“I see.” Gabe was silent for a while. The child was in genuine danger then. He owed her an apology.
“And does Mama have a name other than Mama?”
Nicky laughed. “Of course. Papa called her Caroline, but Grandpapa always called her Callie.”
Gabe rode the next few miles without thinking, his thoughts miles away.
Her name was Callie. And she was a widow. Of more than a year.
They came to the arch into the courtyard and Gabe slowed Trojan to a walk.
“Can’t we do it again?” Nicky begged. “Gallop like the wind?”
Gabe grinned. “Not right now, you young fiend. Your mother would throttl—whoops, here she comes!”
The kitchen door crashed open and Nicky’s mother came flying across the courtyard, fully dressed and wearing shoes.
“I’ll take you out again later.” He lifted the boy to the ground.
Nicky clung to his arms. “Promise?”
“I promise.”
“Nicky, you’re all right! Oh, thank God, thank God!” His mother hugged him fiercely. Gabe dismounted in a leisurely manner and unstrapped the portmanteau.
Nicky suffered his mother’s embrace for a moment, then wriggled free. His face split with a grin, he gabbled, “Mama, I had the most splendid time! Mr. Renfrew took me out on Trojan—that’s his horse’s name—he’s a magnificent animal, don’t you think? As good as any of Papa’s horses, and it was utterly splendid and I never fell off, not once, and we went fast, so fast it was like riding the wind and I never even got scared because Mr. Renfrew held me in front of him and he’s very strong and an excellent horseman, and oh, we galloped across the moor so fast, Mama, and—”
She hugged him again, half laughing, half crying. “So you’ve had a wonderful time, you horrid boy, and to think I’ve been so worried. And look at you! You’re covered inmud!”
“Yes, I know!” The boy’s eyes sparkled in his dirty face, as if the dirt had been as much of a treat as the ride, Gabe thought. And perhaps it was. Nicky had been kept on a very tight leash. For good reason, he supposed, but still, it was hard on a boy, not to be allowed to be a boy.
“And I hear you’ve been fighting with that boy in there!”
Nicky looked suddenly guilty, “Yes, I know, Mama, but Mr. Renfrew said it wasn’t wrong to fight to protect our portmanteau—”
“As if I care about the portmant—”
“Mama, I must go and see how he is. Mr. Renfrew said he was all right, but I must see him for myself. I owe him an apology. I know he’s a poor peasant boy and very dirty, but—” He looked down almost proudly at his filthy state and grinned again. “So am I—dirty, that is! And I don’t care if anyone forbids it—he’s myfriend, Mama.”
And with that, he ran off with his ungainly, lopsided run toward the kitchen door, leaving his mother standing in the middle of the courtyard, staring after him with such a look of astonishment on her face it made Gabe laugh out loud.
At the sound she turned.“You!”she declared, her magnificent green eyes sparking with anger. “How dare you laugh? Do you haveanyidea how I felt?Anyidea of what I went through when I found him missing?”
Gabe gave an apologetic shrug. “I was actually bent on fetching your portmanteau for you,” he said mildly, backing slowly toward the stables. As he’d intended, she followed.
“You should have asked!”
“Would you have given me permission to take him?”
“Of course not! Why would I entrust my child to a perfect stranger?”
The stables were quiet; Barrow had unsaddled Trojan and put him in his stall. Gabe gave him a subtle signal to him to disappear. He went, quietly shutting the stable door behind him.
“And youknowhe is terrified of horses—”
“He’s not. He’s terrified of falling off, which I gather he’s done a lot of in the past. Once he was assured he would not fall off, he had a whale of a time.”
She stared at him, nettled.
