Free The Magic of You by Johanna Lindsey Page A

“I’m the outsider here, remember? But why do you ask?”
    “I was surprised to find her here again.”
    “Didn’t she mention she’s staying with me until the doctor and James decide it’s all right for me to get back to my normal routine?”
    “How do you feel, by the way?”

    She laughed. “How the bloody hell do you think I feel? Like I just had a baby.”
    “Blast it, Georgie, you don’t have to sound like them just because you have to live with them.”
    “For God’s sake, Warren, am I going to have to watch every word I say around you? Can’t you just be pleased that I’m happy, that I’ve had a beautiful, healthy daughter, that I am fortunate enough to love my husband? So many women aren’t that fortunate, you know. They marry to please their families, but it’s not their families who end up miserable.”
    He got her point well enough, he just couldn’t see how a man like James Malory could make her happy. He couldn’t tolerate the man himself, or his bizarre sense of humor. Nor could he figure out what Georgina saw in him. Malory wasn’t good enough for her, not by any means. But as long as he made her happy, and there was no doubting that by the look of her, Warren would hold his peace. However, the first little sign of dissension between them, and Warren would be delighted to fan it to split them up so he could take his sister back to America, where she belonged.
    “I’m sorry,” Warren said, because he hadn’t meant to upset her. And since it seemed like a safe enough subject that she was willing to talk about, he mentioned Amy again. “Isn’tthat girl a bit too young to be taking over your responsibilities?”
    She gave him an incredulous look this time. “You must be joking. Have you forgotten already that I was only twelve years old when I took over the management of our own household?”
    He had, but insisted, “You were a mature twelve.”
    She snorted, because he was being typically stubborn. “And Amy is a very mature seventeen, which—”
    “Seventeen?”
    “Well, it’s nothing to get alarmed about,” she replied, frowning at his strange reaction. “She’ll be eighteen in a week or so. She’s just had her come-out, as a matter of fact, which was a splendid success.” Then she laughed. “You should have seen how huffy James got, because he hadn’t noticed that she’d grown up until that very night.”
    “Why should he notice? She’s not his daughter, which is not to say she couldn’t be.”
    Georgina quirked a brow at him, another blasted habit he’d noticed she’d picked up from her husband. “Are you implying he’s too old for me?” she asked with some distinct amusement this time. “I assure you he’s not.”
    Warren had been referring again to how young Amy was, but he supposed he’d better stop it before Georgina started wonderingabout it. “I was merely making an observation.”
    They were silent for a moment while she carefully laid Jacqueline down on the bed beside her. He was fascinated, watching her fingers roam with feather lightness over the baby’s face and arms, as if she couldn’t get enough of touching her.
    She sighed before she said, “I suppose she’ll be getting married soon.”
    “The baby?” he asked incredulously.
    Georgina giggled. “No, silly, I meant Amy. I’m going to miss her if she moves out to the country like her sisters did when they married.”
    “If you’re worried about being lonely, you could come home,” he suggested.
    She looked up in surprise. “I was more often alone at home, Warren, than I ever am here. Or are you again forgetting that you and our brothers were rarely ever home?”
    “But that’s changed now that we’ve given up the China trade.”
    “But none of you ever stay at home for very long between sailings, no matter which port you’re heading to. Even Boyd sails with his ship, though he isn’t captaining her yet. Besides, I wasn’t worried about being lonely. That’s one thing I’ll