Thorne closed the door to his brother’s room and stood with his back to it as he faced Naomi. “What did you say to that woman downstairs?” he demanded.

      Tears softened her already pale blue eyes. “I’m so sorry. I know you cautioned us to use fictitious names but I haven’t spoken to another lady in months and the truth just slipped out. Charity won’t betray us. She promised she wouldn’t.”

      He muttered under his breath. “What good is all the trouble we’ve gone to if you don’t remember to hide your real identities?”

      Placing a sheltering arm around his wife’s slim shoulders Aaron stood firm. “She said she was sorry, Thorne. What’s done is done. I’m sure a simple hotel maid isn’t smart enough to engage in subterfuge.”

      “Hah! Any fool could see that that woman is no simpleton. Nor is she a maid. She said she and her father are hotel guests, not staff, so don’t discount her capabilities or count on her loyalty.”

      Weeping, Naomi knelt to draw the boy into her embrace while Aaron began to pace the floor of the small, sparsely furnished bedroom.

      “Don’t worry,” Thorne said firmly. “I’ll take care of it. If the woman can’t be reasoned with, she can probably be bribed or threatened.”

      “You sound just like Father!” Aaron blurted.

      Thorne’s eyes narrowed and his countenance darkened with barely repressed anger. “Never say that again, do you hear? I won’t be compared with that man. He’s your father, not mine.”

      “But you’ve obviously learned from him,” the younger man countered.

      “No. I’ve learned from years on my own and from the writings of my real father.” Noting the shock on Aaron’s face, he went on. “Are you surprised? I was. Shortly before I left home, Mother told me all about her brief marriage to my late father and where I might locate the rest of the Blackwell family.”

      “Did you?”

      “Yes, eventually. I didn’t seek out my grandfather until I’d spent a few years at sea and felt I’d proved myself.” And had faced death more than once. “Grandfather and I didn’t have much time together before he died but we got along very well. He gave me my father’s journal, as well as willing me enough money to buy into a partnership on my first freighter.”

      “So that’s how you became successful.”

      “No,” Thorne countered, “I could have squandered my inheritance in any number of ways. The investments I made, instead, were based on my experience at sea, not on mere wishful thinking. I knew exactly what I was doing and lived frugally. That’s what I was trying to explain when I returned to New York three years ago. But no one would listen to me, not even you.”

      Thorne noted Aaron’s pained expression. It was during that short visit that Thorne had met and fallen in love with Naomi but she had chosen to wed the younger brother, presumably because Aaron was in line to inherit the Ashton fortune.

      Squaring his shoulders, Thorne faced him. “Forget the past. It’s your future that counts. Leave the details to me. We’ve come this far together and I’ll see to it that your foolish mistakes don’t sink our ship, so to speak.”

      Naomi raised her reddened face to him, tears glistening on her cheeks, and whispered, “Thank you.”

      It was all Thorne could do to keep from tempering his harsh expression as he gazed at her. She was suffering for her poor choices and for that he was sorry, but, as he had finally realized when he’d encountered her again, any tender feelings he had once harbored were long gone and he was therefore loath to display any tenderness that might mislead her.

      If anything good came out of this fiasco, perhaps it was that it had finally freed his heart from the fetters of unrequited love and had given him a chance to make amends with his brother over almost stealing his betrothed.