She Owns the Knight Read Online Free

the cemetery where a group of riders huddled together. Kellen was disappointed to see it was just his neighbor, Sir Robert Royce, and some of his men.
    Tristan, now riding beside Kellen, remarked, “It’s that pox-marked, fly-bitten, eye-offending lout, Royce.”
    “I can see that.”
    But there was nothing offensive about Royce’s looks other than he’d been born pretty enough to be female. As lads, they’d been companions, taking their training together, fostering with Lord Wallington. But Kellen’s fighting ability caused awe and admiration among their lord, others, and finally the king. That, in turn, caused jealousy on Royce’s part. No doubt it hadn’t helped that Kellen and the other boys had once forced Royce into a gown.
    Eventually all had been forgiven and they’d fought side by side in several battles, at home and across the ocean. Afterward, Royce tried his hand in beating Kellen at several tournaments, but of course, had as little luck as any other against him. They’d grown distant in the last few years, and even more so when Lord Wallington died on Royce’s watch, something Kellen could never quite forgive.
    “Does this mean we don’t get to fight?” Tristan asked.
    Kellen considered. Mayhap they should take this opportunity to rile Royce. Lax as ever, the idiot did not even see them coming, as he and his men looked at something on the ground. They were laughing and Royce appeared vastly amused. Kellen, curious, signaled for his men to spread out.
    Royce and his followers finally turned at their approach, and Kellen saw a girl in their midst. She was in a state of partial undress, wearing short breeches that formed to her figure, and in no way hid a beautiful set of legs, and a tunic so tight, it concealed nothing of her body.
    If she’d been trying to pass for a lad, she’d failed miserably. She was attractive, curvy, and blonde as his wife had been. Her long hair tumbled about her shoulders.
    Fear was evident in the girl’s face, but the beauty’s fists clenched and unclenched and she looked ready to fight. One of the villagers? Kellen hadn’t seen her before and would have surely remembered if he had.
    Royce’s men quieted as Kellen moved in, looking between Royce and the girl. “What is happening here?” Kellen asked, his mild tone apparently not putting anyone at ease as their expressions remained wary.
    The girl answered before Royce had the chance. “These men are scaring me. They won’t back off. I just want to get back to my car. Could you please help me?”
    Not a villager, then. Her speech was strange, but Kellen was able to sort through her words and understand most of them.
    He looked around for a nearby carriage, but was unsurprised when he didn’t see one. With spring barely over, flooding had washed the road out in several places, and it wasn’t yet dry enough for cart nor carriage to travel on.
    He addressed Royce. “Why are you and your men on my property? Who is this girl?”
    Royce lifted his chin. “Some of my livestock went missing, and we were searching out the thieves when we came across the chit.”
    “You were thinking to find your cattle on my land?” Kellen’s words were smooth as silk. “Are you making an accusation?”
    Royce went still for a moment, then smiled slowly, that smirky lifting of lips that always made Kellen want to punch him in the mouth. Or stick him in a dress. “Of course not. I simply think the thieves used this route. Scottish, no doubt.”
    Tristan and Sir Owen moved forward to get a better look at the girl. “She does not look Scottish,” said Sir Owen. “But you never know. As weedy as your cattle are, perhaps she’s hidden the beasts behind her back?”
    Kellen’s men laughed. Royce’s did not.
    The girl raised a hand to her forehead as if dizzy, and Kellen froze. As impossible as it seemed, the ring she wore looked to possess the Corbett emblem.
    Off his horse in an instant, Kellen quickly covered the ground between