The Sea Rose Read Online Free PDF Page A

Weldon.”
    “ Roselyn. Rose,” he
purred. The way he said her name was sinful. She ought to know. Her
parent had drilled her time and time again with what was sinful and
what wasn’t. Her father definitely would not have approved of the
way the words fell from his tongue.
    She took a deep breath. “You draw
first this time.”
    “ My pleasure.” He pulled
the nine of diamonds.
    Hers was the deuce of spades. She
hoped his next question would be as easy.
    “ Where were you going on
your merchant ship?”
    She audibly exhaled. Another easy one.
She answered after downing the wine he poured her. “I am for New
Providence, to marry my fiancé, Rupert.”
    “ And who is Rupert? Why is
he in New Providence?”
    “ I’m sorry,” Roselyn shook
her head, “you need to win the next question. After all, these are
your rules.”
    “ Right you are, dear Rose.
Your turn.”
    This time she triumphantly won the
question. “Your accent is upper class English and you have alluded
to a life in drawing rooms. Is your family of the
aristocracy?”
     
     
    “ And the lady goes right
for the throat.” How much to
tell ? “My father is an Earl. I am the
third son. A man of absolutely no worth.”
    She blinked at him. He said it so
matter-of-factly he could almost believe it himself, that after all
these years it really did mean nothing to him.
    The next three questions went to the
pirate. He learned her fiancé was a missionary, and that her father
had died unexpectedly, leaving her without means. She intended to
join the missionary and be wed ahead of their agreed-upon schedule.
Jack wondered how her fiancé would take to her appearing with no
advance word. New Providence and its hedonistic lifestyle had a way
with even the most stalwart of men.
     
     
    Roselyn drew the ten of diamonds and
Jack drew the four of clubs. This time she thought for a few
seconds before she asked her question. It was getting harder to
think them all the way through. She’d had two glasses at dinner and
had taken five rapid gulps of wine. That had to count for at least
another glass, and with the way he filled her glass after each
loss, it might have really been more like two more or maybe even
three. She didn’t think she had ever had even three glasses of wine
before and besides, her father had always insisted that her wine be
watered at dinner.
    Suddenly she had an inspiration. “Have
you ever been in love?” she asked.
    “ I have loved many women,”
Jack answered with a pirate’s bravado.
    “ That’s cheating!” she
declared. “You have to answer the question or you’ll ruin the
integrity of the game. Have you ever been in love?”
     
     
    Handsome Jack thought back to the many
women in his life. There was only one woman he had been in love
with. He, a silly boy of nineteen and she, a lovely child of
eighteen. They had been so young and madly in love. Her father
refused to allow her to marry him as he had no title and a very
small income. Like a naïve, impetuous youth, he ran off to make his
fortune in the Navy, the service the only option available to him
besides taking vows. She had professed her undying love and told
him she’d wait for him…
    “ I did love a girl once,
many lifetimes ago. Her name was Melinda and she married an earl. I
hear she’s had three children and grown very fat.” He was surprised
to find himself so candid.
    “ I’m so sorry,” Roselyn
said, “about the marrying someone else part, not the growing fat
part.”
    He chuckled at her truthfulness. He
was pleased to see the wine had loosened her. The tension around
her mouth and eyes was nearly gone. She lost the next draw and
gulped yet another healthy swig of wine.
    “ Have you ever been in love?” he asked
her.
    “ I’m engaged,” she told
him, like that was a sufficient answer.
    “ That doesn’t mean you’re
in love with him.”
    “ That is a horrible
question,” she declared indignantly, oblivious to the hypocritical
nature of her protest.