Free A Highlander's Heart: A Sexy Regency Romance (Highland Knights Book 1) by Jennifer Haymore Page B

It’s…” McLeod shook his head, evidently speechless.
    Stirling was right—Rob wasn’t going to be seduced by a house either. However, there were many other aspects of the offer that were beginning to seduce him.
    The opportunity to earn a steady living. The chance to remain actively involved in keeping the peace of the nation. Being a useful and productive member of society. Not having to participate in any more bloody battles on open fields. The ability to remain in Great Britain.
    He’d never have to be too far from his wife.
    What would she think of all this? Adams had said the information must remain between the seven of them, but Claire was waiting for him at the town house, and she’d want details.
    He was prepared to give them to her. Because, damn it, he wanted her with him. He was sick and tired of leaving his wife again and again, of being gone from her more than he was ever together with her.
    Involving her, he realized, would be setting himself up for more pain, because if she rejected this, it would mean she was rejecting him all over again.
    He needed to decide whether it was worth it to take the risk.

Chapter Eight
    Claire leapt up when she heard the front door open. It was four o’clock in the afternoon, and her mind had been swirling with theories of what the army could possibly want with her husband and his six Gordon Highlanders.
    They were being asked to a special ball commemorating the heroes of Waterloo?
    They were being sent on a secret mission to France?
    They were all being promoted?
    They were being commanded to form a brand-new regiment of Highlanders?
    She had no idea, really. All those possibilities seemed so far-fetched.
    Picking up her skirts, she hurried into the entry hall. Her husband entered first, and she clutched her skirts tighter, forcing herself not to run into his arms and demand every single detail. He came right up to her, slipped his arm over her shoulder, and squeezed before releasing her as the other men entered behind him.
    “Have ye gone to visit Grace?” he asked her.
    “Not yet.” She’d promised Mackenzie he could go, so she’d been waiting for their return.
    “I’m afraid ye wilna be able to see her today, lass. We’ve much to discuss.”
    Nodding, she said, “Of course. I’ll send a note. We can see each other at another time. But”—she glanced over at the other men—“I fear Sergeant Mackenzie might be utterly dejected.”
    “Aye, dejected indeed,” the sergeant said, his expression sober. “But the major speaks truth. There’s much to discuss. Perhaps I could join ye on the morrow?”
    “If I’m able to go tomorrow, you shall be my companion,” she promised him.
    Rob asked Bailey to have tea brought, and they all retired to the drawing room. Claire sat on the edge of the blue silk chaise longue, and when Rob lowered himself beside her, she smiled a little. He’d chosen to sit beside her, when he could have taken any of the several surrounding seats.
    While he wasn’t a man who poured out emotion in gallons, Claire was beginning to realize that he showed his feelings in tiny but significant actions.
    The fact that he never overtly showed a depth of feeling had angered Claire beyond reason at one point. But after watching him at Waterloo and watching him now, the direction of her thoughts had shifted.
    If he’d collapsed under the strain of all that had happened at Waterloo, how could he be the leader that his men admired and revered? How could he have performed all those heroic acts in battle that had led to his promotion to major and his baronetcy?
    He couldn’t be a waterspout; he couldn’t be crushed under a flood of despair; he couldn’t be a weakling. He needed to solve problems. He needed to be a leader. He needed to be strong. That was who he was.
    And it didn’t mean he didn’t care. He’d showed her in so many small ways that he cared about her since she’d arrived at Waterloo. Little touches, stolen smiles, the way