The Recruit by Monica Mccarty Read Free Book Online

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     away on a woman, no matter how tempting.
    But Lady Alice wasn’t making it easy. She leaned forward a little more, resting her
     hand on his thigh under the table and letting one of those plump breasts graze his
     arm. He felt the hard bead of her nipple through the wool of his tunic, and his body
     reacted.
    A slow smile curved his mouth. At least forbidden fruit until Bruce gave him an answer,
     and then he might have to reconsider.
    “Most of the events, Lady Alice, although I fear I’m not much of a dancer. I will
     leave the sword dance for those with more nimble feet.”
    “I think you are being modest. I’ve heard you are quite nimble, my lord. Especially
     with your sword.” Her hand inched closer to the growing bulge between his legs just
     in case he’d missed the suggestiveness of her words.
    Though he was tempted to see how far she would take it—he’d been a squire the last
     time a lass had stroked him under the tablecloth in the middle of a feast—he wasn’t
     going to take any chances. With a sigh of regret, he covered her hand with his and
     eased it off his lap. He smiled, hoping to ease the sting of his rejection. “In the
     practice yard, perhaps. Alas, that is all I can focus on right now.”
    Thankfully, the woman on his right decided his attention had been on Lady Alice long
     enough. “The ladies are already making wagers, my lord. I believe you are favored
     to win many of the weapon competitions.”
    He lifted a brow in mock disappointment. “Only the weapons?”
    Lady Eleanor, the daughter of Sir William Wiseman, another of Bruce’s closest cohorts,
     blushed, not realizing he was teasing her. “Perhaps the wrestling event as well. But
     Robbie Boyd still has not said whether he will enter.”
    As Kenneth was fairly sure Robbie Boyd was a member of Bruce’s secret army, he doubted
     the king was going to let him anywhere near the competition field. Magnus MacKay,
     Tor MacLeod, Erik MacSorley, and GregorMacGregor as well. All past champions of the Games, and all, he suspected, members
     of Bruce’s famed phantom band of warriors. “Famed” because of their almost mythical
     deeds, and “phantom” because they seemed to slip in and out of the darkness like wraiths,
     identities unknown. The king wouldn’t want to draw attention to their skills, not
     when the names of the members of his secret army were so sought after.
    Rumors of an elite group of warriors—a secret army—had been floating around for years.
     But it wasn’t until Kenneth and his Sutherland clansmen had come over to Bruce’s side
     late last year that Kenneth had figured out that not only was it real, his foster
     brother had been a part of it. Until he’d been killed in battle, that is. Kenneth
     intended to take his friend’s place among the best warriors in Scotland. If the Highland
     Games were the recruiting ground for the secret army, he wasn’t going to leave any
     doubt as to his skills.
    No matter who he faced.
    “I would welcome the challenge,” he said truthfully. Wrestling was a bit of a misnomer.
     Hand-to-hand combat was more accurate. It was an all-out brawl—a melee of two. It
     was the ultimate contest of strength and fighting ability, matching two opponents
     with nothing but their fists.
    Though Robbie Boyd had never lost in the wrestling event and was considered the strongest
     man in Scotland, Kenneth never shied from a fight—which admittedly sometimes got him
     in trouble.
    “Are you so sure, Sutherland?” Kenneth stiffened at the familiar voice coming from
     behind him. “As I recall, last time you did not fare so well.”
    His shoulders stiffened reflexively, but when Kenneth turned to look at the man who’d
     taken a seat beside his sister while his attention had been fixed on the solar door,
     there was no sign he’d heard the taunt.
    He didn’t
usually
shy from a fight, he amended his earlier thought. Until now.
Sangfroid
, he told himself. Kenneth was going to