Moonstruck Madness (17 page)

"Richard! Watch out!" Sabrina called out
a
warning too late as Richard tripped over the handle of a sickle that had carelessly been left on the ground, the curved blade barely missing his knee as it swung up.

Sabrina ran toward him, her face pale. "Are you all right? Didn't you see the sickle? Really, Richard, do watch where you're going sometimes. You're always bumping into things," Sabrina admonished him, her voice harsh from the fright he'd given her.

Richard grinned sheepishly. "At least I didn't spill anyof the milk," he beamed as he held up a wooden bowl triumphantly. "Sarah let me help her milk the cows."

"I can see that for myself," Sabrina commented as she noticed the white moustache above his mouth.

"Here, have some."

Sabrina accepted the bowl and drank deeply, the warm, fresh milk tasting sweet on her tongue. She handed the bowl back to Richard, only to have him start laughing.

"What is so funny?"

"You, Rina.
You've got a moustache too." Sabrina grinned and wiped the milk from her mouth. "Better?"

"Like a cat in pattens," he replied after a critical inspection of her upper lip.

"You'd better go in and clean up, you've lessons with Mr. Teesdale in less than an hour, Richard," Sabrina advised as she in turn inspected his breeches, soiled and stuck with straw, and his face smudged with dirt. In the distance she could see a rider coming up the narrow lane and recognized John's bulky shape. "Better hurry," she urged Richard.

Richard heard the horse's hooves and stared towards the sound, his eyes squinted. "Who is it?"

Sabrina stared at Richard's straining expression, a thoughtful look in her eyes. "It's John Taylor. Couldn't you tell?" she asked curiously.

Richard's face flushed. "Sure I could. I just thought it might be Will," he explained casually and then turned and hurried off, his thin shoulders hunched dejectedly.

Sabrina turned back as John rode up, a welcoming smile on her face. "Hello, John. What brings you calling?"

John dismounted, and taking off his hat greeted Sabrina politely. "Morning, Lady Sabrina. Mam thought you'd like this herb salve for yer skin." He looked about the stable yard and finding no one close enough to overhear added worriedly, "Some strangers been asking folks hereabouts if they knew of me and Will and a young black-haired girl, calling her Sabrina. Real nosey they are too."

Sabrina glanced up at him apprehensively. "What did they learn?"

John smiled smugly. "No more than they knew when they came. Folks don't care to be telling strangers their business. Especially seein' how you been so good to them around here. Besides, anyone blabbering around here about something that
don't
concern them answers to Will and me. Anyway, there
be
a lot of black-haired females living around here. Heard tell there was a real pretty one near Tunbridge Wells, nice little ride on a warm afternoon." He grinned widely.

Sabrina smiled with relief. "I take it they won't have any luck?"

"Could be.
And of course there're a lot of big men hereabouts too. Why, look at Ben Sampson the smithy, or Roberts the brewer?
Lot of big men.
Pity if the wrong person was to go asking questions of them. No telling what might happen." He rocked back and forth on his heels, smiling with satisfaction.

Sabrina felt relief, but not the joyous relief she once would have at such news.

"Will and me bought the Faire Maiden, Charlie," John confided proudly.
"Goin' to fix it up real nice."

"That's wonderful, John. I sometimes wondered if we'd ever be able to live normal
lives?
"

"Well, since we ain't goin' to be out at night so much, and we got the last bit of money we needed, we figured we better buy it before old Jack changed his mind about selling, or sold it to an outsider."

"I can't tell you how happy I am for you and Will. You've helped me so much, I can't ever repay you," Sabrina told the discomfited giant, his face burning with an
embarrassed
blush.

"You know, Charlie, we'll still look after you—and if you need us for anything you can count on us anytime," he promised, then clearing his throat nervously added, "You sine you and your family have enough money, Charlie? I mean, well, if you
was
needing any, me and Will could give you some."

Sabrina was touched by his offer of support, and regardless of any curious eyes she stood on tiptoe and kissed his cheek. "Thank you, John, I'll never forget your kind offer, but we're fine. We've saved a lot of our money, and living simply we manage nicely."

John's face was still a bright red when he climbed back on his horse and rode off, waving as he rounded the hedgerows and disappeared from view.

Sabrina went back indoors, her light step purposeful as she made her way into the big kitchen with its large table covered with cooking utensils. Drying bunches of herbs hung from the rafters, lending a spicy scent to the blend of odors rising from bubbling plum tarts fresh from the oven and a cut of beef roasting over the fire. The cook was nodding in a chair near the hearth, her apron half full of peas to be shelled.

The young scullery maid rotating the turnspit with the roast on it nudged the cook when she saw Sabrina, a shy smile in her round eyes as she gazed in adoration at her young mistress. The cook woke up with a grumbled snort, ready to swing at the disturbance until she saw Sabrina standing nearby.

"Lady Sabrina," she exclaimed, straightening her mob-cap off her forehead and heaving her bulk frbm her easy chair, the peas encompassed safely in her apron she held together firmly.

"I just want to rob you of some of that gingerbread.
A
couple of pieces, and one for Lottie," she added as the little girl's eyes widened and her lips smacked at the sight of the rich gingerbread.

The cook tied her apron together,
then
cut several big squares from the fragrant cake, shaking her head repressively. "Lottie'll never learn her place, Lady Sabrina, if you keep spoiling her. Already she's got airs above her station. Next she'll
be wantin'
to wear velvet and lace."

Sabrina smiled at the little girl. "It can't hurt her to have one piece of gingerbread, can it?" she cajoled, smiling as she accepted the gingerbread, her dimple peeping irrepressibly. The cook's disapproving expression relaxed a bit, a reluctant smile tugging at the corner of her tight mouth as she grudgingly had to admit that the Lady Sabrina had a taking way with her. Still, she'd always thought this one of the Verricks a wild one, not at all like the Lady Mary who was a proper lady.

Sabrina hurried upstairs to find Richard, the generous chunks of gingerbread crowding together on a parchment-thin china plate. She found him sitting in the schoolroom, an opened book before him as he awaited the arrival of Mr. Teesdale.

"Surprise!"
Sabrina called as she held out the gingerbread enticingly before him.

Richard took a deep, appreciative breath and reached out an eager hand that unerringly guided the pieces into his mouth. Licking a crumb delicately from the corner of her mouth, Sabrina watched in amusement as he hungrily finished off his piece and then eyed hers covertly. Her smile widened and she broke off the rest of hers and handed it to him.

"Thanks, Rina," he mumbled through a mouthful.

Sabrina strolled over to the window and stood silently staring out when she suddenly called excitedly over her shoulder, "Oh, Richard, do look! Here's that little robin that serenaded me the other day."

Sitting demurely on a branch of the big elm tree outside the window was a plain-looking little sparrow. Richard came up beside Sabrina and peered out the window. "Oh, yes, quite a colorful little fellow with his red-breast."

Sabrina stared at Richard's little profile, resisting the urge to hug him to her protectively. Instead she told him calmly, "It's a sparrow, Richard."

Richard's face paled and he turned an accusing face to her. "You tricked me!" he cried, tears streaking down his cheeks. "I hate you! It's not fair." His thin shoulders shook with sobs and his voice was thick with tears.

Sabrina wrapped her arms around him and hugged him to her, comforting him the best she could. His sobs lessened and he gave a watery hiccup.

"Why didn't you ever tell us, Dickie?" Sabrina asked, her fingers combing his thick red hair back from his face. "I've been such a fool!
Too busy to even notice my own brother's needs.
How long have you had trouble seeing?"

Richard sniffed and shrugged, but kept his head pressed against Sabrina's breast. "Don't know. Long time, I guess. I can read real
good
, though. It's just things in the distance that are all blurred," he confessed sheepishly.

Sabrina drew in her breath sharply as a thought struck her. "Is that why you don't like to ride, Dickie?"

She raised his tear-stained face and looked into his big, myopic blue eyes, a smile tugging at her mouth. "Dickie, I wish you'd told me. I'd have helped you. You don't need to worry anymore, nor be ashamed of it," she reproved him gently.

"I wanted to help you so much, Rina, but I was afraid to ride. It's awful not to be able to see where you're going, afraid you're going to bump into a branch you don't see, or fall into a bog. And when I tried to shoot, what was I going to aim at?"

Sabrina let Richard talk, all his childish fears and bottled-up emotions flooding out as he unburdened himself.

"How would you like to go to London, Dickie?" Sabrina asked him seriously.

Richard wiped at his face with
a
ruffled sleeve, rubbing his eyes dry as he looked at Sabrina in surprise. "Go to London?" he repeated in awe. "You mean I would go?"

"It would be especially for you. It will be your special treat. And while we're there we'll see about getting you
a
pair of eyeglasses. Do you like that idea?"

Richard lowered his head, but not before Sabrina saw his eyes light up with excitement. He gave a relieved sigh unconsciously. "You don't think I'll be a, well—" he began, struggling to find the words,
"a
sissy for wearing eyeglasses?" He looked up at Sabrina hopefully, his eyes pleading for reassurance.

Sabrina made a contemptuous sound.
"Of course not!
You will look quite the intellectual, and be able to see where you're going, too. It's most important not to fall into the gutter when we're trying to impress the Prime Minister."
    
'

Richard was laughing and jumping up and down when the stern-faced Mr. Teesdale entered the schoolroom, a look of disapproval on his severe features at this riotous display of abandon.

"I'm going to London, Mr. Teesdale!" Richard called out gaily, his tutor's raised eyebrow for once not having the desired effect of silencing him.

"Are we indeed?" Mr. Teesdale murmured politely, his face inscrutable beneath his gray periwig. He greeted Sabrina, and placing his books and papers in a neat stack on the table inquired, "When will this projected visit to London occur, so I may adjust young Lord Richard's study schedule accordingly?"

Sabrina hid her smile and answered most seriously, "At the beginning of next week, for we've preparations to make and we shall probably be gone a fortnight or less. You see, Richard is to be fitted with a pair of eyeglasses."

Mr. Teesdale showed a moment's surprise across his usually impassive features, but quickly recovered his poise. "Quite," was all he
murmured.
"I shall suitably adjust Lord Richard's lessons so his schoolwork will not suffer."

Sabrina left them with Mr. Teesdale monotonously drilling Richard in mathematics, the sound droning after her as she made her way down the corridor.

She found Mary comfortably reading a book and Aunt Margaret sewing in the drawing room. They both glanced up as Sabrina entered, their faces mirroring surprise at her first words.

"We're going to London next week." Mary closed her book and watched Sabrina curiously. Aunt Margaret smiled vaguely and bent once more to her needlework.

"Richard needs eyeglasses," Sabrina stated baldly, explaining her discovery to a surprised and dismayed Mary. "I feel rotten about the whole affair. We're the ones who need the eyeglasses for not having noticed Richard's problem before now.
Poor dear, all these years existing in
a
blurred world.
No wonder he turned to his books. Well, that will all end now. We'll get him proper eyeglasses so he will be able to ride and
play like
other young boys."