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Highbury House

Home of the estimable but dour

Earl of Highbury

Brighton, England

AUGUST 1828 ~ EARLY MORNING

Something doesn’t feel right…

Singing Greensleeves softly to herself, Beatrice Fairfax casually glanced around as she wandered across the lawn toward her private sanctuary like she did every morning before breaking her fast.

Nothing appeared out of the ordinary, and yet…

Something felt off, as if the day portended unexpected or unpleasant happenings.

A shudder skittered up her spine, and she squinted toward the house.

Yes.

There on the first floor.

Uncle stood before the mullioned study window, observing her, his expression unreadable at this distance.

How peculiar.

He rarely rose before ten.

What prompted him to do so today?

As if sensing her perusal, Uncle Cedric spun away and disappeared from view.

God only knew what motivated Cedric Fairfax, Earl of Highbury?

Beatrice had given up trying to understand or please him long ago.

Accompanied by her two canine shadows—Nala, the badly beaten boarhound Beatrice had rescued two years ago from a drunken sailor and who now weighed more than Beatrice, and tiny Teddy, the blind-in-one-eye, starving black Pekingese runt she’d found wandering Brighton’s streets a few months before that—Beatrice resumed her short trek to what once had been the carriage house.

Several years ago, Uncle Cedric had commissioned a larger, more extravagant structure for his five conveyances which housed his horseflesh too.

Waiting for her as he did every morning, Hans, the cook’s grandson, waved. The boy adored helping Beatrice with the animals and wanted to explore the new field of veterinary medicine.

At present, only a few animals called the pretty little structure their home. With several outer cages and fencing surrounding the building on two sides, the sanctuary had also served as a makeshift hospital for many other unfortunate creatures over the years.

An involuntary sigh escaped Beatrice.

If only women could become animal doctors. The vocation greatly appealed to her.

They couldn’t, of course.

Most especially not an earl’s niece.

Regardless, that didn’t stop Beatrice from reading everything she could get her hands on about treating animals, including The Veterinarian’s Vade Mecum, The Complete Grazier, and A Treatise on the Disease of Horses. Maybe someday, women would have the same opportunities and liberties as men, but that day most assuredly was not today.

And unquestionably would not occur in the foreseeable future.