Page 59 of The Highlander's Princess Bride
“So it would seem,” Taffy replied.
“And Angus. Is he involved?”
The housekeeper’s gaze went as flinty as the earl’s. “I’m not sure of that, but I will be by the end of the day.”
“Goddammit,” Arnprior said. “I will bloody well kill them all.”
He stalked toward the kitchen garden, little pieces of dirt and dried grass spraying up in the wake of his pounding, booted footsteps.
“Oh, Lord,” Taffy sighed. “Just when things were starting to calm down.”
“I thought it was legal to distill whisky in Scotland,” Victoria said.
“Not without a license, miss, which the Kendricks do not hold. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’d best go see that the laird doesn’t carry through on his promise.”
“I’ll go with you,” Victoria said, hurrying to follow.
After all, one murderer in the household was certainly more than anyone needed.
Chapter Twelve
Victoria glanced up from her lesson plan when Kade hit another discordant note. The lad stared gloomily at the keyboard as he picked his way through the Haydn sonata she’d given him this morning. Even the new music had failed to lift his spirits.
After their ripping argument yesterday, Angus had stormed out of Kinglas in a fury while the earl had stormed off and locked himself in his library. Their very public shouting match had all but shaken the ancient timbers of the entrance hall to the ground. Neither man had shown up for dinner, leaving Victoria to make strained conversation with Royal while Kade and the disgraced twins morosely picked at their food.
When Kade heaved a dramatic sigh and slid her a sideways glance, Victoria put aside her work. She’d always tried to distance herself from the personal lives of her various employers, but her pupil was clearly suffering and needed her support.
“Why don’t you take a little break and have some tea?” Victoria said, patting the seat next to her on the chaise. “Taffy made some of your favorite seedcakes. It would be a shame to let them go to waste.”
The boy came to join her. “Itisawfully hard to concentrate, what with Nick and Grandda on the outs. They brangle quite a lot, but this is different.”
“You can tell me all about it, but first you must eat. You barely touched your breakfast or luncheon.”
“It’s hard to have an appetite when your brother and grandfather wish to murder each other.”
“It’s just a lot of noise, I’m sure,” she said gently. “And I hardly think starving yourself is going to help matters, now is it?”
What might help matters would be to line up the Kendrick men and box their ears for being so pigheaded and stubborn.
Kade accepted a cup of tea. “At least when I’m sick, they usually stop fighting.”
“Dearest, it’s not your responsibility to solve your family’s problems. It’s their job to take care of you, not the other way around.”
The boy saw himself as the peacemaker in the family. Generally, that meant just being his cheerful self, since the earl was fiercely protective of his baby brother. But yesterday’s blowup had destroyed the delicate equilibrium of the household. From the shadows under Kade’s eyes, it was clear he’d slept poorly. He’d also lost the appetite he’d started to regain over the last few weeks.
That was unacceptable, and Victoria intended to tell the earl just that once she worked up the nerve to beard the angry lion in his den.
“Nick hardly ever loses his temper,” Kade said, echoing her thoughts, “but I thought he was going to bash Grandda over the head.”
“I thought it was more likely he was going to bash the twins,” she said wryly.
Kade wrinkled his nose. “It was bad of Grant and Graeme to set up a still, despite what my grandfather thinks.”
According to the customs officers, the twins had set up a small but thoroughly illegal whisky distillery in a secluded glen on Arnprior lands. While it was a fairly common practice in the Highlands, it could provoke serious legal consequences. Fortunately, the officers had agreed not to press charges after the earl promised to dismantle the operation and punish the twins himself.
“Well, itisagainst the law,” she said, “and it was very embarrassing for the earl to be caught so unawares.” Arnprior had clearly been mortified that the twins had been brewing moonshine under his very nose. Even worse, Angus had known about it.
Kade put down his teacup, looking worried. “The officers aren’t going to come back and arrest them, are they?”
