The Highwayman (Rakes and Rogues of the Restoration Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page A

rogues and thugs. One wonders what happened during your captivity. Half of London saw you board that coach. All London will be wondering if you’re carrying a highwayman’s babe in your belly.”
    Jack’s head whipped back toward them. Curious, assessing, interested again.
    “ You arranged my abduction. You know that isn’t true!”
    “Yet it could so easily be seen to be. And who would marry you then? My staff witnessed you arrive, clutched in his arms. It is all very romantic, but hardly the behavior one expects from a countess entrusted with a title and her father’s holdings. It’s just the reason young women need guidance and are not to be trusted with managing an estate, even if a doting parent would have it so. The priest is here. I am giving you one last chance to repent your foolishness. We will marry and return to London immediately. We will explain your flight as our elopement. You will cease fighting me and obey and—”
    “You put me through five days of hell so you might steal my inheritance and you think that will make me marry you?I’d rather marry a sheepherder.”
    He responded with a vicious blow that dropped her to her knees, and then he began to lay his whip about her back and shoulders.
    A wave of memory came unbidden, freezing Jack’s breath so it came in jagged shards. Drunken curses, piteous cries, the image of a woman’s body lying broken and still amidst a heap of shattered crockery and splintered wood. Hatred and murder flashed in his eyes before he ruthlessly suppressed it. He clenched and unclenched his fists, mastering himself. I would very much like to kill him, he thought with mild surprise.
    “Come and hold her still, priest!” Hammond snapped. “The girl needs discipline.”
    “I think not,” Jack said calmly, cocking his pistol. “I think you should put that down before someone gets badly hurt.”
    The guards by the door stepped forward, readying their own weapons, but their master waved them back. Jack suspected the footmen had pistols too. Four on one, and it wouldn’t be wise to discount their master or the priest.
    “Do you fancy her then, highwayman? I thought you might. You can have her here and now if you like. I’ll even pay you for your pleasure. She is useless to me as she is. Rebellious, disgraced, yet still too proud to marry. But a highwayman’s seed in her belly would suit my purpose well enough.”
    “You are indeed a generous host,” Jack said, giving him a mocking bow. “But I am accustomed to finding my own women.”
    “Are you? Surely not ones as fine as this.”
    Taking her upper arm in a cruel grip, Sir Robert hauled her to her feet. She stood mute and rebellious, her head high and her back straight, stony green eyes refusing to see them, her gaze fixed firmly on the far wall. It was Jack’s first real look at her. She might once have been pretty but it was hard to tell. She had an angular face with high cheekbones and there was a stubborn tilt to her jaw, but she looked drawn and haggard, her lip was puffed and bleeding, and one side of her face was battered and swollen.
    “I tend to prefer mine without all the cuts and bruises.” He felt an uncomfortable twinge he didn’t care to examine, and reminded himself yet again that the odds were against him, and he was not the author of her troubles.
    “What does her face matter? She’s a lady, and unless those idiots dared cross me, a virgin still. She has a nice trim waist, hips meant for hard riding, and what man wouldn’t enjoy these?” He cupped her breasts, lifting them slightly while she stood stone-faced, not moving a muscle. “Would you like to see more? Have you ever had a virgin? You could be the first to ride her.”
    “I’m told those rare, some say mythical beings are highly over-rated,” Jack said, hiding his revulsion. It was clear now why Hammond had wanted a known highwayman for this venture. He doubted Rat-faced Perry knew or he’d have recommended someone else. His