Page 102 of Inconvenient Honor
“Your wife will be well, English. The grandmother has assisted hundreds into this world,” Hamidou told him.
Am I that transparent?
Every fiber of his being pulled him toward the back room of the uncle’s house, the room to which Hamidou led them when Richard carried Lily up the hill. She had labored for an hour already.How long do these things take?
“Are we agreed then?” Andrew asked. “When the gold comes, the Boreas will pull out to allow your crew to leave. You will have onehour to do so. They will remain off shore until you are gone and they see that we are safe. Then they will come in to evacuate the marquess and his family. That will allow you time to make your escape. Agreed?”
Hamidou gave a sharp nod. “If the earl returns with the agreed upon gold, we will do it.”
When the Rais left to inform his men to prepare, Richard sagged in relief.
“Almost there,” Andrew said, sinking back onto a divan.
“We’re in danger until they are gone. Don’t let the lack of a guard fool you,” Richard told him. “And those women… I need to stay with Lily.” He turned toward the back room.
“A moment, first, while we’re alone.”
Richard turned back, puzzled. Concern covered his brother-in-law’s expression.
“They won’t welcome you, you know. The women, I mean.”
“They won’t have a choice. What do you need to tell me?”
“Castlereagh gave orders to your agents around the Mediterranean. His Majesty’s government will not pay ransom for captives.”
“He said as much some months ago: let a few suffer to kill the practice. It looks different when you’re facing slavery. How did you convince him otherwise? And how, come to that, did you do it so quickly?”
Andrew smiled a crooked smile, his scarred visage tilting upward. “We’d have been here sooner, but we had to piece the gold together. Will and I were in Gibraltar when your request came.”
“Why on earth?”
“Looking for you, of course. You went haring off on your own with little thought and no preparation. We thought you needed help. When we discovered you’d left Gibraltar alone on a fishing boat, we became convinced you lost your mind.”
Richard sat down, distracted by the tale. “I was a damned fool, and look where it got me. I could have reached Lily eventually without all this.”
“Yes, Lily. I take it she agreed to your romantic proposal at last?” Andrew smirked.
“No romance, little choice.”
“I doubt that sat well with her,” Andrew said. “I can imagine Georgiana given no choice.”
“It’s why she ran,” Richard admitted. “I didn’t handle it well.”
You bungled it, you looby.
“This marriage of yours is legal?”
“It would be in some parts of the world.”
“Not ours?”
Richard shrugged. “An Anglican priest willing to back date marriage lines would be convenient,” he admitted.
“Particularly if it’s a son.”
“I hadn’t thought of that, but yes. I would not want my firstborn excluded from the succession.”
“And Lily has decided to go along with it?”
