DefeatedbyLove by Samantha Kane Page B

and putting the handkerchief away. “Harry
Ashbury.”
    “You don’t know who she is?” Daniel asked incredulously.
    “Should I?” Harry asked, pretty sure it was only going to
exacerbate the situation, whatever the situation was, that is.
    She began to laugh. It was high-pitched and a little wild
and quite relieved. Harry took a step back. “He doesn’t know me,” she said, wiping
tears off her cheeks. “How humiliating and typical. He really did forget about
me.”
    Harry knew without a doubt the babe she carried was not his.
He hadn’t shagged a woman since his unfortunate wedding night—
    His thoughts stopped right there and he peered closely at
her. “Christine? Christy?” he asked with a great deal of hesitation.
    “It’s about time you remembered your own wife, you worthless
bastard,” a voice snarled from the door behind him.
    Harry spun around, instinctively recognizing that the threat
of danger in the room was coming from that direction, and not from Christy or
Daniel. A gentleman was already coming for him, and he ducked the fist that
flew toward him, slid around behind him when his own momentum kept him moving
and slammed him against the wall, holding him there with a forearm across the
back of his neck.
    “Simon,” Christy yelled. She came rushing over and hit Harry
in the shoulder with her little fist. “Unhand him,” she demanded.
    “Not if he’s going to try to assault me again,” Harry said
calmly. “I don’t even know who the hell he is.”
    The man was making gurgling noises that Harry was pretty
sure would be curses if he wasn’t being choked against the wall.
    “It’s Simon Gantry, you clod,” Daniel said in disgust. “You
knew him in Portugal.”
    Harry let go immediately. “You don’t say?” He grinned at
Simon who was glaring at him, rubbing the back of his neck. “Well, then, how do
you do, Mr. Gantry? Pleasure to see you again.” He held out his hand.
    Simon ignored his hand. “I ought to thrash you,” he said,
his teeth clenched.
    “Well, you could try,” Harry said reasonably, “but you
wouldn’t succeed. The only one who gets in a punch is Daniel.”
    “He did incapacitate you rather handily,” Daniel said wryly.
“Perhaps we could move this homecoming into the study. I believe the neighbors
are starting to notice the brawl in my entry.”
    At that the door was quickly closed by a servant. Gantry
grabbed Christy’s hand and dragged her into a room to their right.
    “You look grand,” Harry told Daniel, putting his hand on his
arm and holding him back. “Just as I’d imagined you would.”
    “You don’t,” Daniel told him flatly. “I scarcely recognized
you. I don’t even know who you are anymore.” He tried to shake Harry’s hand
off.
    “Oh, you know me, all right,” Harry said quietly, squeezing
his arm. “I’m the same man you knew then, and I’d guess you are, too.”
    “You’d be wrong,” Daniel said. “Let go of me.”
    “I’ve traveled pretty far to hold you again,” Harry told
him. Daniel turned startled eyes up to his. “I’m not going to let go for a
while.”
    “Daniel?” Both men turned to see Christy standing there
watching them.
    “Now this is a story I’d like to hear,” Harry said with a
smile. He let go of Daniel’s arm, but he was content. He’d staked his claim.
There was no way Daniel could have misunderstood his intentions. He walked over
and gave Christy a one-armed hug. She smiled and turned her cheek up for him
and he kissed it. He was glad that here at least there didn’t seem to be hard
feelings. “How did you end up at Daniel’s?” He leaned down and whispered in her
ear. “That babe’s not his, is it?” He hoped to God not, but he’d work with it
if it was.
    “Of course it isn’t Daniel’s,” she whispered back. Well, he
supposed she thought it was a whisper, but clearly both Daniel and Gantry heard
her.
    “Good God,” Daniel muttered as he brushed past them.
“Another one. Am I