So I simply nodded.“We do.”
“You should finish your soup.”
That made me smile, and I pried myself up off the ground and pillow, grunting.“Okay.I’ll go finish my soup.”
“Good girl,” he murmured, almost too quiet for me to hear.
But I heard it.
And the shiver that took hold of my entire body nearly made me fall over.
CHAPTER NINE
Tommaso
Thewomanwasbrilliant.
Finding a source of goats’ milk on the island in such a short amount of time was nothing short of extraordinary.Danica was marvelous at every turn, and it made it more and more difficult for me to resist her.
She certainly didn’t have to stay here to help me with Angel and Midnight, but I was glad for her company.This wasn’t the first time I’d had to deal with a sick animal who ultimately didn’t make it, but it was the first time I had to deal with a foal, let alone an orphaned foal.
Would we be able to get enough goats’ milk to keep him full?I didn’t know Fred Love—though I knewofhim—and the man was a cheesemonger.He would need that milk for his own livelihood, wouldn’t he?I didn’t begrudge him eventually telling us no when we went knocking for more milk, he had to make money too.However, I wasn’t opposed to paying for it.
Did Danica pay for it?
I would need to ask.
I already had my contacts on the mainland searching for a nurse mare though.However, my caveat was that she be either without a foal herself, or hormonally induced to lactate.I didn’t agree ethically with the whole business of nurse mares, who were bred to care for orphaned foals while being forced to abandon their own foals.
We sat side by side on the cot, our knees touching as we quietly ate our soup.
I liked that she didn’thaveto fill the air with conversation.As a man who lived alone with just my pet pig and a yard full of animals, I was used to having rather one-sided conversations, or no conversations at all.
We finished our soup at the same time, and I took her bowl from her without a word.A brief glimpse at the watch on her wrist told her it was already eight-thirty.I went to bed rather early, since the animals—particularly Portia—woke me up sometimes before the sun.
She tried to stifle a yawn but failed, smiling at me when I glanced her way.“That was delicious.Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”I stood up, both eager and reluctant to move away from her.Her scent—vanilla and almonds—was driving me wild, and the heat of just her knee against mine had all kinds of woefully inappropriate thoughts crashing through my brain.“I will take these to the house.”Then without another word, I rushed the tray and bowls back through the barn—with Portia by my side—and out into the rain and wind.
It was dark now, and only the porch light provided me any guidance toward my front door.Though I knew this property better than I knew the Hail Mary’s prayer and could get to my door without tripping with my eyes closed.
Portia, because she was a princess, went before me through her pig door.But she knew better than to just scamper into the house without wiping the mud from her trotters.She did the quintessential tap dance on the spongy mat I kept to the side of the door for her to shake the moisture and mud from her feet before heading into the kitchen and staring up at me expectantly.
“You do not need more food.You had a good supper.Stop begging.”
She knew she was being scolded and snorted at me as a form of back talk before dropping her head and going to rest in her bed in front of the cold fireplace.She’d be rather put out when she knew I didn’t intend to stay in the house for the night, but rather head into the barn again.She liked the barn, but not overnight.
I washed up the dishes, since I didn’t have a dishwasher, and brewed a big thermos oforzo solubile, which was a caffeine-free barley coffee I often had in the evenings before bed.
The grunt of confusion and frustration that preceded my sliding back into my shoes made me smirk.Portia kept pace with me across the yard, snorting and grunting as if to ask what the heck was going on and what was with all the back-and-forth.
“You could always stay in the house,” I offered her, holding open the barn door so she could trot her royal curly tail in ahead of me.“You do nothaveto join us out here.”
She grunted again as if to say, “Try to stop me, Papa.”Picking up the pace, she made her way back to her bed beside my cot and curled up, giving me the stinky eye as a warning not to make her get up again.
Danica was not on the cot, but rather, in the stall with Angel and Midnight.Midnight was tucked in tight beside his mother, sleeping, but Angel was awake.Fear shone in her eyes.She knew her son was going to grow up in this world without her.
I recognized that fear better than I should have.It was the same look Erin gave me when her symptoms started to progress.
