“Well done.” Grace waved the children forward. “Let me help the two of you, and then I shall hand up Hector.”
“I need to be in the front,” Connor said. “I am the eldest.”
“Only by a few minutes,” Sissy said. “I should be in the front not only because I am a girl but because you need to hold Hector between the two of us to keep him safe.”
“Your sister makes a sound argument,” Grace told the boy.
“She always does,” he said, sounding thoroughly disgruntled.
New to the role of peacemaker, Grace decided to do what her parents always did. “What shall it be, my friends? We are losing daylight, and the later you get home, the likelier it is you might receive a scolding from your governess or nanny or whoever looks after you. At your ages, I am not certain of your caretaker’s title.”
“A maid for now,” Connor said. “Wolfe told our last governess to pack her things and get out after he heard of her telling Sissy she’d probably never be anything more than a dirty little lightskirt, just like our mother.”
Grace clenched her teeth to keep from saying something entirely too harsh for the children’s tender ears. “Thank goodness he turned out that evil woman,” she said after several deep, calming breaths. “Both of you are as fine as fine can be, and I am honored to know you and call you my friends.”
“Sissy can sit in front,” Connor said with a worried glance in the direction of Wolfebourne land. “We do need to be getting back.”
“Up you go, then.” Grace seated him in the saddle first, put his sister in front of him, then handed Hector up. The pup curled into a tight ball, cowering in Connor’s arms. “Will you be able to hold him like that, or do you think he would ride better if you supported him on the saddle?”
“I have him just right.” Connor gave her a determined nod. “He’s afraid and counting on me to protect him.”
Grace forced a smile and swallowed hard, touched by the boy’s devotion and understanding of his sweet little dog. She took hold of the reins and set out across the meadow at a fast yet steady stride to ensure Pegasus gave the children and their pets as smooth a ride as possible.
After a short while of companionable silence, Connor asked, “Are you married?”
“I am not.” Grace prayed the rumors about the boy’s elder brother looking for a wife weren’t true. Connor’s question worried her. What was the child up to? “Areyoumarried, Connor?”
“Of course not, silly. I am but seven years old.”
“Did your parents not promise you to anyone when you were born?” Sissy asked her.
“No. My parents wanted me to marry a man that I loved—not someone that somebody else chose for me.” Grace inwardly flinched, wondering if she ought not to have said that. “My mother and father loved each other very much. They want my sisters and I to enjoy that same happiness.”
“Are they gone?” Connor asked quietly, echoing a maturity well beyond his years.
“Yes,” Grace said. “They are together in heaven, watching over me and my sisters and probably shaking their heads at my brother.”
“So you have not found anyone you love yet?” Conner asked, steering the conversation once more.
“No. Not yet.” She hoped this particular discourse would not prove to be a problem.
“Wolfe got promised to Lady Margaret when he was our age,” Sissy said. “She was nothing more than a baby at the time. When she smiles, she looks as though she’s about to bite you.”
“Her mother is worse,” Connor said. “We call her Lady Longface. She looks like a horse.”
“No offense, Pegasus,” Sissy said with a pat to the thoroughbred’s neck. “You are quite the handsome fellow.”
Grace bit the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing. This conversation reminded her so very much of the chats she and her sisters often had. Once she was certain she had her mirth under control, she asked, “If your brothergot promisedwhen he was your age, when did he marry?”
“He has not married her yet,” Sissy said. “We are doing our best to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
“Sissy! You can’t tell a secret plan and expect it to work.” Connor groaned, bemoaning his sister’s inadequacies. “Why could my twin not have been a brother instead of a sister?”
“Connor.” Grace used the same tone that Papa had always used when determined to make Chance feel guilty over histreatment of his sisters. “You and Sissy balance each other. Always remember, everything happens for a reason. The two of you are as you are because you are destined for greatness. Would you spoil that by wishing your sister away?”
“Lady Margaret says I am destined for boarding school and Sissy is going to be sent abroad to learn how to paint or dance or something.”
The more Grace learned about Lady Margaret, the less she liked her, and what sort of person was Wolfebourne to agree to send his siblings away when it was more than obvious they needed their elder brother’s love and care? For heaven’s sake, the children were only seven years old.
