Jack Lark: Rogue Read Online Free

you believe that, lad?’ He reached out and slapped the simple-looking boy on the arm.
    The boy laughed, then gulped down his gin.
    Tate chuckled and pounded him on the back. ‘Good lad, you get that down you. There’s plenty more where it came from, and only the best for you. Why, I don’t think I have ever seen a finer bunch of boys in all my born days. I reckon you lads could even be officers one day. You fancy that, Jack? You would outrank me! I would have to call you sir!’
    It was Jack’s turn to laugh. ‘I’d like that.’
    ‘So then, Jack-o, what do you say? Is it time to break your ma’s heart and come with me and these four bonny lads?’
    ‘Not this time, Sergeant.’ Jack glanced anxiously towards the bar. He saw his mother glaring in his direction. She would not approve of him lollygagging with the sergeant, even though he was one of her best customers.
    ‘Well, you knows where to find me when you change your mind.’ Tate seemed happier now that he had his fourth recruit. He earned a guinea for each one that passed the army’s medical examination. Four recruits would turn a tidy profit, even taking into account the gin he had bought to bring them to his table. ‘The Mitre and Dove on the corner of King Street and Bridge Street over in Westminster. You reckon you could find it, Jack-o?’
    ‘Reckon I could.’ In truth, Jack had no idea where it might be. He knew the rookeries as well as he knew his own skin. Outside of their narrow alleys and packed streets, he would have no clue.
    ‘I’m there most days. But don’t let your head get turned by the cavalry sods. A good boy like you don’t want to be in the bleeding cavalry. Twice the work it is, looking after a bloody horse as well as yourself.’ Tate considered Jack through narrowed eyes. ‘No, it’s the infantry for a smart young man like you, Jack Lark. So you come and find me when the time is right.’
    ‘Jack, get your bleeding arse back over here.’ Jack’s mother had a voice as loud as a docker’s, and it cut through the background hubbub like a good knife through tripe.
    ‘Off you go, Jack-o. Do as you are told, I know how it is. But I’ll be waiting for you.’
    Jack nodded and went to answer his mother’s summons. He liked Tate’s certainty. He fancied himself in the scarlet and gold. Mary would be unable to send him away if he turned up with a set of chevrons on his arm.
    It was a pleasing notion, and Jack could not help but smile even as his mother scowled as he dived back behind the bar. It was a fine dream and one that had already sustained him through his darkest hours. One day he would be a redcoat. Then Lampkin had better look out.
    ‘What’ll it be?’ He snapped out the litany of his trade, drifting back into the routine of pouring drinks and taking pennies. But his mind was far away, picturing the day when he would walk back into the gin palace dressed in the full finery of a sergeant in the service of the Queen.

Chapter 3
    Sir Humphrey Ponsonby looked across at his son before skipping deftly around a puddle. ‘How are you feeling, my boy?’ He stifled a belch by raising a gloved hand to his mouth.
    ‘I’m fine, Father,’ Edmund Ponsonby answered, forcing himself to swallow the sour gullet full of vomit that he had come close to depositing on the macadam road beneath his boots.
    ‘Good boy. Now, I must warn you.’ Sir Humphrey weaved closer to his son, his stick waving in front of him as he gestured at the houses pressed close on either side of the road. ‘This is not the sort of part of town I would expect you to visit on your own. It is as foul a den of iniquity as you will find this side of Southwark. Yet I felt it was an essential part of your education. If you are to take your place in society, then you must learn more about the wider world in which our society sits. I consider this as much a part of your education as whatever it is you learn at that school of yours.’
    Edmund was barely listening.