Must Love Scotland (24 page)

The lady did not want to leave her horse undefended, and Thomas did not blame her, but she would have to learn to trust her employer’s authority.

“Come, Miss Tanner. I’ve yet to see my new house, and as my steward, you are the first among the staff with whom I must become better acquainted.”

“You’ll want to eat,” she said, tousling the horse’s dark forelock. “To change, and Mrs. Kitts is doubtless in a taking that you’ve tarried in the stables this long.”

Thomas did want to eat, also to drink a large quantity of something cool, and to bathe—God above, did he want to bathe.

“You there!” Thomas called to a skinny older fellow pushing a barrow of straw and muck down the barn aisle. “Your name?”

“Hammersmith, my lord.”

“Hammersmith, if Miss Tanner’s horse shows any signs of renewed distress, or is taken from his stall for any reason by anybody save Miss Tanner, you are to alert me immediately. Not Chesterton, not the local magistrate, not Wellington himself is to handle that animal without Miss Tanner’s permission.”

“Aye, milord.”

“And when you’ve dumped that barrow, please see to it that the horse has half a bucket of clean water.”

“Aye, milord. At once, sir.”

“
Now
will you accompany me to the manor house, Miss Tanner?”

She gave the horse’s chin a deliberate, thorough final scratching. “Yes, my lord.”