I had a feeling I’d never get over shoveling it back.
“I’m an English aristocrat,” I pointed out not for the first time, and not only on this topic. “I need a good pair of wellies.”
“Hunters wear those boots,” he pointed out, also not for the first time.
I wrinkled my nose at him before I sniffed, “I need them when I’m mucking about in the stables or tramping around my vast estate. You know, all the healthy, outdoorsy pursuits of the good English aristocrat I am.”
“Your version of ‘mucking about in the stables’ is entering it to mount a horse and then exiting it after you get off that horse.”
“A marchioness doesn’t saddle her own horse, Dair,” I educated him.
“I ken, since I saddle it for her.”
“Yes, that’s your job. To be handsome. Give me many orgasms. And saddle my horse.”
He busted out laughing.
I couldn’t hold the haughty watching him do it, so I was smiling at him before he stopped.
“Are we going on a wander?” I asked after him coming out.
“Aye, but first, I’ve got some news.”
I wasn’t certain about the new expression on his face.
“What?” I asked, not hiding the uncertainty.
“Jeff must have found himself in a bind and needed some fast cash. He sold his story about what he was to your Mum to a rag.”
Well…
Damn.
“Dad called with the news just now,” Dair went on.
“I suppose we should have known he’d do that,” I remarked.
“Dad’s people are monitoring the reaction, and Jeff isn’t coming off so well.”
That was interesting.
“What’s the response?”
“A lot of ‘good for Helena,’ and ‘if you got it, use it,’ and some unflattering, but accurate, epithets for Jeff.”
Now it was me smirking.
Dair added his grin to my smirk.
“Ready to wander?” he asked.
I nodded.
Before we took off, Christine shouted from the back door. “A ploughman’s for lunch?”
“Aye!” Dair shouted back. “Sounds good.”
“Thank you, Christine!” I was also shouting.
