To Win the Lady (25 page)

What had he
said to Felicity? Were they already betrothed? Each day she looked for a letter
from her sister but none came. She did not know what to make of that but there
was so much to do she was able to push it from her mind. Richard’s two new
horses had arrived and were being fed and put to work to strengthen their
stamina, and there was Bright Star, whose training was coming along nicely
according to plan. She had been walked out every morning, followed by trotting on
the open land at the top of the hill, and every afternoon the filly had a rest
in her box, looking out over the door with intelligent interest in what was
going on around her. Feeding and grooming and inspection filled the rest of her
day. Tomorrow morning, she was due for another gallop. Georgie became almost
cheerful.

One of the men
whom she had taken on was a real find. His name was Jem Brown and he had come
with excellent references from a titled gentleman in the Shires and was
hard-working and knowledgeable. He was a very big man, forty or thereabouts,
neatly dressed in fustian breeches and gaiters, with a clean stock and a
striped waistcoat, in the pocket of which he kept a very fine timepiece. She
felt she had seen it before, but when she commented on it he said it had been a
parting gift from his previous employer. He had, he told her, only left there
because his sister had been recently widowed and needed him to live with her.
Dawson, for some reason she could not fathom, didn’t take to him, though he was
careful not to let it show. She concluded that her old friend and retainer was
jealous and took particular care not to do anything to exacerbate it.

It was Jem who
came to her one day with the news that Bright Star had been injured.

‘I only left
her a minute, missus,’ he said. ‘She backed herself into the wall and there was
a hay-rake there...’

‘What was a
hay-rake doing in her box to start with?’ she demanded, running to the filly’s
stable and throwing open the door. Bright Star was standing in her box with a
wild look in her eye which frightened Georgie. Her rump was streaming with
blood from a very deep cut.

‘Shouldn’t go
near if I was you,’ Jem said. ‘She’ll kick as soon as look at you.’

‘Nonsense. Go
and fetch my bag; we’ll have to dress that.’

He returned in
less than a minute with the bag in which she kept salve and liniment, followed
by Dawson. The two men held the filly while Georgie tended to the cut. It was
very deep and she was afraid it had touched the muscle, in which case there was
no question of racing her. Not until the animal was comfortable did Georgie
begin questioning the lads to find out how the rake had come to be left in the
box. It was Tom’s task to clean the stable out, but he tearfully maintained
that he had not left the rake there. ‘Soon as I finished I put it in the
tack-room,’ he insisted. ‘You gotta believe me.’

‘I found it in
the box,’ Jem said belligerently. ‘Are you calling me a liar?’

‘No, of course
he is not,’ Georgie said, and then to Tom, ‘Are you quite sure? Perhaps you had
to do something else and just put it down and forgot it.’

‘No, and
whatever I had to do I wouldn’t be such a ninny as to leave a rake in a box
with a horse, would I? I don’t ever put the animal back after her exercise
until I’m sure everything’s right and tight. It’s what I ha’ bin taught and
it’s what I do.’ His face was bright red with resentment; he couldn’t
understand why Miss Georgie should believe he’d do anything so dreadful.

‘I am sure you
are right,’ she said, but it did not answer the original question. How had the
rake got there? Had it been a deliberate attempt to harm the filly? In that
case, she could discount Tom and, come to that, all her old hands. That left
the new ones. She was tempted to dismiss them all, but she knew she could not
manage without them and it would be palpably unfair to punish them all for the
wrongdoing of one.

She ordered a
watch to be kept twenty-four hours a day and worked out a rota for those
entrusted with the task. It made them tired and irritable because they still
had their ordinary work to do and it did not stop the troubles. One of
Richard’s new mounts developed colic, which necessitated throwing out a large
part of Georgie’s valuable store of feed which had become contaminated. And
another went lame, although fortunately not seriously.

Georgie began
to think she was either very unlucky or the victim of a calculated attempt to
ruin her. She knew she ought to send word to the Major, tell him what was
happening, because loss of horses would affect his chances in the race to York,
but she had no idea how to reach him. And he would think her a poor sort of
trainer if she could not protect her own animals. She resolved to be even more
vigilant.

Bright Star did
not heal as quickly as she had hoped and she was forced to withdraw her from
the race, but with all the care she was receiving the filly did begin to mend.
However, the nursing and the patrolling of the stables half the night, besides
riding out and schooling the younger horses, took their toll of Georgie’s
health and she began to look and feel haggard, weighed down by her
responsibilities. Perhaps everyone was right; perhaps managing a busy stables
was no job for a woman. She scolded herself severely whenever such a traitorous
thought entered her head and bent to her work with added determination.

She was
crossing the stable-yard one morning with a bucket of water, slopping it about
because it was heavy and she was too tired to carry it properly, when the sound
of a rider coming into the yard made her look up. It was Richard on Pegasus, as
tall and handsome and lordly as ever.

He dismounted
and stood and watched her as she set the bucket to one side and came to-meet
him. She looked deathly pale and moved as if her shoes had lead weights in
them.

‘What’s wrong?’
he demanded when she drew nearer and he could see the dark circles under her
eyes.

‘Nothing I
cannot handle.’

He smiled; she
had become no less stubborn since he had seen her last. ‘Don’t gammon me, Miss
Paget. Have you been ill?’

‘No, it’s the
horses. Come, I want to show you something.’

He handed his
reins to Tom and followed her to Bright Star’s box. She opened the door. ‘See.’

He whistled.
‘How did that happen?’

‘My
negligence,’ she said. ‘Fine trainer I turned out to be, didn’t I? I have
failed you.’

He made no
attempt to contradict her; in her present mood she would not have listened.
‘Tell me what happened.’

She did, as
briefly as possible. ‘I had hoped it was only superficial, but as you see the
cut is quite deep. She won’t be able to make the start next Tuesday.’

‘No, of course
not. But I am sure of one thing; that wound was not made by falling against
anything. If it was a rake, it was quite deliberately drawn down her flanks,
and hard, too.’

‘That’s what I
thought. But I cannot think who could have done it. I have questioned everyone
and got nowhere. Someone does not want you to win, but it is only a minor race
and I cannot think who could be so cruel to a defenceless animal.’

‘You have
obviously done all you can,’ he said, giving the filly a sugar lump and leaving
the box. ‘She is recovering but I am not so sure about you.’

She did not
want to talk about herself. ‘There have been other incidents. Only small ones,
but they have mounted up. I have to have eyes in the back of my head.’

‘You must rest.
Never mind the horses; Dawson is quite capable and trustworthy.’

‘But they are
my responsibility. I am trying to prove my worth, or were you not aware of
that?’

‘I am only too
aware of it, Miss Paget. It is taking over your life and if you go on in this
way you will be burned to the socket. Come indoors; I wish to talk to you.’

She led the way
inside, ordered Mrs Thorogood to make tea and called to Fanny to come and sit
with her, then she preceded him into the drawing-room and invited him, as
formally as she could, to be seated. He obeyed, knowing that this was going to
be a strictly business meeting and she was protecting herself from any chance
of intimacy. Neither spoke until the tea-tray was set before her and Fanny had
stationed herself in the window-seat with some embroidery.

She poured the
tea and handed him a cup with hands that shook. ‘I must give you a report on
the horses you bought,’ she said. ‘And also those which Dawson had set aside
for you to hire. Bright Star you have seen. I shall allow her only gentle
exercise on a lunge until that cut is healed; she cannot be ridden.’

‘Do not blame
yourself,’ he said softly, wishing he could take the worried look from her
face. ‘There will be other races, many of them.’

She gave him a
quick look of gratitude and then dropped her gaze to her teacup. ‘The horses
for the York ride are all ready and we await only your final instructions.’

‘I have been
over every inch of the route in the last week,’ he said. ‘Ostlers will be at
the ready at every stage to bring forward a new mount and care for the one I
leave behind. Refreshment for me will be waiting as well, though I doubt I
shall need much. I have hired the horses for the last half of the run locally
and arranged for them to be taken to the various post houses. I’ll take Pegasus
for the first stretch and ride him as hard as I dare, then the two I bought in
Newmarket, followed by four from Dullingham House. The grooms there will see
that they are in place. That will bring me to the Barley Mow near Baldock. Then
if you can have yours ready for the middle stages that covers them all.’

‘Do you still
want Warrior?’ she asked.

He looked up
with a smile and their glances met and held for a long second, then he smiled.
‘He would make all the difference.’

‘Then you may
have him. Where do you want him stationed?’

‘The Barley Mow
will be ideal. If one of your men could bring him there for midnight?’

‘He will be
there.’ She indicated his empty cup. ‘More tea?’

‘No, thank you.
I must get myself to London if I am to be there in good time to rest Pegasus
before the start.’ He rose to go and she accompanied him to the door.

‘Did you see
Felicity when you were in town?’ she asked as soon as they were out of earshot
of Fanny.

‘No; I called on
Lady Hereward but the young ladies were out on a boat trip up the river and
were not expected back until late. I could not wait.’

‘So she still
does not know what happened?’

‘Not from my
lips.’

‘Oh, Richard,
how could you not make a greater push to see her? If Lord Barbour has already
started to spread his lies, she will have heard all about it from others and it
is not the way I wished her to learn of it.’

He felt
constrained to defend himself, though her use of his given name cheered him.
‘Dammit, I hung about for hours and all to no purpose. Why didn’t you write and
tell her yourself, if you were so worried about it?’

‘Writing is not
the same as saying something face to face, is it? Besides, I have not had a
minute to myself to compose such a difficult letter.’

‘Difficult?’ he
queried, a half-smile playing about his lips. ‘Yes, I suppose it would be.’

‘You will go
and see her the minute you arrive in town, won’t you? I fear what Lord Barbour
will do.’

‘He is far too
busy making his own arrangements to win the race to have time for spreading
rumours,’ he said, hoping to reassure her, though he was not so sure himself;
his lordship had a knack of getting others to do his dirty work for him. ‘And
in any case he will want to do it when it has maximum impact and that is not
now, when everyone is talking about the race and wondering if in two days’ time
they are going to be very rich or plucked clean.’ That much was probably true.
‘But if it pleases you I will go and see her as soon as I arrive.’

‘Thank you.’

She stood on
the front steps and watched him go down and mount Pegasus, whom Tom had brought
to the door for him. Then he was gone again with no more than a, `Good-day to
you, Miss Paget.’

She went back
indoors and returned to her now cold tea. There was to be no more intimacy with
him and that was as it should be. Their relationship was a business one and
looked at like that the next few days would be the turning point as far as the
stables were concerned. They would stand or fall with Major Baverstock and the
irony of it was not lost on her. She suddenly felt so weary that she knew she
could not go on without a rest. ‘I’m going to lie down for half an hour,’ she
told Fanny. Perhaps when she had rested she would be able to view the prospect
of Richard as a brother-in-law with more equanimity.

Richard
himself, riding at a leisurely pace towards London in order not to overtire
Pegasus, could not think of her as a sister and never would. He made up his
mind to see Felicity as she had asked, as he had tried to do before he had gone
to York, but only to throw himself on her mercy. He might not have offered for
her formally, but everyone expected it and it would be difficult to back out of
the interview without humiliating her. He could not refuse to marry her; his
only hope was that she would reject him. She did not want to marry him, he was
fairly sure of that, but was she strong enough to defy her aunt and disappoint
her sister? And even if she did, would he be able to win Georgie? He did not
think so.