Girlfriend's A VAMP Guy's A TEACHER

Chapter 17- Betrothed

Chapter 17- Betrothed

Uncle Laurence gave me a long, cold stare before answering me in a stiff, serious tone. "Very well, Mr. McKenseth. Have yourself some hard, brash liquor to calm your jet-lagged nerves before you receive news that you'll bury yourself in."

What kind of game was he playing now?! Did I pass his bloody test?! "I'm fine. Let's hear your precious news." I sipped at the tea returning his cold stare with my own, keeping a thousand miles between me and bourbon on the table.

"Very well. Rachelle, my sister's firstborn, is to marry at the end of this spring."

I almost spit out my tea again. "She's engaged to be married?!" So this is the truth that Rachelle has been keeping from me this entire time!  No wonder she was so evasive... As if admitting truth wasn't bold enough.  Now I really was overstepping my bounds, walking over claimed territory of another man. "To whom?!"

"We prefer the term, betrothed. He is a highly esteemed and well-educated individual, Duke Gerard Valmonte le Ghent."

My eyebrows shot to the ceiling and I gulped.  "A duke?  Real royalty?" I muttered in disbelief.  My eyes hovered over Chase whom was staring at the ceiling, and Rachelle whom was staring at the floor. Kura was staring at Chase, and I ended up staring at Uncle. If Rachelle was engaged to marry a Duke... then what does that make her family?! "Who are you guys, really?"

"Yes, real royalty.  The Duke descends from a long bloodline of Princes in France dating back to 300 A.D. As for us, we are third cousins, twice removed of the royal family of Queen Victoria of England."

Again.  I gulped.  This was a lot to wrap my head around.  My cheeks burned with choking disbelief, my mind and beliefs running astray. Just a few weeks ago I had troubled myself with trivial affairs; Rachelle being late for class, getting bad grades, her being a student and I being a teacher. Now to find out all along she's part of a Queen's bloodline, has been engaged to a bloody Duke of France and she's expected to live up to very high standards, to follow the tradition of her family, and was part of much more complicated matters I didn't fully understand.  I couldn't possibly challenge a Duke for the marriage of Rachelle.  I had just barely begun dating her, and now to find out this?  What should I do?  My frayed nerves were too intense to engage in serious situations such as these. I felt my brain turn to mush, all tingly nerves setting off an alarm system that backfired in an awkward manner.

"Does he have a sword?" I asked blankly.

"I would think so." Laurence responded. "He has quite the collection in his family's armoury-"

"And a curly mustache?" I added.

Laurence's eyebrows furrowed. Good, I was getting to him. "No. I don't know where you're headed with these queer questions-"

"And two dapper friends who perform back flips off horses while saving dames-"

Rachelle's giggle slapped my 'attempt to sour the situation' in the face.

"Your humiliating attempts are profound, Mr. McKenseth." Laurence started in his original cold voice. "If the said man were in your presence he would behead you with his own sword and stick it on a pike. So I would highly suggest you learn to display proper manners at the present to better prepare for the Duke's company in the near future."

"I-to meet a Duke?!" I began the intense eye-glasses wiggling. Rachelle's palm found herself on top of my knuckles, calming me down just a pinch. "It's cruel to give false hopes, sir."

"If you think he's joking-"

Air. I need air. I was gasping for air while Chase's low voice rumbled directly into my ear, his cold breath blowing on me while his palm pressed harshly to my neck. I couldn't breathe, I was basically being choked. If my assumption was correct, for the second time nearly choked to death by Rachelle's brother, and for the second time saved by Rachelle.