Page 117 of Outrageous

“I wouldn’t have—what? What is wrong with you? Have you developed some sort of palsy? What are you trying to say? For God’s sake, just say it.”

He gave an agonized groan. “I’m tryin’ to say you wouldn’t have done that—you know, like Liberty and Meadow just did—if you’d not liked him. Er, at least a little. Maybe?” Whatever he saw on her face was making him look slightly hysterical.

“I can’t believe you just compared me to a broodmare.”

He threw his hands in the air. “Well, I’m sorry, my lady, but all of this just makes no sense.”

“It makes perfect sense when you know that he didn’t want me—and he especially did not want a child with me, a mad child.”

“No! He never said such a thing?” James, who generally looked like a harmless, oversized stuffed bear, suddenly resembled the real animal, terrifying and fierce.

“He did.” Her wretched voice broke on the last word and he took a step toward her, his expression one of horror.

“Oh, here then, my lady, I didn’t mean to make you cry.”

She reached up and felt her wet cheeks. “Oh, bollocks. Now look what you’ve done.”

Eva flung herself at him and he awkwardly patted her shoulder. “Here now, my lady. It’ll be all right, then.” He sounded just as he had crooning to Liberty, and she laughed.

He held her out at arm’s length and stared down at her with terrorized confusion. “What?”

“You’re talking to me the same way you did to Liberty.” She gave another watery chuckle, followed by a big sniff as she wiped off her face.

But James wasn’t to be distracted by humor. “This just ain’t right, my lady. It ain’t.”

“I know,” she said softly. “It’s awful. But there is nothing I can do about it, is there?”

James stared at her for a long, unhappy moment, and then said, “No, my lady, it seems there is not.”

Chapter 24

It was a few days after Eva’s argument with Tommy and her discussion with James that Eva discovered the reason behind Melissa’s censorious looks. But by that time, the house was too full and hectic to talk privately.

The guests had all arrived in a cluster earlier in the afternoon.

First her sister Catherine and her silent, wheelchair-bound husband, Douglas, along with his five year-old son, Philip.

Next came Gabriel, Dru, and Samir.

And finally, filling two large coaches, were Baron Ramsay and his ever increasing family.

The only close relatives who wouldn’t be coming were Eva’s uncle Cian and her grandfather, the Duke of Carlisle, both of whom were traveling on the Continent.

While Eva was only marginally acquainted with Lord and Lady Ramsay, she knew their pestersome twin sons, Lucien and Richard, all too well from family visits over the past five or six years.

The boys were two years her junior and had attached themselves to Eva and Gabe like limpets every summer. Eva had been jealous of Gabe’s time and didn’t like sharing her brother’s company during his all-too-short visits. As a result, she’d considered the twins interlopers and treated them dreadfully. Not that they’d ever appeared to notice or mind.

She’d not seen them since last summer and was stunned when they’d hopped out of one of the coaches earlier. Gone were the scruffy, irritating children she remembered, and in their place were two identical, tall, gorgeous young gentleman. The transformation was miraculous.

As for Gabe? Well, this was the first time she’d ever avoided his company. From the brief look she’d had of him when he’d arrived, he was eager to corner and grill her about her marriage to his best friend—not a subject she cared to discuss with anyone these days.

Dinner was a lively affair as everyone—with the exception of Eva, and Catherine’s husband, Salford—noisily reacquainted themselves as if they’d not seen each other in years, rather than just weeks.

Her family knew how busy she’d been with her new venture, so they seemed unconcerned by her unusual silence. As for Baron Salford, well, the man perpetually dwelled in the doldrums, so nobody took notice of his behavior, either.

Eva was not skilled when it came to reading other people’s emotions, but even an impervious lump like herself could see all the looks Mel gave Tommy when she believed nobody else was watching. Eva was disgusted with herself for not noticing before.

For his part, Tommy’s eyes drifted all too often to Eva, although the expression in them was not that of a man in love.