A Tale of Two Centuries

exasperating I can be?”

More shocking than him taking the full blame for the incident is him taking any of it. For the last forty-odd minutes, I have rehashed and relived every horrifying moment, coming to the sad conclusion that the disruption was entirely my doing. No one else seemed disturbed by Austin’s boorish actions, nor did anyone else feel the need to fling his pen across the room. That was all me. But it does not mean I plan to hinder his surprising act of gallantry now.

Chivalry may not be dead in this era, after all.

Austin’s long lashes sweep across his cheekbones, and I turn to our young instructor, wondering if his bewitching magic can work on her as well. She tilts her head to the side and purses her lips, then slides her gaze to me. “Miss Forlani?”

Wrinkling my nose, I stare at her blankly, knowing the name sounds familiar but unable to place it. She consults a sheet of paper on her desk with a raised eyebrow. “You are Alessandra Forlani, correct?”

Fiddlesticks.

“Oh, yes! That is me—Alessandra Forlani.” I bob a curtsy, and two different sets of eyes narrow in my direction.

Oops.

Flustered and fervently wishing my cousin could send me just a dash of her confidence and possibly a few words from her quick tongue, I push on. “I—I recently transferred here. From Florence. And I’m staying with the Crawford family. Beautiful family, really, and their home is quite splendid, filled with such enchanting things I never would have thought possible. It is amazing—”

I cut off here, realizing my rambling is only causing more harm. At least I did squeak in a contraction.

Miss Edwards squints at me long enough for my heart to threaten to stop beating altogether, but then the lines on her forehead smooth out, and she nods. Austin, however, turns his torso more toward me, continuing his quiet scrutiny with clear, shrewd eyes.

If he had but devoted such attention to the lecture, perchance we would not be in this predicament.

Trying my best to ignore him, I go to shove my hair from behind my ear and notice it already is. Instead, I brush it behind my shoulder, then fidget with the folds in my skirt.

“Wow, Florence,” Miss Edwards says, studying me with impressed focus. “Glad to hear you’re settling in. I hope you’ll like it here, though I can imagine it’s a big change.”

Feeling Austin’s perceptive gaze still on me, I offer a small smile, trying not to convey just how big a change it truly is.

The instructor sighs. Sliding her glasses off with one hand, she pinches the bridge of her nose with the other and says, “Alessandra, it’s like this. It’s the beginning of a new semester—and for you, a new experience in a new country. I don’t know if Austin just has a unique talent for challenging patience, or if things were different in your old school, but I can’t have interruptions like that in my class. And—” She lifts a hand at Austin. “Before you argue, Mr. Michaels, I’m not only talking about the pen and the book. There was palpable tension radiating from the pair of you for the remainder of the hour, distracting the students around you and, quite frankly, me.”

She shuffles through a stack of papers on her desk, obviously searching for something, and I meet Austin’s eyes, knowing my own are filled with panic. His lips twitch into a semblance of a smile at the same time his bright blue eyes seem to say, it will be all right. And for some reason, my frantic pulse eases.

Then the instructor speaks again.

“It’s no secret that this is my first teaching job, and I would like to begin it on a good note. A mentor advised during my student teaching that when two people clash as quickly and strongly as the two of you, there are a couple options I can take to ensure incidents like this don’t happen again: I can either separate you or force you to work together.”

The hint of reassurance in Austin’s intense gaze vanishes as he laughs. “And when you say student teaching, do you really mean kindergarten?”

Although that particular word was not included in Cat’s teenspeak list, I can decipher from the condescension in his tone and the tensing of Miss Edwards’s fingers that Austin’s comment was not at all helpful.

“Make all the jokes you want, Mr. Michaels, but I believe I’m here to do more than teach government. I didn’t become a teacher to just open a text book and regurgitate information about a subject that you, of all people, already know so much about.”

A muscle in his jaw clenches and his gaze sharpens. They share a brief, mysterious look. I glance back and forth between them, frowning, knowing I am missing something important, and wishing I had paid better attention to the lecture.

What could Austin know so much about?

“I think I’m also here to teach life skills,” she continues. “To get you ready for college and life in the great beyond. So, knowing that, I’ve decided to go with the latter kindergarten principle. Here’s your first lesson.”

She holds out a paper, which Austin makes no move to take. Reluctantly, I grab the sheet, noting Modern-Day Leadership written in bold letters at the top…a subject I know nothing about.

“As of now, the two of you are partners for our first class project. Congratulations! All the particulars are included on the sheet, it is due in two weeks, and you’re more than welcome to come to me—together as a team—with any questions before then. With an entire weekend stretching before you, may I suggest you get a head start?”

I blink and Austin rubs the back of his neck. Behind us, a stream of students pours through the open door, preparing for the next class, and I catch sight of Cat standing just outside, looking rather impatient. If we do not leave now, we will both be late for our next class. I swallow and grasp the paper tighter.

“Thank you, ma’am. I shall look forward to completing the assignment.”

Austin chokes on a laugh, and I shoot him a look of death. His presumed humor is decidedly not advantageous.

Miss Edwards nods her dismissal, and Austin follows me through the door. Leaning close to my ear as we enter the hallway, he says, “Looks like you got some work to do.”

I freeze mid-step, causing a dainty girl looking even more lost than I am to ram into me. Without even stopping to hear my apology, she weaves around us and breaks into a sprint. I take a breath and twirl to face my new nemesis.

“I have work to do?” I shake the paper in my hand, unable to believe that he intends to leave me—someone not even from this time—in charge of our shared project on twenty-first-century government! “I do believe you mean we.”

Cat stands to the side of us, watching with unabashed interest.

Austin rakes a hand through his already disheveled hair and says simply, “Yeah, I don’t really do the whole school thing. But hey, good luck with that.”

And with those parting words, he spins on his heel. Instantly the frenzied crowd swallows him whole, leaving me gaping in the eye of the storm as harried classmates rush past down the hall.

Well, so much for chivalry.

My skin prickles with righteous ire, and I draw in a ragged breath. Staring at my cousin, and then at the empty space Austin inhabited just moments before, I say, “Have you ever met anyone so rude…so infuriating…so completely… Oof!” Evidently, simple words will not do him or this situation full justice. So instead, I shake my head and tighten my fists. “Can you believe him?”

Cat clamps her lips together. If I did not know better, I would swear she was stifling a laugh. “Honestly? No. I can’t believe Mr. Laidback and Never Shows Up actually made it to class, much less provoked you in the hallway. I also can’t believe he got my straitlaced, proper cousin all tongue-tied and crazy.”

On instinct, I open my mouth to defend myself, but after a moment’s hesitation, close it again. As much as I would adore denying my cousin’s accusation, I cannot. This only serves to make me seethe even more.

So it would seem that, along with inducing depravity in an otherwise respectable female, Austin Michaels can also add erasing my ability to speak properly to his irritating list of inherent powers.