when he’d discovered he had a sixteen-year-old son who needed taking in hand.

“You think he’ll make her happy?” Anthony asked, still staring at the newlyweds.

“I’ll wait patiently for the day he don’t.”

Anthony laughed. “Hate to admit it, but ol’ Nick was right. Being so fond of our nieces does tie our hands where their husbands are concerned.”

“Doesn’t it though?” James sighed. “Although I tend to adhere to ‘What one don’t know don’t hurt ’em.’ Leaves a bit of leeway.”

“Hmmm, it does, don’t it? I wonder if the Yank would like to continue his lessons in the ring.”

“Was thinking of asking him that myself.”

Anthony chuckled, but then he caught sight of a new arrival and nudged his brother. “Will you look at that? Frances actually showed up.”

James followed his brother’s gaze to the small, painfully thin woman standing in the doorway. “That surprises you?” he asked his brother, then, “Good God, you don’t mean to
say Jason and Frances
still
don’t live together?”

“You thought that fence might’ve mended while you were away to sea?” Anthony shook his head. “If anything, it toppled the rest of the way down and got burned for kindling. They don’t even bother to make excuses anymore, and the family wisely stopped asking. She lives the year ’round now in that cottage she bought in Bath, and he stays out at Haverston. Actually, I believe this is the first time I’ve seen them in the same room in more’n five years.”

James gave a look of disgust. “Always thought it was stupid of Jason to marry her for the reason he did.”

Anthony raised a black brow. “Really? Thought it was rather noble m’self. Self-sacrificing and all that, typical of something one of the elders would do.”

“The elders” was how these two younger Malory brothers referred to the older two, there being such a wide difference in their ages, Anthony and James only a year apart, Jason and Edward only a year apart, but nine years separating James and Edward. Melissa, their only sister, who had died when her daughter, Regina, was only two, had come along in the middle.

“The children weren’t desperate for a mother, not when the four of us each had a hand in raising them. Besides, Frances was never around to be a mother for them.”

“True,” Anthony agreed. “The plan did backfire on Jason. Makes you feel sorry for him, don’t it?”

“Sorry for Jason?” James snorted. “Not bloody likely.”

“Oh, come now, old chap. You know you love the elders just as I do. Jason might be a stiff-necked, hot-tempered tyrant, but he means well. And he’s made such a muck of his personal life, you
have
to feel sorry for him—especially when you and I’ve got two of the most charming, adorable, wonderful wives this side of creation.”

“Hmmm, when you put it that way, I suppose I can dredge up a wee bit of pity. But if you ever tell that blockhead I said so—”