The Rebel's Promise Read Online Free PDF Page A

told him plaintively, “I thought you liked it too.”
    He laughed, “Rosie, I do like it. Believe me, I like it far too much!”
    He explained and her eyes widened further as his meaning dawned on her. A becoming blush stained her cheeks and she buried her face against his chest in embarrassment. Her leg brushed his body and she felt his hardness throb against her. A shiver which was a combination of fear and pleasure ran through her as she exulted in this evidence of the power she had over him.
    She propped her chin on his chest so that she could study his face, “I don’t know very much about such things, Jack,” she admitted, the blush deepening, “But, I think that means you would like to make love to me?”
    He groaned softly, pressing a kiss onto her temple. “You will never know how much!” he told her, trying to keep his voice light, “But I am not sunk so far beneath reproach as that, my love.”
    She sighed, “Would it be so very bad?” she asked, a slight crease between her brows, “Because I think I would like it very much too ...”
    Jack shook his head. “You don’t know what you are saying ... how could you? Rosie, my love, you are so innocent you can have no idea how wrong it would be.”
    “It doesn’t feel like it would be wrong, Jack” her voice was coaxing, her hand stroking his chest, “It seems to me that this ‘innocence’ you talk about is just a barrier to our happiness. I wish you would take it away from me. I’m sure I won’t miss it, you know.”
    “Enough, you shameless hussy!” he muttered, resolutely moving away from her, “You don’t know how tempting you are, or what you are asking. Now stop trying to wheedle me into forgetting that I am a gentleman and let us change this subject for one less dangerous.”
    Rosie regarded him speculatively from beneath her lashes, making him chuckle appreciatively.
    “Very well, I won’t tease you further ... for now,” she acceded reluctantly.
     
    Rosie relented and allowed Jack to leave his bedchamber for lunch. This meal was taken in the breakfast parlour. With its family portraits on the walls, tapestry covered chairs and gold silk draperies, it was a cosier setting than the formal dining room. As they lingered over the meal, he tried to explain his loyalty to Bonnie Prince Charlie.
    “My mother was a Scotswoman and could, in fact, claim kinship to the royal Stuart clan. My father was a close friend of the Old Pretender, so it was in some ways inevitable that I should throw in my lot with his son. I completed the ‘grand tour’ after Eton, and I first met him then.” He passed her an apple he had peeled, and she received it with a smile of thanks. “I truly believe he is more fitted for kingship than the Hanoverians who currently occupy our throne,” he went on, watching her neat, white teeth bite into the crisp fruit, “They are provincial and boorish in comparison.”
    Rosie had been reared by her father to view James Stuart as the rightful king and his son, Prince Charles, as the heir. As a girl, she had delighted in hearing about the Young Pretender’s heroic looks and dashing exploits. Now his designs on the throne were having a direct impact on her life and, privately, she wished he would return to the continent and stay there.
    “What will you do next?” Rosie enquired, longing to know Jack’s plans but dreading to hear him talk of leaving, “I mean, when you are fully well. Where will you go?”
    He sighed and gazed out of the window for long minutes at the wintery scene, “My life changed that day at Swarkestone Bridge,” he said simply, avoiding the question momentarily.
    Rosie nodded her understanding, “You came so close to death.”
    “No, my life changed that day because it led me here, Rosie,” he held her gaze across the table and her heart gave that strange little leap that only Jack could cause it to do. “Before that day I would have died for the Jacobite cause, but now I have come to