own things.”
Despite his adjusted stride, she slowly fell behind, doing that odd skip-run every five or six paces to keep up with him. Aaron’s own step faltered as it suddenly occurred to him that she’d arrived on foot. She’d walked from Cambridge this morning. Or she’d walked the night before and slept . . . who even knew where?
He couldn’t now make her walk all over Newmarket. He’d have to find her a mount.
He didn’t have many options, and Hudson’s stable was the closest. Part of Aaron wanted to throw her onto Shadow’s saddle so she didn’t even have to walk that far.
Her head bobbed in the corner of his vision as she did her catch-up step once more. As he adjusted his pace again, she continued talking.
“—not around the circus, at least, so I haven’t experience with many. Gentlemen, that is, or at least ones who are unencumbered. There are some good men at fairs and such, but they’re usually carrying things about already. So am I, for that matter. No one sits around when the circus is moving.”
Why was she blathering on about the lack of gentlemen in the circus?
“We all have to earn our keep, you know.”
Was Aaron supposed to respond to any of this? Evidently not, since she didn’t pause her monologue. She’d said more words in this short walk than he normally said in a day.
Besides, he didn’t know the first thing about men in the circus, and he could hardly tell her his thoughts and misgivings on taking her to Hawksworth to borrow a horse. Hudson might have been at the race to witness the debacle firsthand, and if not, someone had likely gone by to tell him about it. The viscount was going to have questions, and Aaron didn’t want to answer them—at least not today.
“I hope you don’t think that makes me less of a lady. Though I suppose I can’t really lay claim to that, since I’m hardly highborn. My parents—”
“Do you ever stop talking?” The last thing Aaron wanted to discuss with her was his parentage. Normally he openly acknowledged his illegitimacy, mostly because it made people uncomfortable and gave him a momentary advantage, but he had a feeling that if Miss Fitzroy knew his true social standing, he’d lose what little leverage he had in convincing her she didn’t want to work for him.
“I talk when I’m nervous,” she said with a sigh.
“That seems a bad habit.”
She licked her lips. “It covers an awkward silence rather nicely.”
Was she truly that naïve? Didn’t people who lived as she did harden themselves to the ways in which the world could take advantage of them? “Jabbering on makes it difficult to keep a secret.”
She shrugged. “I haven’t many secrets.”
Meaning she did have some. Curiosity crawled up Aaron’s throat, but he swallowed the questions back down. Her invasion of his life had already made him more aware of her than he liked. All he really needed to know was what marketable skills she had other than riding. He wouldn’t break his agreement or toss her out on her ear, but if she were to find other employment, he’d happily be the gentleman and let her renege on the contract.
“I’m not often nervous,” she continued. “I find it helps to put myself in situations where I know what I’m doing. It’s the wondering what is going to happen that disconcerts me.” She let out a short laugh. “Admittedly, I often talk a great deal anyway. It’s only that I have trouble stopping when I’m nervous.”
He would not smile. He simply would not. He would hold on to the irritation he’d felt when he first realized what a muddle she’d created. That should be enough to keep him from being charmed by her guileless ramblings. “Does that mean you’ll be yammering to the horse if you race?”
“When I race, everything will be fine. I can’t imagine being nervous on the back of a horse. It’s people I don’t always know what to do with.”
How well Aaron could relate to that sentiment. It was why he’d made his life on the Heath. Here, people were predictable—as much as they ever were—and horses ruled the day.
He should have kept to his intention not to ask any questions, though. The moment he had, he’d found something they had in common. If putting her on the back of a horse would stop the talking, he was going to have to rethink his decision not to place her on Shadow