Portrait of My Heart by Patricia Cabot Read Free Book Online

overheard that conversation!
    Maggie’s sister would have done more than faint if she could have been privy to Jeremy’s thoughts just then. He was mentally kicking himself for not having attempted to seduce Sir Arthur Herbert’s youngest daughter years before. How could he not have seen it? he asked himself. How could he not have known she’d turn into such a delectable morsel? True, none of her sisters had been anything much, so he hadn’t had a lot of warning, but Maggie … What a find! He’d never had this much fun with a girl he hadn’t paid for. There was something about her, something in that uninhibited impertinence of hers, that hinted that though the girl might only just be out of the schoolroom, there wasn’t a bit of schoolroom in the girl. It looked as though his visit home might just turn out not to be such a bore after all … .
    For Maggie’s part, she was not liking this turn of events. Not liking it at all. There weren’t a lot of people Maggie saw on a day-to-day basis who were bigger than she was, and so she wasn’t used to being made to feel small, but Jeremy, whom she’d pretty much bullied for years, now had the advantage of being able to make her feel so. Worse, he was so much bigger that he actually made her feel a little afraid. And the last thing Maggie liked to feel was afraid. She considered herself fearless, having—unlike her elder sisters—aversions to neither heights nor water, mice nor insects, enclosed spaces nor the dark. How she could possibly be afraid of Jeremy Rawlings, she wasn’t certain, but the trepidation was there, all right, and she was going to have to
do something about it, or admit to herself that there was one thing she feared … but whether that thing was Jeremy Rawlings, or how he made her feel, she wasn’t sure.
    Risking a glance toward Jeremy’s face, she saw that he was still looking down at her, and still wearing the same thoughtful expression. Lord, he was attractive! How could she not have noticed that before? Not that she liked good-looking men … well, except for Lord Edward, and Alistair Cartwright, her brother-in-law. But in general, Maggie thought handsome men tended to think entirely too well of themselves. She supposed Jeremy had a reason to feel superior, since he’d turned out to be good-looking, and had more money than the queen, as well. But in his case, both his looks and his money were gifts of fortune. Only a fool took pride in gifts from God … .
    Then Maggie’s gaze strayed past his broad shoulders. “Uh, Jeremy,” she said.
    “Yes?” Both of his eyebrows lifted expectantly.
    “You might want to catch your horse. He’s running away.”
    Startled, Jeremy turned around to see King trotting off toward the south pasture, where the fillies were grazing.
    “Hell,” Jeremy swore. He turned quickly back to Maggie. “Stay here,” he said, making a gesture rather like Yorkshire shepherds made to their collies when they wanted them to stay in one place. “All right? I’ll be right back.”
    “Oh,” Maggie said, nodding seriously. “Of course.”
    The minute his back was turned, however, she started heading toward the house … not running, exactly, because that was hard to do while holding the bodice of one’s dress closed—and besides, she didn’t want him to think she was running away —but walking very briskly. Retreat seemed the best strategy at that point. She needed to make repairs to more than just her dress … her mind was in a veritable whirl, after having been bombarded with so many new sensations at once. Jeremy Rawlings, looking just as manly and strong as the local blacksmith’s sons, whom she’d been admiring from afar for well over a year now? Jeremy Rawlings, looking down at her with lust in his eyes, eyes she’d once
thought dull, but which now shone as brightly as her mother’s silver tea service? Jeremy Rawlings, taller than she was ?
    What was her world coming to?
    It was too much for a girl like