Page 16 of The Highlander's Princess Bride
Since Victoria also hated chaos, she sympathized with his desire to impose order.
“Miss Knight, I would like to introduce my brothers. This is Graeme,” the earl said, gesturing to the brasher of the two. “And this is Grant.”
Graeme’s bow was the more flourishing, as was the smile he flashed. He would be the bigger problem, since he clearly fancied himself a charmer.
“Good afternoon, Miss Knight,” he said. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“Yes, ma’am,” said Grant. “We’re quite looking forward to our lessons with you. Nick—I mean, the earl—has told us we must work very hard and absorb everything you have to teach us.”
Victoria was rising from a quick curtsy, but those words practically locked her knees in place. “Lessons? Surely you’re both much too old for a governess,” she said with an uneasy chuckle.
“Too bloody right,” muttered Angus, scowling at her.
Victoria was growing quite tired of his ugly scowls. There would have to be a reckoning with the old man, but right now she had other concerns.
“We’re twenty-two, Miss Knight,” Graeme said. “But Nick says we still need tutoring.”
“Not that we necessarily agree with him,” Grant added hastily, “but he says you’ll teach us all we need to know, and that you’ll soon set us to rights.”
She frowned. “Did you not attend university, or have tutors?”
“Both,” Arnprior tersely replied.
An uncomfortable silence ensued.
“Then, what happened?” Victoria prodded.
The twins exchanged a puzzled glance, as if they expected her to already know the details.
“We got kicked out of university,” Graeme finally said.
Argh. “Officially, or were you just sent down for a term?”
“Kicked out and told never to return,” Grant said morosely.
What had they done to deserve so severe a punishment? When she looked at the earl, he seemed oddly detached from the conversation, as if waiting for her to react. Dominic sometimes wore that look, and she didn’t like it.
“My lord, are you asking me to take over the lessons your brothers would have received at university?” she asked. “Because if so, I do not feel qualified. They should have a male tutor in that case.”
The earl gestured toward her chair, his broad shoulders shifting under the dark cloth of his jacket. “Why don’t we have tea first, and then discuss the matter? Would you mind doing the honors, Miss Knight?”
Alec, who’d obviously been throttling back his irritation, finally spoke up. “Arnprior, this should not be a complicated discussion. Simply tell Miss Knight what you expect.”
“Tea first,” the earl said. “Then I’ll explain.”
Alec threw up a hand. “Confound it—”
Arnprior cut him off. “Everyone sit down.Now.”
The twins scrambled to comply, all but tripping over themselves to sit on a scroll-backed settee across from Victoria. They plunked down so vigorously that she feared the settee’s delicate cabriolet legs would collapse under the strain. Alec remained standing, glaring at his host. Arnprior crossed his arms over his brawny chest and lifted an imperious eyebrow to calmly stare back at him.
Alec finally rolled his eyes and capitulated. Her cousin was a big, confident man who’d also had a distinguished career in the military, and was heir to an earldom. But Arnprior was something different, and that difference was impressive. Victoria judged him to be at least ten years older than Alec, and he evoked an authority that suggested he bent to no man, even one of higher station.
His commanding manner and intense gaze produced an odd effect in Victoria. It made her insides seem to quiver, something she did not appreciate.
The earl handed her to the elegant walnut armchair. Victoria’s skin prickled as his hand wrapped around hers, the feel of his callused fingers a bit unnerving. Ever since Fletcher’s attack, she’d been skittish at the touch of a man. Chloe had assured her that those worrying feelings would eventually pass, and Victoria could only hope such would be the case. She hated having to suffer a fearful response whenever a stranger, or even an acquaintance, so much as brushed against her.
Arnprior pulled over a wingback chair and sat at one end of the tea table. Though the chair was massive and heavy looking, the earl picked it up as if it had been constructed of mere twigs.
