Page 42

Chapter

TWENTY-ONE

With hindsight, especially after almost shooting him, asking Guy about Hercules’s progress over dinner last night hadn’t been her best idea. At the time, she had brought up the horse as a way to offer yet another olive branch to break his resolute stony silence toward her.

A silence that had only loomed louder and angrier since the unfortunate incident with the arrow. An incident which, of course, he had refused to allow her to apologize for.

She endured it through the soup course and all through the fish, which had been exceedingly awkward when she had been seated next to him for some reason, much to Miss Maybury’s and Lady Lynette’s chagrin.

But when the main course arrived and he seemed intent to go without potatoes rather than ask her to pass them to him, she used the excuse of Hercules to break the deadlock.

That it had backfired spectacularly had kept her awake all night.

But how was she to know that the mere mention of his horse would turn, so quickly, to his love of them (thanks to his aunt) and his large collection of them (thanks to his mother)?

And then, before she could say anything to stop it, a planned invasion of the sanctuary of his stable by the seven fawning debutantes who insisted on going out riding with him today.

In a little over an hour, all thanks to Lottie, Guy would have to spend the rest of this glorious sunny morning keeping pace with the simpering Miss Maybury and the wittering Lady Lynette.

Miss Yates, who Lottie rather liked, and the giggling Lady Alice, who was rapidly proving herself to be the oddest of the bunch thanks to her obsession with the ancient Egyptians and mummification in particular.

The two Harper sisters were also coming, after significant pressure from their mother, so that they could show him their superior skills as horsewomen.

As was Miss Horatia Babbage, who couldn’t be more than seventeen and who so far hadn’t said boo to a goose but whose father had bullied her into coming.

Of course, as it would be considered highly improper for a single gentleman to ride alone with so many single ladies, the dreadful mothers of Lady Lynette and Miss Maybury were tagging along as the chaperones.

Because obviously they had been such exemplary chaperones so far to their shameless daughters.

In short, Lottie had inquired about Hercules and then sent him his worst nightmare all wrapped up in a bow.

“You’re a brave woman to show your face here,” said Bill with a frown as she stepped into the stable yard. “He’s been cursing you all morning.”

“I can’t say I blame him—I’d prefer a plague of locusts over his admirers any day. In my defense, it wasn’t intentional, and I have come here to apologize before I take Blodwyn out. Where is he?”

“Fetching Zeus. We’ve got Hercules calm and in with his mother already.” He jerked his head toward the training paddock where both Arabians were basking in the sun. “Once his father is there, we’re going to try to saddle the three of them all together.”

“Do you think Hercules is ready for that?”

Bill shrugged. “We’ve been taking him out riding with his parents three times a day since you came up with the idea, and his nibs thinks it’s as good a time as any and wants to give it a go while it’s still quiet.”

“Three times a day!” Lottie smiled even though that news hurt. She would have loved to be the one to accompany Guy on those rides, to finish what they had started together, but clearly she had ruined that thanks to her part in the Surprise . “And Hercules has been good with that?”

“Better than good. He’s taken to it like a duck to water. Gallops like the wind beside his mother and doesn’t fight the bit at all. All thanks to you. Training him alongside his parents was a good idea, Lottie.”

“At least I did something good.” She sensed Guy approaching and glanced up in time to watch his step falter when he noticed her.

Then resolutely ignore her once again to put Zeus in the training paddock with the rest of his family.

“I suppose it’s time for me to get my head bitten off. Wish me luck.”

Bill offered her a sympathetic smile. “For what it’s worth, try to remember that despite his foul temper, his heart is always in the right place.

I think he wants an excuse to forgive you.

He likes you, Lottie.” His expression grew more serious.

“A lot. But he’s a complicated soul and like his temperamental stallion, he spooks easily.

Guy likes his world to be just so, and when something’s out of his control, it unsettles him.

” He shrugged again in a way that let her know that he thought her apology this morning could go either way.

“So bear that in mind when he bites and try to give him an excuse to forgive you if his hard head won’t allow his ears to hear your apology. ”

“I will. Thank you.”

Lottie wandered warily toward the paddock, where Guy had purposefully put his back to her as he sorted the tack. “I am really sorry about last night. Had I known that your besotted horde would go on the rampage, I never would have mentioned Hercules.”

He did not answer, nor pause in what he was doing, so Lottie braced herself for the inevitable explosion.

“I am also sorry about the arrow.”

“Trying to kill me, you mean.”

“I wasn’t trying to kill you! I was trying to save you!”

“By shooting me and thus putting me out of my misery?” He reached for another bundle of reins without turning around.

“By ending the tournament as quickly as I could to relieve you of Lady Lynette!” He snorted his disbelief. “I was aiming for the bull’s-eye, Guy, and would have hit it too if Miss Maybury hadn’t screeched directly in my ear and put me off.”

He stalked to his horse, laden with tack, forcing her to jog behind him.

“But most especially, Guy, I am so very sorry to my core that I never forewarned you about your birthday party.” His spine stiffened with a jolt, confirming that she had hit the rawest nerve.

“To begin with, when I thought you were just a storm cloud and I loathed you, I found all the subterfuge amusing. I will confess—and I am not proud of this—that even though I knew that you would hate the surprise, I was looking forward to seeing you suffer a bit. But then you made me like you, despite your curmudgeonly and standoffish disposition, and that complicated matters. I wanted to tell you, but I also work for your aunt, who had sworn me to secrecy.”

Still without turning, he heaved a saddle onto Zeus. “How nice for you that, when push came to shove, you put money over principles, Miss Travers.”

She wanted to shout at him for being so deliberately obtuse but held it back.

Because she supposed he had hit the nail on the head—partly.

She’d put her family first and ignored her conscience and decided to worry about tomorrow, tomorrow.

But she’d had to. Guy was inconvenienced.

They were in dire straits. Her wages put food on her father’s table.

“I am a lady’s companion, Guy. A servant, just as Lady Lynette always reminds me!

Can’t you see that it wasn’t my place to tell? ”

“Bill! Tom! Come and help me saddle these blasted horses, you layabouts!” Guy lifted the second saddle onto Juno and, as Tom dashed across the yard to join them, finally gifted her with a look.

It wasn’t a forgiving one. “Are we done now, Miss Travers? Only I have a lot to do before the besotted hordes you galvanized arrive.”

If he had been one of her brothers, she’d have jumped the fence and punched the stubborn wretch on the nose for his sulky petulance. But he wasn’t, and he also wasn’t in any sort of mood to listen, so she spun on her heel, hoping that he would be in a better frame of mind tomorrow.

She was only twenty yards away when she heard Hercules’s bad reaction to the saddle and couldn’t just leave them to it.

“Stop,” she said in her most commanding tone as she marched back. “Let go of the reins, Tom, and give him a moment.”

“We can manage this without you, Miss Travers.” Guy held up his palm to cease her advance and she ignored it. Enough was enough. If the stubborn, rude oaf wanted a fight, she would jolly well give him one—but she would see to Hercules first.

Not caring that it wasn’t ladylike, she climbed over the fence. “Hello, boy.” She took the reins from Tom and slackened them before she stroked the Arabian’s nose. “Are these nasty men trying to put something strange on your back?”

Hercules snorted as if to say yes. He’d stopped dancing and had leaned his big forehead against hers and, bizarrely, she could feel his uncertainty.

“You love to gallop though, don’t you? You want to learn too, I can tell.

” She could feel his frustration. Sense the fear of separating from his mother. His desire to please.

“Bill—climb up on Juno.” She had an idea. Probably another stupid one, but it was worth a try. “And Guy, you need to mount Zeus.”

She expected an argument but all she got was a huff and a glare so sharp it could kill. But he did as she asked and then Bill followed suit. “Let’s take him for another run out with his parents. Try again another day.” An instruction that proved Guy had grabbed hold of the wrong end of the stick.

“He’s not ready for the saddle—but I think he is ready to ride.” Her gut told her so. “Tom, come give me a leg up.”

“You absolutely cannot ride an unbroken horse bareback, Miss Travers!” Guy’s tone made Hercules jumpy. “I forbid it.”

“You can forbid all you want, my lord, but I do not work for you so do not have to listen to your orders.” If he wanted to match stubborn for stubborn, she would give him the battle! “Give me a leg up, Tom, or I’ll just walk Hercules to the gate and use that to boost me instead.”

“Or I’ll have you physically removed for your own blasted safety!” Guy, typically, was spitting feathers, the stubborn wretch.