Escape with A Rogue Read Online Free

done?” Then he held up his hand. “Don’t tell me. We don’t have time. I can’t take the risk they’ll catch me with you.”
    “I have a plan.”
    “No, you don’t.” He braced his arm on her cart and lowered his mouth close to hers.
    In the past, she’d yearned a thousand times to kiss him. Just being near him always made her hot and anxious and aroused. She’d dreamed of kisses, and passion, and even making love. But she’d never dared even touch him. It would be a scandalous act, and she had always tried to be the perfect lady. Here, it didn’t seem so impossible.
    After all, some of the English lasses were letting the Frenchmen kiss their hands and cheeks, and one couple was stealing a quick, furtive kiss.
    “I want you to get out of here and go somewhere where you will be safe,” she whispered.
    She saw fear in his eyes. Then he muttered, “Wherever in hell that may be. Lady Madeline, why did you involve yourself in this?”
    “I am going to get you out of here, Jack,” she insisted in a whisper. “I heard about a French officer who was helped by a market trader named Mary Ellis. She smuggled in civilian clothes and he hid underneath her voluminous skirts, then got into the disguise and walked out with her. I can return tomorrow—with clothes.”
    Jack caught hold of her chin—a touch he never would have dared when he was the head groom on her family’s estate. Her hope for a kiss had been madness. He looked as though he wanted to turn her over his knee and pummel her rump with the flat of his hand. “I’m not going to burrow under your skirts to change my clothes.” His green eyes went horribly cold. “Don’t come back, Lady M. I forbid it.”
    “I have to, Jack. I got you in this wretched place. I’m going to get you out.”
    “I’m only days away from an escape of my own. I tried it before but I got caught. This time, I won’t. I want you to go home. You are not to take any more risks. Not over me. I was just a groom, my lady. I’m not worth it.”
    “You are an innocent man sentenced to hell. Of course you are worth it, Jack Travers.”
    He looked stunned, as if she’d hit him. Then he shook his head. “I must be insane, but I do want you to know the truth. Your grandfather was right. I’m innocent.”
    Beausoleil let out a cautionary whistle. Madeline jerked around to look.
    The red coats of the guards flashed through the crowd—they were seconds away from catching her with Jack.
    When she looked back to Jack, he was gone.
    “Stop!” someone shouted from within the crowd. The guards abruptly steered their course away from her. They were trying to run after Jack. She was safe, he was in trouble, and there was nothing she could do.
    “I’ve got to hop it,” Beausoleil muttered. “He’ll get a dozen lashes with the cat for running off from his guards. And likely go back into the Black Hole. I doubt very much you’ll see him here tomorrow, my lady . I doubt he’ll be escaping anytime soon. But if you want to help a man get out—”
    She launched the turnip at his chest. With an audacious wink, Beausoleil caught it.
    Then he was gone too, vanishing in the crowd.
    Tom reached her side and began nervously rearranging his vegetables. “You found him, my—lass?” There was no mistaking the fear on Tom’s normally good-natured face.
    She nodded. “I have to come back. He won’t accept the clothes and come out with me.”
    Tom shook his head. “Don’t see any other way for him to get out, my—my dear.”
    “Then I have to make him change his mind.” Madeline’s stomach felt as though it was spinning like a top.
    She knew the soldiers would catch Jack—where could he hide in a prison? He would be brutally punished. Whipped. Locked up in that dark hole. Because of her.
    How could she ever make things right?
    I’m not worth it, he’d growled. He’d told her she didn’t need the truth to save her brother.
    She didn’t. But she needed it to save Jack.

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