To Tempt a Knight Read Online Free PDF

others remained mounted and kept their distance. A sharp stab of annoyance brought a deep scowl to his face. “I’m gravelydisappointed. Will none of you step up to the task at hand? Justice is at stake.”
    “Let me go after him. I’ll find him.” Marcus Dumas brought his horse forward from the bunch. The youngest of all of them, his face still held the flush of youth. Similar to the flush that used to mark de la Roche’s own cheeks when he’d started his quest for revenge against the Templar Order over twenty-four years ago.
    “I believe that you will,” said de la Roche. He signaled the young man to come forward and sent Navarre to the rear.
    As Marcus came forward, memories swamped de la Roche. He saw himself as a young man, spurned by the preceptor of the Templar Order in France. As he had been an only son and heir to his father’s title, the Templars wouldn’t accept him amongst their ranks, no matter how much he’d pleaded.
    De la Roche cast off the memories with a growl. Those old desires were left buried in the past. The future stretched before him—a future in which he held power over life and death.
    He allowed his anger to fester, to swell until he could feel it pulsing through his veins. He’d destroyed hundreds of Templars since they’d been disbanded over two decades ago. He’d slain them, burned them, made examples of what happened to those who fell out of favor with God. And he’d been satisfied with his progress until he’d set his sights on bigger spoils.
    The Templar treasure.
    Something so precious could not belong to blasphemous swine. De la Roche intended to claim the treasure for his king, while keeping the Spear of Destiny—the Holy Lance—for himself. With the spear, nothing and no one could stop him in his quest for ultimate justice.
    He knew the truth about the Spear. Whosoever possesses this Holy Lance and understands the powers it serves, holds in his hands the destiny of the world, for good or evil.
    He wanted that power for himself. He wanted to fight battles without the fear of losing, to control men as he had never controlled them before, and to remake the world in a way that suited him. De la Roche’s hatred piled atop his anger. The Templar and the girl would not halt his sacred work.
    I shall punish them both. De la Roche signaled his men to ride back through the valley. There was nowhere in Scotland the two who defied holy law could hide where he would not find them.
    Nowhere.

Chapter Four
    As Siobhan and her unwanted protector rounded a bend in the road, the countryside grew quiet. Absent even was the wind. An eerie white mist formed on the ground, and wraithlike fog twined around the low stone walls and thickets of bracken outlining the tenant plots that bordered the road to Bramble House, her home.
    Now and again the fading sunlight pierced the broken, scudding clouds, casting a mottled array of golden light and darkened shadows. The strange combination sent a chill down Siobhan’s spine.
    “Do you see anyone, sir?” Siobhan asked, breaking the silence that had fallen between her and the knight as the horse made steady progress toward her home.
    He frowned. “Call me William. And nay, we appear to have left them far behind.”
    Siobhan heard a soft hissing followed by an unearthly groan. “What was that?”
    “I don’t know.”
    She could feel his body tense behind her as they came to the road they had traveled not long ago. The house came into sight. An odd light appeared in the front room’s shuttered windows. The light brightened, intensified, until with a flash, flames appeared, licking hungrily at the wood. Within the span of a heartbeat, flames licked the north side of the house, as well as the upper shutters.
    Her home was burning!
    Siobhan stared in disbelief. “No!” The raw cry tore from her throat. “This can’t be happening. I have to save the scroll.”
    “Why? What’s so important about that scroll?”
    “It’s my father’s life’s