Free The Heir by Johanna Lindsey Page A

a timely manner, did ye now?”
    “Duncan made no mention that you were coming,” Neville pointed out.
    Archie chuckled at that. “Perhaps because he didna know I was. The boy doesna do things in a relaxed manner, ye ken. Once he sets his mind on a course, he follows it straightaway. Not a bad trait tae have, but a wee bit tae fast paced for these auld bones o’ mine. He would’ve been impatient tae hae me holding him back on the trip here, sae I decided tae follow after at a slower pace, withoout telling him. Impatience annoys him, after all, and ye wouldna hae wanted him arriving here annoyed—more’n he already was.”
    The last was added in an unmistakably smug tone. Neville didn’t miss it and just managed to keep from grinding his teeth in his own annoyance.
    “Yes, that’s quite a large chip he arrived with on his shoulder. I wonder why.”
    Archibald snorted. “Ye’ll no’ be blaming me for that, mon. ‘Twas no’ me tha’ decided he should hae the stability o’ knowing only one home whilst growing up, ‘twas ye and his muther decided that. A good decision, mind ye, tha’ I was happy tae agree wi’, but ye could’ve come tae visit him, tae let him know ye afore he was full grown.”
    “After the first trip I made up there to do that nearly killed me?”
    “Och, ye English are weaklings, tae shrivel in a wee bit o’ cold,” Archie said in disgust, aware ofthat one time Neville had tried to venture into the Highlands. “But if he hasna told ye, it wasna that he never met ye afore now that has him in such a fash, ‘tis that yer taking him from his home and expecting him tae live amongst strangers.”
    “We won’t
be
strangers to him for long.”
    “And
that he had nae warning that ye’d expect him tae move here.”
    Neville blushed slightly, unable to dispute that accusation, and said weakly in his defense, “Elizabeth should have told him.”
    “Aye, and likely she would’ve if she’d lived long enough tae, puir lass.”
    “You could have told him long before now yourself,” Neville added. “Why didn’t you?”
    Archie raised a brow at that. “When I was hoping ye’d die afore he reached his majority sae he’d ne’er have tae know at all?”
    Neville’s cheeks reddened fully this time, but in anger rather than embarrassment. “So sorry to disappoint you, but he would still have become the next marquis, no matter when I happen to pass on.”
    “Ye’ve
nae
other kin, no’ even some distant, distant, long-forgotten cousin?”
    “I was an only child,” Neville said stiffly. “My father was an only child. My grandfather had two sisters, but they both died in childhood. The generations before that had brief lines, but none that have survived. Duncan is my only heir, and I still do not understand your insistence that he can’t be your heir as well.”
    “Ye wouldna mind him living the year roundin the Highlands then?” Archie said in feigned surprise. “Och, mon, ye should’ve said—”
    “Of course he can’t remain there permanently,’ Neville cut in impatiently. “He’ll have duties here that—”
    “As I thought,” Archie cut in as well. “But ye ken for yerself tha’ for most o’ the year ‘tis nae wise tae travel far in the Highlands, even for those who live there. Yet ye’d hae the lad doing it? Or are ye suggesting that his duties here would be more important than his duties in Scotland? Or mayhap yer just suggesting that he come home, tae the only home he’s ever known, for only a few weeks oout o’ each year, during our short summer?”
    “No, what I think is that you don’t have enough confidence in him to manage an empire on his own. But he’s got Thackeray blood in him. Unlike you, I have little doubt that he can do just that.”
    “That boy can do anything he sets his mind tae,” Archie all but shouted. “I’m just nae wanting tae see him kill himself trying tae spread himself tae thin, as
yer
willing tae let him do.”
    “So we disagree