her she would be Georgina Mulloney. Why had he lied? Had he lied? Was he lying now? Her fingers trembled.
"Sign it, Georgie." Daniel's voice was soothing and reassuring at the same time. "I have no intention of claiming any connection with a family that lets people starve and live in deprivation so as to have expensive carriages and fancy balls. I put my real name on there only to protect you."
Against her better judgment, Georgina began to sign, but again, Peter's roar intervened. She swung around just in time to see him drop his weapon and reach for Daniel's shirt front. There wasn't time for Daniel to dodge the blow. He took it square on the jaw, staggering backward while the minister's wife wailed in dismay as he slammed into her shelf of china ornaments.
But Daniel was up and off the shelf and grabbing for the dropped rifle before Peter could reach out to repeat his earlier blow. Not using the firing end of the rifle, he slammed the stock into Peter's stomach, crumpling the other man in two. Then flinging the rifle down, he grabbed Peter's collar and jerked him up.
They stood face-to-face, and Georgina held back a gasp of recognition. It was the same sloping aristocratic nose on both men, only Daniel's was slightly bent from some earlier brawl. Their lips were pressed tight in the same straight lines of fury, and there was even a certain similarity in the jut of their jaws. Why hadn't she seen the resemblance sooner?
Because the force of their highly incompatible personalities made it impossible to see similarities where there were only differences. Daniel was easygoing, mild-mannered, and amiable, always willing to listen and eager to act. Peter was wired tighter than any rope, explosive in his manner when thwarted, stiffer than the celluloid collar at his throat and as difficult to bend. There could be no comparison, except at moments like this.
Daniel was shaking his captive and shoving him toward the desk and the still unsigned license. "Witness it, dear brother. Let us make this perfectly legal, just as you asked. Then go home to Papa and explain what you've done. I doubt that he will be amused, but he probably won't banish you to St. Louis as he did me. He'll start running out of sons after a while if he did that."
Peter turned so violently that he ripped from Daniel's grasp, but Daniel blocked the blow this time, shoving Peter's fist away. Then he stepped back and stood by Georgina's side.
"Sign it, Peter. You don't have to tell the old man anything. Let's just try to get out of here like civilized human beings before the good reverend and his wife think we've lost our minds."
Peter grabbed the paper and scrawled his name vividly across the bottom, then handed it to Georgina to finish signing. He scowled at Daniel as he walked toward the door. "I wish you well of her, but don't think I'm forgetting this. That name on that piece of paper had better be real or I'll see that you're hanged. Georgina deserves better than scum like you."
Peter stalked out, slamming the door, to the sigh of a soft "Oh, my" from Mrs. Herron. Her husband merely handed her the license to finish witnessing.
Georgina discovered she was trembling. She wasn't accustomed to scenes like this. She had always lived a staid and respectable life. Only the humbler, uneducated elements of society shouted and fought and behaved like animals. Just what was she letting herself in for?
Daniel folded the paper, put it into his pocket, and handed the terrified minister some coins for his trouble. Peter should have been the one to do that. Peter had always been her model of respectable behavior. She had only begun to realize how poor her judgment had been all these years. How wrong could she be about a man she had known only a few weeks?
Pure terror washed through Georgina as Daniel reached for her hand to lead her away. She didn't know this man at all. She hadn't even known his real name. A man who could hide his identity while attempting to destroy his real family wasn't the kind of man she wanted for a husband. She jerked her hand away and started out the door without him.
Daniel caught up with her in a few strides. She was halfway down the unpaved street before she realized Peter had taken the carriage, leaving them stranded in an unfamiliar neighborhood.
"Keep