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Shadow perked up and trotted in her direction. Cordelia did not, for even a moment, think the little lamb was making the short journey on her account. Without even looking behind her, she knew Sebastian was drawing near.

He reached her side in the next moment. “I found myself worrying that I ought to have offered you water when you arrived, seeing as you walked a distance to get here.”

“You did assure me that, were I to find myself in need of anything, I was only to ask,” she said.

That didn’t seem to entirely reassure him. “I should have offered. My mother did raise me with manners, I assure you, but I find myself struggling of late with a tendency to neglect them.”

The poor man looked both concerned about her and disappointed in himself.

“You comport yourself with admirable decorum, Sebastian of the Home Farm. So much so that I find you to be quite an intriguing puzzle.”

“The feeling is quite mutual, Cordelia of Burnwick House.”

A smile arose from her very heart. “Do you know, I like that almost more than ‘Cordelia of London.’”

“Are we winning you over?”

She laughed lightly. “That is mostly Shadow’s doing.”

Sebastian bent down and stroked the lamb’s soft head. “Do you hear that, wee lassie? You’re to be our ambassador.”

“And like any true ambassador, she has her own officially commissioned portrait.”

“You’ve finished her sketch?” He seemed genuinely eager.

Cordelia held it out to him. He took it carefully, studying the drawing. She was often nervous when people examined her work. She didn’t feel even a drop of that just then. Sebastian had shown himself to be very kind, especially in the matter of her art.

“That’s her very likeness, Cordelia. She’ll not be a lamb much longer. It’s a fine thing to have captured her during this fleeting bit of her life.”

“I’d like for you to keep it,” she said. “Then you’ll always be able to look back and remember her as a lamb.”

“Thank you.” With the parchment held between his thumb and two fingers, he showed the sketch to Shadow. “What do you think? Do you approve?”

The creature answered by snatching the paper between her teeth and running off with it.

Cordelia hopped to her feet, set her box of parchment and pencils on the stool, and rushed after Shadow. Sebastian followed the lamb as well.

The little lamb trotted faster, flicking her head in what appeared to be amusement.

“I fear she thinks we are playing a game,” Cordelia said.

“Herd her in this direction,” Sebastian said. “I’ll see if I can’t urge her to give back the paper without destroying it.”

Herd her. Cordelia had never in all her life engaged in anything that might be described as “herding.” Still, she wasn’t averse to trying. Only Sebastian was nearby to witness—Connall didn’t appear to be at the home farm that day—and he’d certainly been privy to her previous moments of humiliation. Cracking her racquet across his nose hadn’t seemed to entirely sink her in his opinion; a bit of shepherding didn’t seem likely to.

Cordelia was not wearing the most appropriate shoes for the undertaking. While she had chosen a simpler dress, one made of serviceable fabric, she was still ill-prepared for tromping about a high-grass meadow, shooing a lamb around. Even with her disadvantages, she rather enjoyed herself.

“Not that way, Shadow.”

She placed herself between Shadow and the far corner of the enclosure, where the lamb had been heading. When the creature took up yet another wrong direction, Cordelia urged the lamb backward once more. All the while, Sebastian approached from the other direction, nodding his encouragement to Cordelia and placing himself in the way of any escape route he could.

Shadow still had the sketch in her mouth but hadn’t done any significant damage to it. They might actually manage to retrieve it.

Cordelia urged the lamb toward Sebastian, feeling quite accomplished. She’d never have imagined she would have any opportunity to herd a lamb, let alone that she would actually prove adept at it.

She was near enough to Sebastian to hear him whisper, “Keep calm, little Shadow. I only want the drawing back.”

The lamb’s ears perked, but she kept a close eye on Cordelia.