The Magic of You Read Free Page B

green eyes widened on another thought. “Good God, you don’t think Jeremy’s noticed,d’you, and that’s why he’s been so agreeable about escorting her about?”
    Georgina burst out laughing, tried to swat him, but couldn’t quite reach him over the mound of her belly. “You’re impossible, James. Why do you keep attributing these lecherous inclinations to that sweet boy? He’s only eighteen, for God’s sake.”
    Up went the single golden brow, an affectation of his that she used to hate, but now was so endearing to her. “Sweet?” he said. “ My son? And eighteen going on thirty is what that scamp is.”
    She would allow that Jeremy looked older than his age since he had gained his uncle Tony’s height, which put him a few inches taller than his father, and James’s broadness of chest, which made him quite formidable compared with other young men his age. But she wasn’t going to mention that to his father, who was plumped-up proud enough about the boy.
    “Well, you needn’t worry about Jeremy and Amy. I happen to know they’ve become the best of friends. But then, they’re of an age, you know. She’ll be eighteen herself in a few weeks. I’m just surprised that Charlotte didn’t make her wait those extra few weeks before her official come-out.”
    “That would have been Eddie boy’s doing. He’s a soft touch where his girls are concerned, which, come to think of it, isn’t what Amy needs right now.”

    Georgina did a little brow raising herself. “Are you going to take a personal interest in this niece, too?”
    “Not bloody likely,” he replied in one of his drier tones. “Boys are my specialty, don’t you know, and I’m going to be enjoying my newest son too much to be worrying about Eddie’s youngest daughter.”
    Georgina doubted that, for she’d heard how seriously he’d taken the raising of Reggie, that when denied his fair share of time with her during his pirating days, he’d up and kidnapped the girl for several months on the high seas, which had got him disowned by his brothers for a number of years. But Reggie was the favorite niece, due to her being more like a daughter to them all, so maybe James and Anthony would leave Amy to her own father’s care and worry, since Edward had managed just fine with his other four children…Not bloody likely.
    “Now that you’ve changed your mind about having a daughter, what if we have one anyway?”
    He placed a kiss in the center of her belly and grinned up at her, though his tone was as droll as it could get. “I will endeavor to persevere, George. Depend upon it.”
    She’d spend a great deal of time in bed while he endeavored to get it right the second time around, that she could depend upon.

Chapter 3
    Just one block north of Berkeley Square, Amy Malory was finally preparing for bed. In the mirror at her vanity, where she sat brushing out her long black hair, she watched her mother, Charlotte, flit about the room, helping old Agnes put away Amy’s finery, clucking over a rent stocking, a scuffed shoe, the smudged pink evening gloves.
    She’d been meaning to talk to her father about getting her own maid. Both her older sisters, Clare and Diana, had had their own, and had taken them with them when they left home to live with their new husbands. But Amy had always had to share someone else’s maid, and just now the only one left was old Agnes, who’dbeen with Charlotte since she was a child. Amy wanted someone who wasn’t so set in her ways, who didn’t do as much scolding and bossing as she did maiding. It was high time and…and Amy couldn’t believe she was thinking about trifles when she’d just had the most exciting day of her life.
    Actually, there had been one other day even more exciting, a day she was never going to forget, a day she’d recalled again and again these past six months since it had occurred. It was the day she’d met Georgina Malory’s brothers and made the auspicious decision, quite