The Jacobite's Return (The Georgian Rebel Series) by Jane Godman Read Free Book Online Page B

not now when he looked at her with coldness in his eyes.
    But his return raised dozens of questions. They chased each other around in her mind and remained unanswered when the dawn arrived. How had Jack escaped the battlefield? Rosie had been at Castle Lachlan, close to Culloden, on that dreadful day. After the battle, her cousin Martha had given orders for the field to be searched and any injured Jacobites to be brought back to the castle to be cared for there. At the same time, the Duke of Cumberland’s men were ruthlessly enforcing the order to give no quarter to the rebels, which meant they were murdering the wounded as they lay and the vanquished as they surrendered. Rosie had begged the castle steward, Auld Rab, for information about Jack. His words came back to her now.
    “We could’nae even find his body to bring back to you for burial, my lady.” Auld Rab had shaken his head regretfully. “I scoured every inch of the battlefield myself in search of him. But some of the clansmen had already set fires, and many of the bodies were burned to save them from looters or Cumberland’s atrocities.”
    How did you escape, Jack? But there was another, more important question. Why did you not send me word you were still alive? I’d have travelled to the end of the earth to join you. You must have known it. That thought was the one keeping her awake. The course of her life over the past two years would have been so different if she had known.
    The following morning, her eyes heavy and her limbs uncoordinated, Rosie remembered her letters. Tom Drury’s missive was short. He needed to speak to her about some estate business. The letter had been forwarded from Lady Drummond’s country estate. She would have to write and let him know she was in London. She would also have to tell him about Jack. The two men had become close friends in the short time they had known each other.
    The letter from her cousin Martha had a very different tone. It was a brief, scribbled note, sent to warn Rosie that Jack was alive, well and once again in possession of his estates.
    I wished to warn you, dearest, that he leaves here soon and is on his way to England. I know it is most unlikely you will meet him, but I thought I should let you know this astonishing news, lest you should do so unexpectedly and sustain a severe shock.
    “A little late, Martha love.” Did she detect from the tone of the letter that Martha was not quite as astonished by the news Jack was alive as Rosie had been? Or is my mind thoroughly disordered this morning?
    Harry, peeping round her bedchamber door, demanded to know what news there was from Scotland and from his Derbyshire home.
    “There is something you should know.” Rosie patted the bed and he came to sit beside her. “Jack did not die at Culloden as we thought.”
    He sat bolt upright in surprise. “By Jove, that’s splendid news.”
    Rosie smiled. An over-simplification, perhaps, but in his unique way, Harry had perfectly summed up the situation. “And he is here in London.”
    The excited light in Harry’s eyes brought a lump to her throat. It was a look she had not seen for a long time. “Do you not see what this means? Jack can rid us of that blackguard Clive once and for all.”
    It took some considerable time to convince Harry that the matter was not quite so straightforward. When Harry left her, his excitement had faded, to be replaced by gloom. Rosie went to the window that looked out onto the gardens at the rear of the house. Twisting the antique, crested ring that Clive had bestowed upon her to mark their marriage, she felt a wild desire to tear the hated thing off her finger and hurl it into the depths of the decorative pond below her. Resisting the impulse, she rang the bell and sent for Violet to bring Xander to her.

Chapter F our
    A man could cram a lot of soul searching into two years. If he wasn’t careful, he could end up a self-pitying wreck. That was a lesson Jack had learned the hard