Stormy Persuasion
Page 14

“Yet perhaps it is,” Catherine said quickly. “Can you explain?”
Jack was glaring at her, but Judith continued, “Well, for instance, our uncle Edward is incredibly good with investments, but only some people call him lucky. Others view him as being very knowledgeable about financial matters. Our cousin Regina is rather good at matchmaking. The men and women she pairs up usually end up quite happy together. My father and Jack’s brother, Jeremy, who take after the Gypsy side in looks, were always lucky with women, and now they’re lucky with their wives, but again, that’s hardly considered a gift. And—”
“—that’s the extent of it,” Jacqueline cut in to finish for Judith. “Now, it’s your turn to tell us what you expected to hear and why?”
“Is it not obvious? I hoped for some help in finding my father. I plan to start my search in Savannah, but as I and my mother were his only ties to that city, it is unlikely he is still there. His trade routes were between there and the Caribbean, where he lived before he met my mother. It’s daunting to think we might have to visit every port in the Caribbean to find him! I at least hoped for assurance that he’s alive somewhere.”
Jacqueline raised a brow.
Judith saw that Catherine was becoming distraught and quickly said, “I’d trust your instincts and start your search in Savannah. It really does seem the most logical place to start. No doubt you will find some new information about your father there. If you’ll excuse us, we have some unpacking to do.”
Jack dragged Judy away, mumbling under her breath, “Did we have to listen to her life’s story?”
“We were being polite, and why did you interrupt me back there?”
“Because you were about to tell her about Amy, which is none of her bloody business.”
Judith tsked. “We were just discussing luck, and Amy’s is phenomenal, you’ll have to admit.”
“Yes, but that’s all it is. Don’t think for a minute that Catherine can be trusted, Judy. I don’t fully trust Andrássy either, for that matter.”
“Really?”
“You don’t think it was a bit too convenient, him showing up the night before we leave and ending up on this ship with us? Just because he’s got eyes like yours doesn’t mean he is a relative.”
Judith laughed. “You’re forgetting he knows all about the Stephanoffs.”
“From a journal that he could simply have found somewhere and decided to use the information in it for some nefarious end.”
Judith laughed again. “You don’t really believe that.”
“All right, maybe not nefarious. And maybe he is related by blood. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t up to no good. So just watch what you say, to both of them. We don’t need to spill family secrets just because he seems genuine.”
Did Jacqueline have to mention secrets when Judith had such a big one of her own now?
Chapter Seventeen
“Where is Jacqueline?” Andrássy asked Judith when she arrived alone for dinner that night in the captain’s cabin.
“She’s coming. She’s just a little off-kilter today. She overslept this morning, then overslept again from the nap she took this afternoon.”
Georgina frowned. “She’s not getting sick, is she?”
“She doesn’t have a fever. I checked.”
“Probably just too much excitement over the last few days,” James guessed, and added for his wife, “I wouldn’t worry, m’dear.”
“Whatever you do, don’t suggest she go back to bed,” Judith said with a grin. “She’s quite annoyed with herself for spending too much time in it today.”
After that remark, only Andrássy still looked concerned. Judith wondered again if their new cousin might be a bit smitten by her best friend. But Jacqueline did arrive a few minutes later, eyes bright and wide-awake now, the picture of good health. Vivacious in her greetings, she arrived only a few minutes before Artie and Henry brought in the food, so they all took their seats at the table.
Andrássy had, unfortunately, been placed across from the girls, smack between James and Anthony, which didn’t bode well for him. In fact, after what Jacqueline had confided to her after luncheon, Judith suspected Andrássy was in for quite a grilling. Jack had gloated that she wasn’t the only one with reservations about Andrássy. She’d overheard their fathers discussing the same thing. Of course, it was Jack’s father who shared her suspicions that Andrássy might not be who he claimed to be. But then when did James Malory ever take anything at face value? It was a throwback to his wild youth and ten years of raising hell on the high seas to be suspicious first and agreeable later—maybe.
Georgina inadvertently initiated the interrogation of Andrássy with the query “Your sister didn’t want to join us for dinner again?”
“I didn’t mention it to her.”
Georgina glanced at the empty seat at the table. “Why not?”
Another innocent question. But then Georgina was completely trusting, unlike her husband. So James obviously hadn’t shared his reservations with his wife yet, only with his brother.
“As I mentioned last night, Catherine has moods and isn’t always pleasant company,” Andrássy explained.
And he didn’t want to subject his new family to that? Judith felt compelled to say, “I’ve seen her at her worst, but anyone with a severe headache can get snippy, myself included. Jack and I also had a nice conversation with her when she was feeling better.”
“I wouldn’t call it nice,” Jack put in.
“It wasn’t unpleasant,” Judith insisted.
“Matter of opinion,” Jack mumbled for just her ears.
James gave his daughter a quelling look before he said to Andrássy, “So you would describe your stepsister as hot-tempered? Many women are, including my Jack.”
Jacqueline laughed, no doubt taking her father’s comment as a compliment. But Andrássy said, “I never thought of it that way, merely that she can be moody. A new home, a new father when she wasn’t reconciled to giving up finding her real father—it was a difficult time when she and her mother came to live with us.”
“What happened to her father?” Katey asked.
Judith stopped listening as the conversation turned to what Catherine had already told her and Jack. She hoped Jacqueline was noting, though, that the pair did pretty much have the same story, which made it even more believable. Who could make up something like that? But Nathan Tremayne came quickly to mind. He could. He seemed to be quite adept at tall tales, making himself sound like a hero instead of the criminal he actually was.
She wondered if he had finished his job down in the hold. Likely no, since he probably wasn’t really a carpenter. Any man could wield a hammer, but did he actually have the skills to build a proper ring? Oh, God, she hoped her uncle and her father didn’t get hurt when they used the exercise ring and it fell apart beneath them.
Why didn’t she just tell her father about the smuggler so Nathan would be spending the voyage in the brig where he belonged? She should never have agreed to a bargain with him, when it just gave him more time to get creative with his lies. Yet, if she didn’t have to keep him a secret from Jack, would she be quite this uneasy about it? And why the deuce did she want to come up with an excuse to leave the table so she could go down to the hold to check on him?
She glanced across the table at Andrássy, who was saying, “It’s why she ran away so often when she was a child. She was trying to get back to America where she grew up, so she could look for her father.”
“Instead of traveling all over the world looking for someone who could be long dead, why don’t you just marry her off?” Anthony suggested.
“I would if I thought it would make her happy. But until this matter of her missing father is settled, I doubt she will ever be happy in a marriage.”
“So you’re actually concerned about her happiness?” James asked.
“Of course.” Andrássy seemed a little insulted to have been asked that. “The tantrums she had as a child were understandable. I don’t even mind her temper. As you say, it’s not something unique. Many women have one. It’s merely embarrassing when it erupts in public. That is all I wanted to warn you about, so you wouldn’t take offense if you witness any unpleasantness of that sort. Because of the fire, she has nothing and no one but me to depend on. But she is my burden, not yours.”
“Are you going to rebuild?” Georgina asked.
“Perhaps someday, but my wish is to return to Austria where I was schooled and continue my studies there. I paint.”
“An artist?”
“I dabble. I hope to do better one day. But I can do nothing with my life until I settle my stepsister’s.”
“A burden like the one you’re shouldering can kill inspiration,” James said thoughtfully. “What I don’t understand is why you would go so far above and beyond when there isn’t even a blood tie between you. Don’t take offense, dear boy, but that smacks of coercion on her part. So I must ask, does she have some hold over you that you haven’t mentioned?”
“James!” Georgina protested.
But Andrássy actually chuckled. “I am glad you feel you can speak so plainly with me. But consider, I am the last of the Benedek line, but not the last of Maria’s line, and yet I would never have known that if Catherine hadn’t found my great-grandfather’s journal. So when she beseeched me to help her find her missing parent, I couldn’t in good conscience deny her when I was about to embark on a similar search myself. For family.” Andrássy looked around the table, a warm smile on his face. “You Malorys are so much more than I ever could have imagined. You’ve welcomed me without reservation.” Only Jacqueline looked a little guilty over that comment. “But my father made Catherine a member of my immediate family. Despite the turmoil, he never regretted doing that because her mother made him happy.”
“Is it as simple as that? Obligation, responsibility, and a debt you feel you owe?”
“Sounds like something that would rope you in, James,” Georgina said with a pointed look. “Oh, wait, it already did, or aren’t those the same reasons you agreed to help Gabrielle Brooks?”
He chuckled. “Guilty.”
“Not to mention, ending up in a pirate’s prison because of it.”
“Point taken, George.”
No one jumped in to explain that byplay to Andrássy, but then it was a touchy subject that the Andersons, wealthy shipbuilders and owners of a large merchant fleet, now had ex-pirates in the family on more than one shore. One long since retired (Georgina’s husband, James) and the other turned treasure hunter (Drew’s father-in-law, Nathan Brooks), but still, both guilty of wreaking havoc in their day.
Judith steered the conversation back to Andrássy’s efforts to help his stepsister, telling him, “I think what you are doing is admirable. You’ve given Catherine hope, haven’t you?”
“Yes, I believe so, but I fear she has yet to learn patience.”
Jacqueline opened her mouth, but Judy pinched her under the table, knowing that her cousin was about to say that they’d already experienced the woman’s impatience, and that she’d got it into her head that a Malory with Gypsy gifts could help her more than Andrássy could—which wasn’t going to happen and didn’t need to be discussed.
Judith said to Andrássy, “It may not be a quick undertaking, but you may find that it changes her for the better. You might consider pausing your journey in Bridgeport to allow your sister to have a little fun before you continue on.” She stood up then. It was as good an opportunity as she was going to get to slip away before everyone else finished eating. “Now if you will all excuse me, I didn’t get as much rest today as Jack did. I’m rather tired.”
“Of course, poppet,” Anthony said.
But before Judith left, she leaned down and whispered in Jacqueline’s ear, “I got your foot out of your mouth. Don’t put it back in as soon as I leave.”
Jack merely snorted.
Chapter Eighteen
Only two lanterns were left burning in the hold, both by the exercise ring, but Judith didn’t find Nathan there. The ring wasn’t finished but the platform was. The tarpaulin had even been tacked to it, and two of the four posts were secured to the corners. It only needed the other two posts and the ropes strung between them, so Judith figured he thought he could finish that quickly in the morning before James came down to inspect it.
Judith was disappointed that Nathan had quit working for the day as this might well be her last chance to speak with him alone. She supposed she could ask him for instruction on some nautical matter during the voyage, maybe even get him up in the rigging where they could speak without being overheard. But then she’d have to wear those unflattering clothes Jack had had made for her, and besides, Jack would say that she could teach her anything she wanted to learn about sailing—unless Judith confessed her interest in Nathan. That wouldn’t be giving away the secret, would it? Course it wouldn’t. Once Jack got a look at the man, it would be blatantly obvious why Judy was interested in him.
She might as well turn in for the night, but she moved over to the ring to examine it first. She thought about climbing up on the platform to make sure its floor was as sturdy as it should be, but it was a bit too high off the floor for her, so she just pressed down on it with her palms.