The straw moved about as he watched her, silently. Had she asked too much? Presumed too much?
“So you’ve not ridden in years,” he said. “You’d be wise to keep to quiet mounts early on, until you’ve accustomed yourself again.”
Hope tickled at her heart. “Then you’ll allow me to ride?”
“That favor’s not mine to grant,” he said. “The master and missus dictate such things.”
“Oh.” That was not good news.
She couldn’t ask Mr. Haddington for permission; he had an unsettling way of looking at her. His presence was only bearable in locations where she knew every possible exit. With Mrs. Haddington’s tendency to insult and demean, she was not a much better option. Still, Mrs. Haddington didn’t feel threatening in the same way her husband did. She was unkind but not dangerous.
Sophia would simply have to choose the lesser of the two evils. “I will ask Mrs. Haddington.”
“Truly?” His brows shot upward and his eyes pulled wide.
“It seems the only choice if I wish to ride again.”
Duncan made a deep sound of contemplation. “If Mrs. Haddington says aye, I’ll see to it you’ve a horse to ride come Friday afternoon. Kelpie would give you a fine ride. Mina would as well.”
“Truly?”
He nodded.
“You won’t change your mind?” she pressed. “People are forever breaking their word to me.”
Another communicative nod.
“And please assure whichever of the stable hands assigned to help me that I am far better behaved than any of the children.”
He stepped back from the gate. “Aye. I’ll do that.”
“Thank you, Mr. Buchanan.”
He offered no words of welcome or farewell. He simply nodded again.
She watched him walk back to the stable, her heart leaping about. She’d found the nerve to approach him, to speak with him on a personal matter. How long she had wanted to do that.
Her mind spun with possibilities. He would see how well she rode, how much she knew of and enjoyed horses. They would have something to talk about. Perhaps, sometime in the future, he would even ride with her. Perhaps she would be permitted to come by the stables to visit with him. In time they might come to be friends. Perhaps something more than friends. . .
Perhaps.
Chapter Two
Sophia Pemberton was a surprise. Duncan had watched her these past six months as she’d struggled with the Haddington children. He had assumed she was no different from the handful of browbeaten, lifeless governesses who had preceded her. But she’d stepped forward two days earlier and asked a favor of him, one that benefited no one but her— the others had seemed terrified to even acknowledge their own existence, let alone their right to some happiness— and she’d further declared her intention of taking the request to their dragon of an employer.
This governess had a bit of steel to her. A surprise, indeed.
Aiden, the most experienced and reliable of the stable staff, spoke as he cleaned out the hoof of Barnaby, Mr. Haddington’s prized gelding. “’Tis Friday afternoon, Duncan, and we’ve seen neither hide nor hair of the governess. Do you wager Miss Proper’ll make an appearance, then?”
“Aye.”
“Then you think the missus gave her permission?”
“No.”
Aiden set Barnaby’s foreleg down. “Then why d’you believe she’ll come?”
“Civility.”
