She turned her attention back to Peter. "I told you we wouldn't suit. I've saved you from an unhappy marriage. You should be thanking me instead of behaving like a jackass."
"Male donkey," Daniel murmured behind her.
Georgina ignored him. "Let us out, Peter, and we'll forget this whole thing ever happened."
Instead, Peter reined in the horse in front of a modest house on a quiet side street. Picking up the rifle, he gestured with it. "Get out. We're here."
Daniel slipped out from under her and climbed out of the chaise, then held out his hand to help her down. If he knew what was good for him, Georgina thought, he would run now while Peter was occupied tying up the horse. She gestured for him to go, but Daniel's face closed up like a clam's, and he caught her arm and set her down beside him.
Damn, but he was being obstinate about playing the gentleman. Didn't he know that Peter was really serious about this? Whatever Peter had meant to do before—scare her, scare him, make them beg—had suddenly become something he couldn't turn back on. He was going to force them into the presence of a minister and make them go through some farce of a ceremony. She didn't know if it would be legal or not, but she certainly didn't want to have to find out.
When they were all on the ground, Daniel pulled Georgina closer to his side and away from Peter.
"I think you'd better let me talk to Georgina privately for a minute if you really mean to carry this through. She's a mite contrary in the mornings and might not be as cooperative as you could wish."
She breathed a sigh of relief. At last, someone was coming to their senses.
Peter shrugged. "She can refuse and watch me shoot you. Even Georgie isn't that bloodthirsty."
"If you have any damn blood in your veins at all, you'll give us a minute. It's not as if we can go anywhere. Miss Hanover has the right to at least be asked properly for her consent, something you neglected to do, I might add."
It was the first sign of anger that Daniel had shown, and both Georgina and Peter looked at him with surprise. His angular face was taut with suppressed fury. Without waiting for an answer he pulled Georgina to the corner of the picket fence, just far enough to keep Peter from hearing.
"You and I know that we're both innocent, but the world doesn't," Daniel reminded her, keeping his voice low. "I'm perfectly willing to do the right thing by you, but I realize you've been caught by surprise and aren't any too ready for marriage. As long as you're..." He searched for a polite word. "Untouched, the marriage can be annulled. If you'll agree to go through with this, I promise I won't do anything to jeopardize that annulment until you make up your mind one way or another. It's awkward, but it's one way out of the situation. People will find an elopement romantic, but a scandal won't be if word gets out that we spent the night together without marriage. We can go in there and pretend this is just what we want and foil Peter's revenge, then correct it later."
Daniel was holding her hands between them and looking at her as if her agreement really mattered. Georgina was too astonished to know how to reply. In an odd way he was actually asking her to marry him. She wasn't at all certain she wished to understand the meaning of "annulment" or the consequences, but she did have some sense of what he meant by "untouched." They could be married and not married at the same time. It was a revelation that widened her eyes. She could be respectable but independent.
"We could just be..." The appropriate word was difficult to locate, but she tried. "Friends? And be married? Is that what you're saying?"
Daniel's smile was a trifle forced, but he nodded. "For a while. We'd have to decide what to do sooner or later so we don't cause any more scandal, but that will give us more time to think than your friend over there is giving us."
Georgina's heart was pounding a little frantically at the decision she was being given, but Daniel had phrased it a lot more palatably than Peter. If the world required that she be married, she'd much prefer a man who had some consideration for her opinions. Right now, she very definitely preferred Daniel over Peter. Curling her fingers inside his with nervousness, she nodded slowly.
"All right. If this is the only way." Realizing Daniel might not find this arrangement as convenient as she did, not wanting to incur his wrath any more than necessary, she sent him a pleading look. "I didn't mean for this to happen, believe me. I had no idea my father would fetch Peter. And I didn't know Peter could be so unreasonable."
Daniel's smile was a little warmer as he released one hand to caress her cheek briefly. "I'm afraid I understand altogether too well. I'm not blaming you. I have a feeling we're about to upset a few applecarts. Let's do it with style."
She grinned, took his arm, and without any preparation aforethought, stood on her toes and kissed his cheek soundly.
That would certainly make Peter think twice.
Chapter 14
The minister was already dressed in a dark sack coat with elbows polished by wear. His cravat wasn't quite correctly tied when he opened the door, but he didn't seem to be aware of that as his eyes opened wide at the sight of his employer on his doorstep. As he retreated to allow Peter in, his gaze fell on the two miscreants with him.
Georgina offered him a blinding smile. "We wanted to elope, but Peter has gallantly offered to stand up for us. I hope we're not disturbing you."
Daniel was quite proud of her. For a light-headed, frivolous pearl of society, Georgina was remarkably courageous. Another woman might have been hysterical by now. Of course, another woman would never have got herself into this situation.
He felt no remorse at what he was about to do. Georgina had brought it down upon her own head. Actually, Daniel found the better part of this episode mildly amusing. The hand-picked bride for the handsome heir to the Mulloney kingdom was about to be thrown away on the damaged son who had already been disowned. Daniel really hoped Artemis Mulloney enjoyed the irony of it when he discovered the situation.
And he very much feared his father would learn the whole truth of the situation much sooner than Daniel had contemplated. Marriage entailed a certain amount of honesty he hadn't anticipated revealing so soon. And he was more than certain his two companions were even less prepared for it. Well, he'd learned a long time ago to let the chips fall where they may. He just hoped those chips weren't bigger than he was.
Georgina handed him his coat, and Daniel shrugged it on. There was a grim edge to her smile that he didn't like, but he couldn't particularly blame her. Peter was at his officious worst, giving orders and instructions that had the minister and his wife running in circles. Daniel offered her a grin and tucked a straying wisp of hair behind Georgina's ear. She hadn't even taken the time to tidy it. He would have thought a socialite would have been a little more vain than that.
But he suspected this socialite was hiding one whopping load of anger behind her demure expression and sugary sweetness. He wasn't exactly certain that he wanted to be on the receiving end of all that pent-up fury when it was finally unleashed. The way Georgina was looking at Peter now, Daniel figured the other man would bear the brunt of it, but for one minor problem—the matter of Daniel's real name.
He could take the coward's way out and let the minister use the name Peter was currently instructing him to use. The marriage would probably be fraudulent and null and void, and they wouldn't have to go through the scandalous legal processes of annulment. But Daniel had seen the chaos that created when his adopted sister had tried it, and he wasn't prepared to deal with those kind of complications. He liked things done straightforwardly and honestly.
So he smiled and took Georgina's hand when the minister gestured for them to step forward. He couldn't think of any particularly good objections to marrying Georgina Hanover. She was good-humored and well-intentioned and not a half-bad photographer. She wasn't the quiet intellectual he had always imagined marrying, but a cheerful smile could go a long way toward alleviating that lack. And though she was short and blond and not the willowy brunette of his dreams, Daniel had no diff
iculty whatsoever in imagining her in his bed.
And if he was being completely truthful with himself, that was probably the major reason he was standing here listening to the minister mouth the hypocrisies of this marriage service: Georgina Hanover would make a round handful in his bed, and he was a starving man.
Of course, the degree of shock and incredulity he was about to unleash was also stimulating.
To Daniel's surprise the minister didn't use their full names when asking for their vows. As just "Daniel," he vowed to love and protect "Georgina" until death parted them. That shook him a trifle as he looked down at the woman beside him. She repeated the vows as calmly as he had, but Daniel noticed her fingers were trembling. He took them in his own and marvelled at how small and soft they were against his hand. It had been a long time since he had really paid attention to any woman. He was beginning to realize that was about to change.
He didn't have a ring to give her, but she took the one off her right hand and gave it to him, and he slid it on the ring finger of her left hand. Nervously, she tried to pull away from his grasp, but Daniel held on to her as the final prayers were said over their heads. He had the oddest sensation in his middle as he held this woman's hand and heard the minister droning the words of the marriage ceremony. He had never tried to imagine what it would be like to be married. He didn't think even his imagination would have been able to quite grasp it. He was feeling nervous and scared and oddly protective and definitely very hungry.
Daniel concentrated on the hunger. There was no mention of kissing the bride at the end of the service, and he wondered what religious denomination was so hopelessly unromantic. Without waiting for permission, he tucked his arm around his new wife's waist and hauled her closer.
Georgina's eyes widened as she realized his intent, but it was far too late to resist. Daniel's lips closed over hers, and she shivered with the thrill of this unexpected intimacy. Her eyes closed instinctively, allowing her to absorb the sensation of her husband's strong embrace, the rasp of his unshaven beard, the oddly pungent flavor of his mouth. She was aware of other things, too, things she couldn't rightly name but which involved the nearness of Daniel's broad chest to her breasts and the closeness of their legs and some odd electricity that emanated from them as a result. She was sadly shaken when he stepped back at the minister's embarrassed cough.
Georgina had difficulty tearing her gaze away from her new husband, but she forced herself to calmly turn and meet Peter's eyes. He was furious. There was a muscle jumping in his jaw that she had never noticed before. His eyes glowed with an unholy emerald green that made her wish she had never crossed his path. She had never thought of Peter as a villain, but she thought he would make a very good one right now.
"Where's the license and the register, Reverend?" Peter's voice was harsh as he turned away from the newly married couple. "We want this all tight and legal."
The minister hurriedly produced the book and a blank certificate and began to fill in the names of the parties involved. He held out the pen to Daniel. "If you'll just sign your name, then your wife can sign hers, and the witnesses will go on the lines after that."
Daniel scrawled his name boldly across the book and the paper with what looked to Georgina like a measure of satisfaction. He shouldn't be satisfied with this arrangement. He ought to be angry, or at least irritated. But he handed the pen to her with a smile that Georgina would have given money for had it been on Peter's face. As it wasn't, she sighed and took the pen and turned to the piece of paper, signing her life away.
She only glanced at Daniel's scrawl to see if he had used his full name. She blinked as her mind registered the discrepancy between what she had expected and what was there. She turned and looked at Daniel, waiting for some wink of conspiracy to tell her this was just a joke or some means of getting them out of this trap. But he had told her how he meant to get them out of this trap, and it had nothing to do with his signing Peter's name as his own.
Her hesitation made Peter suspicious. He grabbed the paper, read the signature "Daniel Ewan Mulloney," and flung it to the floor.
Raising his rifle, he thundered, "Get another one, Reverend. The gentleman doesn't seem to remember his name."
Daniel calmly picked up the paper and handed it to Georgina. Looking at her and not the man with the rifle, he said, "That is my name. You'll find it on file at the courthouse. I have the birth certificate to prove it. If you despise the name, Miss Merry, I might consider changing it. I don't take much pride in it."
Georgina's fingers crumpled the paper at the edges as she stared at it. She had just sworn not many hours ago that she would starve rather than marry into the Mulloney family. But maybe it wasn't the same family. She had never seen Daniel in town before these last weeks. He couldn't be one of them.
She glanced up hopefully at Daniel's sincere expression. "If there's no relation, there shouldn't be room for complaint." She picked up the pen to sign her name below his.
"There's no damned relation!" Peter roared at the same time as Daniel murmured, "I'm afraid there is."
Georgina's hand halted in the midst of the first G. She stared at the paper as if the answer to this dilemma were written there. If she didn't sign, would the marriage still be valid? And if it wasn't valid, what would she do now? She couldn't go home. She couldn't marry a man mad enough to hold her at rifle point. She would end up walking the streets. But if she signed, Daniel was telling her she would be Georgina Mulloney. Why had he lied? Had he lied? Was he lying now? Her fingers trembled.
"Sign it, Georgie." Daniel's voice was soothing and reassuring at the same time. "I have no intention of claiming any connection with a family that lets people starve and live in deprivation so as to have expensive carriages and fancy balls. I put my real name on there only to protect you."
Against her better judgment, Georgina began to sign, but again, Peter's roar intervened. She swung around just in time to see him drop his weapon and reach for Daniel's shirt front. There wasn't time for Daniel to dodge the blow. He took it square on the jaw, staggering backward while the minister's wife wailed in dismay as he slammed into her shelf of china ornaments.
But Daniel was up and off the shelf and grabbing for the dropped rifle before Peter could reach out to repeat his earlier blow. Not using the firing end of the rifle, he slammed the stock into Peter's stomach, crumpling the other man in two. Then flinging the rifle down, he grabbed Peter's collar and jerked him up.
They stood face-to-face, and Georgina held back a gasp of recognition. It was the same sloping aristocratic nose on both men, only Daniel's was slightly bent from some earlier brawl. Their lips were pressed tight in the same straight lines of fury, and there was even a certain similarity in the jut of their jaws. Why hadn't she seen the resemblance sooner?
Because the force of their highly incompatible personalities made it impossible to see similarities where there were only differences. Daniel was easygoing, mild-mannered, and amiable, always willing to listen and eager to act. Peter was wired tighter than any rope, explosive in his manner when thwarted, stiffer than the celluloid collar at his throat and as difficult to bend. There could be no comparison, except at moments like this.
Daniel was shaking his captive and shoving him toward the desk and the still unsigned license. "Witness it, dear brother. Let us make this perfectly legal, just as you asked. Then go home to Papa and explain what you've done. I doubt that he will be amused, but he probably won't banish you to St. Louis as he did me. He'll start running out of sons after a while if he did that."
Peter turned so violently that he ripped from Daniel's grasp, but Daniel blocked the blow this time, shoving Peter's fist away. Then he stepped back and stood by Georgina's side.
"Sign it, Peter. You don't have to tell the old man anything. Let's just try to get out of here like civilized human beings before the good reverend and his wife think we've lost our minds."
Peter grabbed the paper and scrawled his name vividly across the bo
ttom, then handed it to Georgina to finish signing. He scowled at Daniel as he walked toward the door. "I wish you well of her, but don't think I'm forgetting this. That name on that piece of paper had better be real or I'll see that you're hanged. Georgina deserves better than scum like you."
Peter stalked out, slamming the door, to the sigh of a soft "Oh, my" from Mrs. Herron. Her husband merely handed her the license to finish witnessing.
Georgina discovered she was trembling. She wasn't accustomed to scenes like this. She had always lived a staid and respectable life. Only the humbler, uneducated elements of society shouted and fought and behaved like animals. Just what was she letting herself in for?
Daniel folded the paper, put it into his pocket, and handed the terrified minister some coins for his trouble. Peter should have been the one to do that. Peter had always been her model of respectable behavior. She had only begun to realize how poor her judgment had been all these years. How wrong could she be about a man she had known only a few weeks?
Pure terror washed through Georgina as Daniel reached for her hand to lead her away. She didn't know this man at all. She hadn't even known his real name. A man who could hide his identity while attempting to destroy his real family wasn't the kind of man she wanted for a husband. She jerked her hand away and started out the door without him.
Daniel caught up with her in a few strides. She was halfway down the unpaved street before she realized Peter had taken the carriage, leaving them stranded in an unfamiliar neighborhood.
"Keep going straight. We'll be downtown in a few minutes," Daniel advised as he walked beside her, adjusting his gait to hers.
"Go away," she whispered harshly.
"Since we're going in the same direction, that isn't reasonable."
He was loping along with his limping, humble act, being the amiable journalist again, but now she knew better. Daniel might look tame, but he had a vicious streak to match Peter's any day. Anyone who could take a blow like Peter had dealt him and still strike back with fierceness was not a gentle man. She hurried faster.
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