to meet Mr. Whitworth’s gaze, she asked, “What else will I be doing today?”
Mr. Barley took the cap off his head and banged it twice against his leg before slapping it back atop his thinning hair. “Same time tomorrow will do fine.”
Mr. Whitworth didn’t contradict the trainer, though Sophia wished he would. Her days were going to be incredibly long if she had no tasks aside from these hours of learning, but she wouldn’t push him for permission to haul feed or muck stalls.
Couldn’t he say something, though? A word of praise or even censure would give her a sense of where she stood.
It shouldn’t matter, so long as he didn’t fire her, but it did. She was drawn to this man. Something about the quiet in his eyes and the way there seemed to be so much more going on in his head than he let on.
She wanted him to approve of her.
Complaining or staring at him in a silent battle she was doomed to lose was more likely to antagonize him than impress him, so she gave a single nod and left the yard.
Every eye was on her as she departed. She knew the difference between looks filled with awe and admiration and those heavy with speculation and suspicion. She was most definitely experiencing the latter.
Because those watching would expect her to go into town, she headed that direction. Hopefully the streets of Newmarket would be busy enough she could lose herself among the people and find a way to circle back to the trees to await Jonas.
No such luck.
She was nearly as infamous in town as she’d been in the training yard. People pointed and stared, preventing her from slipping down a side street or hiding in an alcove. Some women crossed the street to avoid her. Some men leered in such a way that she crossed the street to avoid them.
What was she supposed to do? She didn’t know anyone in town or have any possessions or property to see to. Even if she had any money, she wouldn’t spend it on frivolous shopping. When was the last time she’d had five minutes with nothing to do, much less five hours?
On the premise of adjusting her shoe, she stepped into a small alley and leaned against the side of a building to observe the other people. What were they doing with their afternoon?
Several men went in and out of the area taverns. Women strolled about, looking in shop windows and occasionally stepping inside. Curiosity almost propelled her to choose a pair of women walking arm in arm and follow them simply to see what ladies of leisure did with their day. Instead, she eased farther and farther into the alley until no one from the main street could see her, then worked her way behind buildings until she was back outside of town and headed toward the meeting spot.
Jonas might not return for hours, but her only other option was to go to her attic room, lie on the bed, and stare at the ceiling. She’d rather watch the clouds go by while she dreamed of the riding school she would one day have.
AARON’S LIFE COULD be divided into two sections by one very distinct moment in time—the day he’d met Oliver and Graham.
Before them, his life had certainly been simpler, though devoid of much joy. After them, things had gotten both better and more complicated. To survive, he’d broken his new life into different realities. It had taken him a while to determine where everything went, but several years ago, he’d settled into a comfortable division.
Each reality had its own rules, its own connections, and its own ramifications. If he carefully managed how much time he spent in each reality, his life remained in balance. He didn’t entertain illusions of grandeur or start thinking he could attain that which was never meant to be his. Nor did he fall into the doldrums of melancholy and self-loathing, or worse, self-pity.
But those lines were blurring now, and the balance was slipping away. Oliver’s interest in the horses was making their friendship bleed into Aaron’s professional life. Not to mention the fact that Aaron’s relationship with his newest employer, Hudson, was far from the strict professionalism he’d anticipated.
Because of that friendship, he’d agreed to open the gate to his family life, such as it was. Of all the walls coming down around him, this one terrified him the most.
Hudson wasn’t happy about Miss Fitzroy’s employment, and really, Aaron