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“I see. Does, that mean my daughter has already settled her debt?”
Alex felt totally bewildered. Seemingly, Drake was offended by her father’s offer of money, and her father was enraged because he thought Drake was an accomplice in Alex’s plan to escape. She frowned.
“Father, Drake had no idea that I was aboard his ship until after we had left London. I offered to pay my way, but he refused.”
“‘Drake’, is it?” Geoffrey paid no attention to the remainder of Alex’s statement, but latched on to the casual use of Drake’s given name. “Apparently it was a most interesting voyage.”
“Father—” Alex began.
“Enough! I have heard quite enough!” Geoffrey exploded. “Now that you are here, daughter, you will have to face the consequences of your foolhardy actions.”
Drake heard the implicit threat immediately. Alex heard only that her arrival had been accepted at last, and that the worst of her ordeal was over. She brightened instantly.
“Yes, of course, Father.”
Geoffrey’s smoldering gaze swept over Alex, then dropped to the floor beside her. “Where are your trunks?”
“I have none, Father,” Alex declared cheerfully. “I came only with what I am wearing now.”
Lord Sudsbury swallowed whatever he wanted to say, regaining his control with difficulty. “I see. Then we will arrange to have suitable clothing provided for you at once. In the interim one of the servants will show you to your room.”
She beamed. “Oh, that would be wonderful, Father! I do want to rest, but only for a short while. There is so much I want to see, so much—”
“Alexandria, I have dismissed you,” he cut off her enthusiastic discourse.
Alex flushed. “Yes, Father.” Head held high, she crossed the room, pausing by the bookcase where Drake still stood. “Drake, I just want to thank—”
He shook his head, halting her words. “Do what your father says, princess,” he told her in a quiet voice meant for her ears alone. “I will not be departing from York for several days. The supplies must be loaded and the men given a chance to rest before our return voyage. I will not leave without saying good-bye. However”—he raised his voice back to a normal tone—“I believe your father would like to speak to me alone right now.” Over Alex’s head, he calmly met Geoffrey’s challenging stare.
“Indeed I would.”
Alex looked uneasily from the hard, angry lines of Drake’s handsome face to the restrained fury in her father’s expression.
“It’s all right, Alexandria,” Drake told her in a low, soothing voice. “Go upstairs and rest.”
With a resigned sigh, Alex left the room.
Geoffrey waited until the sound of her echoing footsteps had disappeared in the distance. Then he spoke.
“Suppose we dispense with the small talk, Lord Cairnham,” he suggested in a scathing voice.
“All right,” Drake agreed, steeling himself for an ugly confrontation.
“As I see it,” Geoffrey said through clenched teeth, “we have two choices. Either I call you out and defend my daughter’s honor …”
“Or?”
“Or before you leave for England Alexandria will become your wife.”
A deadly silence filled the room. Moments passed.
At last Drake spoke. “Your ultimatum is absurd.”
“You have compromised my daughter,” was the terse reply.
Drake controlled his temper with a great effort. “Your daughter is untouched.”
“Knowing your reputation, I sincerely doubt that.”
