No Choice But Seduction: A Malory Novel (The Malory-Anderson Family)

Chapter 1 London, England, 1826 The note was delivered by a scruffy child who didn't know he had the wrong house. The mistake wasn't his fault. He hadn't been told there were many different Malory houses in London. He'd come to the first one he'd been directed to, pleased that it hadn't taken long to earn the few coppers in his pocket. And just as he'd been told to do, he'd run off before Henry could question him. Henry and Artie, two crusty old sea dogs, had shared the job of butler at James Malory's house ever since James had retired from his life at sea and they'd both retired with him. But recently James had gone back to sea, briefly, to rescue his brother-in-law Drew Anderson, who'd got himself into a coil when according to one of his crewmen who'd managed to escape, pirates had stolen his ship right out of London harbor! With him on it! Henry and Artie had tossed a coin to see who would sail with James for the rescue. Henry had lost. Henry tossed the note without reading it onto the mountainous pile of calling cards and invitations that had come in from people who didn't know the Malorys of this particular household weren't in residence. A normal butler would never have let the tray on the hall table overflow with invitations and letters. But in the eight years since Henry and Artie had begun sharing the job, neither of them had learned how to be a proper butler. That afternoon when Boyd Anderson returned to the Malory house in Berkeley Square, he found the note on his tray, along with a few other cards that had slid off the larger pile next to it. He didn't usually have a tray of his own in his sister Georgina's house, but then he usually only visited for a week or two, never as long as several months as this visit had turned out to be. Nor was it the first time Georgina's mail had got mixed up with his. Despite having given it a lot more thought, Boyd still hadn't made up his mind yet about settling in England. But that wasn't why he was still here. He hadn't returned to sea yet because he was doing his sister a favor. Although Georgina had married into the large Malory family and any one of her numerous in-laws would have been delighted to take care of her children while she was gone, Georgina's seven-year-old daughter, Jacqueline, balked at joining her young twin siblings at the country home of their cousin Lady Regina Eden, because she didn't want to be that far away from her best friend and cousin, Judith. Other Malorys in London could have taken her, but since Boyd was staying at her London house, Georgina had asked him to keep an eye on Jacqueline until he sailed again. He would have preferred to go along for the rescue. That would have been a fine bit of work to tease his brother Drew about. But he had, in fact, done Georgina another good turn by not insisting on going, since her husband didn't get along well with any of her brothers, himself included. The man didn't even get along with his own brothers. And there was no way he and James Malory wouldn't come to blows if they ended up on a ship together. Besides, the look on James's face when Boyd had suggested accompanying him, well, it had made Boyd glad he had an excuse to stay behind after all. "We all know where she'd rather stay," Georgina had remarked. "But Roslynn mentioned in passing that shemightbe enceinte again, so she needs peace and quiet in her household just now, which won't be the case with Judy and Jack in residence. When you're ready to sail will be soon enough to deposit her there." Roslynn Malory turned out not to be pregnant. Boyd ended up not sailing as expected. And Jack, as her father had named her at birth, was happy enough where she was, since she still got to visit with her cousin Judith as often as she liked. Boyd wasn't exactly worried about Drew, anyway. Georgina did enough worrying for all of them. But Boyd knew his brother well and had no doubt that he'd extJohanna Lindsey is the author of 'No Choice But Seduction: A Malory Novel (The Malory-Anderson Family)', published 2008 under ISBN 9781416537328 and ISBN 1416537325.