Born in Sin by Kinley MacGregor Read Free Book Online Page B

make sure he’s not some peasant dressed in monk’s robes.”
    The king managed to look both offended and amused. “Think you we would do such?”
    “I have no doubt.”
    Henry laughed again. “Sin, my boy, you know us too well. But in this, there is no trickery. ’Tis the will of Our Savior that we should find you a spouse.”
    “’Tis the will of Lucifer that you should torment me until the day he can take over.”
    “Perhaps.”
    Callie glared at each of the men in turn. She had no intention whatsoever of honoring any agreement forged by two Englishmen without her consent. Especially since such an agreement would be to the extreme detriment of her clan. “Whatever bargain thetwo of you hatched, it doesn’t concern me. I will not marry an Englishman.”
    Henry looked thoughtful as he stroked the reddish beard on his chin. “Very well, then, you leave us no choice. We shall march our army into your lands and put down every man and male child to ensure peace. We shall start on the morrow with the death of your young brother.”
    Jamie gasped and stepped back, stumbling over Simon.
    His face horrified, Simon scooped the lad up and held him close. He patted Jamie on the back comfortingly.
    Callie’s heart stopped as terror consumed her over Henry’s cold-blooded threat. “You wouldn’t dare such.”
    Her words of defiance were over the line of acceptance and they all knew it. Henry gave her a stare that made her tremble. Even so, she wouldn’t cower. Not over something this important, especially while he threatened Jamie. If he even attempted to carry out that threat, she would see to it herself that he paid for his crime with his life.
    “We would counsel you to watch your tongue,” Henry said, his voice thick with malice. “Of royal Scots lineage you might be; he most certainly is not. Now, do you honestly think you could stop us from doing what we must to ensure the prosperity of England?”
    She locked gazes with Sin and saw the warning in his eyes. Aye, Henry could be that ruthless. They both knew it.
    “This is preposterous,” she insisted to the king.
    “Preposterous or not, come morning you two shall marry or our army marches into Scotland. The choice is entirely yours.”
    Callie met Henry’s gaze as an equal. She wasn’t going to let him see her fear, or her shivering. If she were a man, he’d never dare this, and it angered her that these Englishmen thought so little of their women.
    How she wished this were a bluff. But she knew better.
    The rebels in her clan, led by an unidentified man known simply as the Raider, had been unmerciful to the English who had dared settle in Scotland. She was sure the only reason Henry had refrained thus far from marching on her clan was the rather large matter of her kinship with King Malcolm of Scotland. It was also what had kept her safe in his hands.
    As cousin to the Scottish king, she had spent much of her early life at his court and knew of the royal way of life and the way kings thought.
    And she knew that if she dared take Sin into Scotland, those rebels who had been attacking the English would no doubt attack him and his men as well. It would be open warfare in a matter of days.
    This had all the trappings of a disaster.
    In her mind’s eye she could see it clearly. Sin’s army marching in and his soldiers wreaking havoc with the men of her clan, who hated all things English. Neither side would back down nor be reasonable. Her clansmen would never stomach an English army on their lands.
    Whatever was she to do?
    “What size army will you lead into my home?” she asked Sin, terrified of his answer.
    “None. I will go alone.”
    Henry laughed out loud until he realized Lord Sin was in earnest. “You can’t be serious.”
    Sin shrugged nonchalantly. “Even as few as ten English knights living among the Scots would invite the kind of conflict you’re trying to avoid. The only chance for peace is one man against them.”
    Sin’s knowledge of her