Page 76 of The Highlander's Princess Bride
“So you were the noble sacrifice, sent into the lion’s den?”
Victoria couldn’t hold back a wry smile, since that was exactly what she’d been thinking just before she’d crawled through the window. “I was fairly certain you wouldn’t bash my head in.”
He leaned forward, his lips curling up in a rather menacing sneer. “So, you think me a tame lion, Miss Knight?”
She refused to be intimidated. “No, I think you a gentleman, sir. And a kind man, as well.”
He slumped back with a sigh. “Not according to my brothers or Angus. To them, I’m a bastard for keeping Logan away.”
He looked so grim and weary she instinctively rested a hand on his knee. “They know you’re still grieving.”
“They told you everything, I suppose,” he said.
She was surprised to find herself leaning against his leg. Somehow, though, it felt entirely natural.
“I’m so very sorry about your little boy,” she said.
For several long moments, all she heard was the ticking of the clock on the mantel and the hiss of the embers in the grate.
“I still miss him so much,” he finally said.
The quiet sorrow in his voice all but broke her heart. “What was he like?”
He stared into the fire. “Cam was a bright light for all of us, lass. The sweetest boy. I know it sounds a cliché, but he was the best thing that ever happened to me.”
Not his wife. Victoria tucked that bit of information away for later.
“Did he look like you?” she asked.
He chuckled. “He was a Kendrick, all right. He had black hair and blue eyes, and he was always happy. Cam was much like Kade in that respect, a good-natured child who loved everyone. He also had a knack for getting into trouble, just like the twins.”
“Boys usually do.”
The warmth faded from his expression. “My wife didn’t know what to do with him. She’d wanted a girl, someone like her instead of a rambunctious Kendrick male.”
Victoria hid her surprise. Most aristocratic women felt like a failure if they didn’t produce a male heir within a few years of marriage.
As if sensing her surprise, Arnprior shrugged. “Janet was never truly comfortable with children, especially boys. She loved our son but did not see the need to involve herself in his care.”
Victoria tapped his knee. “Which is why people like you hire people like me.”
He flashed her a rueful smile. “True, but I loved spending time with Cam. I was used to managing boys, because I had to raise my younger brothers.”
“Surely you had Angus to help with that, too.”
“Yes, he was a grand help,” he said sardonically.
“I know he’s a trial, but he cares for you and wishes to support you. As do your brothers.”
“One would never know it, considering the way they’ve behaved lately.”
“And we’re working to change all that, are we not?”
He reached for her hand and laced his fingers with hers. The touch of his warm, rough skin, the way his hand all but swallowed hers up, made every nerve in her body skitter with anticipation.
“I failed them,” he said gruffly.
“I don’t follow.”
