Bride By Blackmail

What else? Jed had been laughing at her most of her life, it seemed to her. But it was time it stopped!

She gave him a brightly false smile. ‘You know, Mr Lord, I love smoked salmon.’ She picked up her knife and fork and began to eat.

‘Please, do call me Jed,’ he invited dryly, grey gaze assessing.

‘Such an unusual name,’ Annabelle remarked lightly.

‘Isn’t it?’ Georgie agreed, turning back to Jed, the light of challenge in her own gaze now. ‘Surely it must be the diminutive of something else…?’ She looked at Jed expectantly.

His gaze hardened and his mouth twisted into a grimace. ‘Jeremiah,’ he supplied tersely.

‘Goodness me!’ Georgie laughed softly, easily holding his warning grey stare with her own clear green eyes. ‘No wonder you prefer Jed.’

‘That’s a little unkind to our guest, Georgie.’ Annabelle Lawson shot her a reproving glance.

‘As it happens, Annabelle,’ Jed turned to his hostess, smiling wryly, ‘I wholeheartedly agree with Georgie!’

That must be a first, Georgie acknowledged ruefully. Still, at least she had proved—to herself, if no one else!—that this evening didn’t have to go all Jed’s way!

‘I wasn’t meaning to be rude, Mr Lord,’ she assured him, although she was sure Jed, at least, didn’t miss the edge of derision in her tone. ‘It was just a comment on the names some parents expect their children to live with!’

‘Your own, for example,’ Jed came back softly.

‘Touché.’ She gave an acknowledging inclination of her head; she should have known she wouldn’t have the last word! She never had where Jed was concerned. ‘I was named for my grandfather,’ she said determinedly.

Jed raised dark brows. ‘You have a grandfather called Georgina?’

‘I—’ Georgie broke off her sharp response as Sukie, seated beside Jed, gave a shout of laughter.

Really—Jed’s joke hadn’t been that funny, Georgie decided irritably as Sukie continued to chuckle.

‘I think you rather asked for that one, darling.’ Andrew, seated on Georgie’s left, lightly covered Georgie’s hand with his own as he smiled at her indulgently.

Possibly, she inwardly conceded. But it really hadn’t been that funny. She could—

Jed was looking at Andrew’s hand, which still rested on Georgie’s, his forehead furrowed over hard eyes.

What on earth—?

‘The emerald of your engagement ring is the same colour as your eyes,’ Jed bit out unexpectedly.

That was exactly what Andrew had said to her the day they had visited a jewellers to choose it!

But she didn’t for a moment think that Jed meant it in the romantic way that Andrew had that day. She could clearly hear the accusation in Jed’s tone, even if no one else could.

‘When is the wedding?’ Jed’s icy gaze moved from the ring to Georgie’s face, although his closed expression gave away none of his thoughts.

Had it ever? Georgie acknowledged disgustedly before answering him tersely, ‘Next Easter.’

His mouth quirked wryly. ‘Such a long time away…’ he remarked enigmatically.

Georgie gave him a sharp glance. Exactly what did he mean by that? Impossible to tell; his expression exactly matched his tone of voice. But he had meant something. She had known Jed long enough to know he was a man of few words, and the ones he did choose to say always had meaning.

‘We have our hearts set on an Easter wedding.’ Andrew was the one to answer Jed, squeezing Georgie’s hand reassuringly as he did so. ‘Are you a married man yourself, Jed?’ he asked interestedly.

Georgie suddenly found she was holding her breath as she waited for Jed’s reply.

His mouth tightened. ‘Not any more,’ he finally answered slowly. ‘I recently entered the statistics of divorced men,’ he added with humour.

‘How sad,’ Annabelle put in sympathetically.

Jed turned to smile at the older woman. ‘Thank you, Annabelle, but I doubt my ex-wife thinks so! She was the one to divorce me,’ he enlarged bitterly.

‘What a very silly woman,’ Sukie put in throatily, her blue eyes full of invitation as she looked flirtatiously at Jed from beneath lowered lashes.

‘Not at all,’ Jed dismissed, picking up his glass to sip the white wine that had been poured to accompany their salmon. ‘The grounds for divorce were typical—my wife understood me!’ he drawled sardonically.

‘Shouldn’t that be, ‘My wife didn’t understand me’?’ prompted a perplexed Annabelle, obviously not at all happy with the slant the conversation had suddenly taken at her dinner table.

Which wasn’t surprising, Georgie acknowledged impatiently. Jed Lord’s divorce—for whatever reason!—was hardly appropriate dinner conversation anywhere!

‘No, Annabelle, I do believe I had it right the first time,’ Jed replied meaningfully.

‘How absolutely priceless!’ Sukie was the one to answer now as she chuckled throatily. ‘Were you a very naughty boy, Jed?’ she prompted with amusement.

He shrugged broad shoulders. ‘My wife obviously thought so, otherwise she wouldn’t have divorced me.’

‘Do eat some more of your salmon, Jed,’ Annabelle encouraged nervously. ‘I believe you’ve recently spent some time in America, do tell us about it?’

Which was Annabelle’s way of firmly saying that was the end of that particular subject.

Which was probably as well, Georgie thought as she determinedly focused her attention again on her plate of smoked salmon. The murmur of voices around the table were now passing her by completely. If Jed had said one more word about the wife who had divorced him because she understood him, she might not have been able to stop herself from standing up and hitting him!

Because, until six months ago, she had been his wife!

CHAPTER TWO

‘YOU were very quiet during dinner, darling; are you feeling all right?’ Andrew asked concernedly once the party had moved back into the drawing room after their meal, to enjoy coffee and liqueurs.

Georgie moved closer to him as he sat down beside her on the sofa, studiously avoiding looking across the room to where Jed and Sukie stood talking together softly. ‘I’m feeling fine,’ she assured Andrew. ‘A slight headache, that’s all. I’ll be fine after a good night’s sleep.’

Although she wasn’t sure, with Jed in the same house, that she would be able to get the latter at all! But just to be away from his oppressive company would be something!

‘What do you think of Jed Lord?’ Andrew prompted, seeming to pick up on at least the subject of her thoughts, and glancing consideringly across the room at the other man.

If she were to tell Andrew, here and now, exactly what she thought of Jed Lord then he would probably be extremely shocked. But she accepted that after tonight she would have to talk to Andrew about Jed at some time in the near future.

So far in their five-month relationship she had put off telling Andrew that, at only twenty-three, she had already been married and divorced. At first it hadn’t seemed the sort of thing you just confided to a relative stranger, and then as they’d got to know each other, to love each other, it still hadn’t been something she felt she could just baldly state as a fact.