since she couldn’t stop staring in his direction anyway, she might as well think about him. Sometimes she thought about him even when she wasn’t looking at him.
KNOWING THAT JONAS had planned to take the horse out at midnight, she wasn’t surprised to find him asleep when she took him breakfast the next morning. She arrived even earlier than normal, so she took her time strolling to the training yard. She wanted to see the Heath without any horses on it.
To her surprise, it was already bustling.
There were a few strings of blanketed horses darting about under eagle-eyed trainers, but there were also gentlemen dotting the landscape. Some rode leisurely, while others participated in impromptu races of their own making. The entire expanse looked alive, rolling and shifting under the hooves of all the horses. Here the men and the horses and the land all blended together.
She’d never seen the like, but something about it reminded her of home, of her childhood. How many times had she sat in the hayloft or on the fence and watched her father’s horses? Watched him train rider and animal to work as one?
It had been a long time since she’d allowed herself to remember those years, a long time since she’d mourned the loss of what she’d thought would always be there. Mostly she dreamt of re-creating it. That was far less painful than remembering it was gone.
Sixteen
Miss Fitzroy stomped up the lane toward Oliver’s stable, sending a surge of thoughts through Aaron’s head. A storm of emotions tripped over themselves as well, but he didn’t know how to identify them or what to do with them, so he ignored them.
He’d barely seen her since he’d accompanied her on brush runs, and he’d convinced himself that he’d imagined the pull he felt to her.
He hadn’t.
Despite his own irritation, he grinned at the outward expression of hers. Was she miffed that he’d sent a note beckoning her to him? Or was it because he’d made her walk from Meadowland Park to the training yards and then halfway back again to Oliver’s?
Neither act was very gentlemanly, but he was in such upheaval about her that he’d had to do something. Barley threatened to quit if Aaron left him to deal with this nonsense alone one more day, so Aaron had to take over today’s training, and he’d needed to do it as far away from speculative eyes as possible.
There’d be no stopping the stories after tomorrow, though. Was he truly going to put a woman on a thoroughbred stallion and let her race?
Yes, he was. Whether he liked it or not, the woman had won his respect. She had ridden long, hard hours. She walked across Newmarket daily without complaint. She wasn’t afraid to do the dirty work of caring for the horses or tack, though he’d hired an extra boy for the stable to do most of that for her.
What he needed was to find her another job. He’d started going to local taverns for dinner each night, hoping to overhear something that might spark an idea. For the first twenty minutes, he had to endure snide comments and accusatory glares. When he gave no response, people changed to ignoring him and he was able to listen in on their conversations. None had given him any clue of what to do with her.
Not that a tavern was the best place to find a job for a lady, but what else could he do? He had no knowledge of her non-equestrian abilities. If she even had any. The story about the scullery didn’t seem promising.
Miss Fitzroy finally reached him, and her chin jutted up as she looked him in the eye. Her hands opened and closed at her sides as if she didn’t know what to do with them—or rather as if stopping herself from doing what she wanted to with them.
He was thankful. She had strong arms from all the riding. A punch from her might hurt.
“Is there a reason to have me wait around the yard for half an hour?”
She was mad about waiting? Not about all the walking? He hid his surprise and amusement at her pique. “Apologies. I didn’t make these plans until last evening.”
“You could have sent the note to me instead of Mr. Barley.”
Aaron led her to where the horses were tied up. “Do you honestly want me sending you a communication at Meadowland Park?” Aaron still wasn’t positive Lord Gliddon knew Miss Fitzroy was residing under his roof.