The Rogue Prince Read Online Free

desperately needed improvements in Blackmore’s lands until she had some money.
    She sent Nurse Hawkins down to the kitchen for her own supper, and picked up her daughter, Lily. Keeping the little girl on her lap, she sat down beside Zachary on a comfortable settee before the fire in their cozy attic bedchamber. The children had already had their evening meal and were ready for bed, but it was Maggie’s habit to draw them a story before they went to bed.
    It wasn’t enough just to tell them a tale of adventure and exciting events. Maggie’s habit was to draw pictures of the pirates and highwaymen, as well as the heroes and maidens who populated her stories.
    Her skill at drawing was just a silly hobby, certainly not the high art of her sister, Stella. But her lack of talent did not bother her, for she’d neverwanted to do more than amuse, and sometimes instruct, her children with her meager abilities.
    â€œThat’s the man who pulled me from the street, Mama,” said Zachary, noting the likeness Maggie had drawn of the prince. He was as dark and seemed as dangerous as a pirate, and yet he’d performed the good deed of saving Zac from the racing carriage.
    â€œDon’t you think he should be the hero of our tale?” she asked her son.
    â€œWell, he didn’t fight pirates, did he?” Zac queried, rising up on his knees and leaning close to watch every line that Maggie drew.
    â€œWell, of course I don’t know for certain, but I believe he is fully capable of fighting pirates,” she replied with a smile. The magnitude of the man’s heroism mattered not to Maggie. She was just thankful he’d had exactly what was needed to save her son from disaster.
    She wondered if he’d noticed his effect upon her. Her shock at Zachary’s near death had been enough to cause her heart to thunder in her chest, but the prince’s touch had stopped the breath in her lungs. She’d felt a quickening inside that had naught to do with Zachary, and everything to do with the man whose grass green eyes had looked at her as a man might look at a lover.
    Not that Maggie had any experience in such things. She had felt awkward and unappealing during her one short season, and her sisters had scoffed at her flimsy attempts at flirting. Because of her lameness, she couldn’t dance a creditableset, and she’d been too shy to be any good at conversation. Her season had been a disaster, which had made it quite easy for Shefford to pressure her into marrying Julian Danvers, his good friend.
    There wouldn’t be any other offers, her mother and Shefford had claimed, not when Maggie was still such a gangly, awkward thing at age twenty—with a lame leg, no less. The years-old Chatterton scandal had not helped, either, but Julian had been willing to overlook Maggie’s shortcomings to know that he’d be getting a suitably innocent, biddable wife.
    Lily took her thumb from her mouth. “Is there a bairn, too, Mama?”
    â€œI hadn’t thought of a bairn, love. Shall we give one to the handsome captain and his wife?”
    â€œNo!” Zachary protested. He got up from the settee and took up a fighting stance. “No babies, Lily! The captain must fight the villains on the sea!”
    â€œWhere on earth did you learn such a thing, Zachary?” Maggie asked, aghast.
    â€œFrom Willy Johnston,” Zachary replied with bravado. “We do boxing at home!”
    â€œCome back here and sit down, young man,” Maggie said. She wasn’t quite sure what boxing was, but she had some idea that it involved two grown men throwing punches at one another. It was not something she wanted her son to be any part of.
    If only he’d had a more conscientious father,if only Julian had spent more time with his son, perhaps Zachary would have a more even temperament.
    But Julian had always had more important things to attend to in Town—estate management,