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And he already knew she didn’t fight fair.

Mont sidestepped, and Asquith followed. A cold frisson shuddered through him as his and Lenora’s shadows merged.

Chapter Three

Asquith’s limbs charged, his neck tingled, and his composure hung by a thread. His stables ceased to be a place of refuge. Even Montgomery snorted and tossed his head.

“Easy,” Asquith murmured.

Though, if he had been a horse, he would have pinned back his ears, too.

Mont’s eyes flicked between Asquith and the potential threat. Then, he studied Lenora with cautious intrigue. Soon, his ears relaxed.

Lenora sighed, as if she sensed Montgomery’s tension lessen. “The horses seem upset with me. I didn’t expect—”

“They’re not used to you,” he interrupted. “I came early because I wasn’t sure how they’d react to your unfamiliar presence.”

Her sound of distress cut through his chest.

He softened his voice. “I realize you’ve been here before, but you aren’t familiar to them.”

“I understand,” she said. “I did not consider that my presence might cause the horses any discomfort.”

He pressed his lips together. When she’d invented her plan, she hadn’t considered a great many things, had she?

He and his horses paid the price. “By lingering in the doorway, you’re distressing them more.”

She stepped inside. The triangle of light flattened before disappearing completely.

The room became dim and murky. As murky as a yew maze at the end of a warm summer’s day.

He groaned; Mont sidestepped.

“There now.” He quieted himself as much as he quieted the horse.

He shouldn’t have snapped. He’d trained himself to stay in check. But in her presence, his training failed.

“Is that the new horse?” she asked. “The one you bought from Sir Benning?”

“Yes.”

Millie must have told the tale.

Discretion, apparently, wasn’t any of his wards’ strong suit. Thank God he hadn’t told Millie that sympathy with the horse’s plight had been the reason for his impulsive acquisition.

“Montgomery, right?” Lenora queried.

“Yes.” He was surprised she remembered.

“May I come closer, Montgomery?”

Asquith gave Mont a slight nod, as if to communicate that Lenora was safe, even though she wasn’t. Not to Asquith, anyway.

“There now,” she copied Asquith’s inflection without yet moving forward.

Montgomery softened his gaze and then lowered his head. His corded neck relaxed.

Changeling. She could even deceive Mont.