trembling horse's head to quiet him.
Amy pulled up Zephyr and ran over. "Is he all right?" The damned man could kill himself with that sort of insanity!
"Yes. Just bothered a bit. There, boy," he said, rubbing the bay's nose. "It's my fault not yours." He looked ruefully at Amy. "I should know to be cautious with that kind of thick hedge."
She nodded sternly. "Yes, you should. I don't know what you were about."
He smiled lazily. "I was trying to impress you, of course."
Amy stared helplessly at him, then, face rosy, she hurried back to the dogcart. The way her heart had leapt at his words was positively terrifying.
For the remainder of the journey, Harry Crisp rode decorously alongside the cart but in silence. Amy was aware of him, however, all the time, whereas Chart Ashby and Terance Cornwallis could have ridden off the edge of the world without her being any the wiser.
When they turned in the gates of Stonycourt, all three men settled to riding nearby, looking and admiring the rolling meadows and occasional stands of trees. There had been a great many more trees once, but they had been felled, some by her father to provide money for extravagances but most since his death to feed the gaping maw of their debts. They would all have gone except that Jasper had put his foot down and declared he refused to have his land completely deforested.
Nothing Amy had said had moved him.
Now Amy admitted Jasper might have had a point. To a person who had never seen it in better days, Stonycourt Park looked well enough today.
"I am perfectly safe now, gentlemen," she said as the house came in sight. "I thank you for your escort."
"Not at all," said Chart Ashby. "Take you to your door, Miss de Lacy. This is a very pleasant property."
In the spring sun the house and grounds did look almost as they had. It brought tears pricking at Amy's eyes but it was also undoing all her good work in deterring Harry Crisp.
"Burdened with debts," said Amy bluntly.
"But full of potential," said Chart, looking around with a shrewd eye. "Fine land."
Amy cast a quick glance at Harry Crisp to see if he was as impressed as his friend. His face was unreadable. "All leased," she countered, "and the income being used to pay interest and reduce debt."
"What? All of it?" asked Chart, startled.
"Yes," replied Amy firmly.
They had come in sight of the house. Amy loved Stonycourt, but at this moment she could have wished it a moldering ruin. Instead it rested in placid beauty in its landscape, as handsome as ever. It was a substantial, plain three-story stone building with a two-story wing at each side. There was no ornament to it at all - not even a portico over the door. It owed its beauty to perfect proportions and simplicity. It would take a long time for poverty to take those away, and the fact that there now were sheep grazing right up to the drawing-room windows meant that they had a well-groomed sward in all directions.
"Why?"
Startled out of her thoughts, Amy realized it was Harry Crisp who had spoken. "Why what?" she asked.
"Why does all the income go to service the debt?"
"Is that any of your business, sir?"
He raised a brow. "I suppose not, but you seem determined to air your family's woes, and I am curious."
Amy could feel her cheeks heat. "It was not my intention to burden you with my family problems. I merely find it detestable to be pretending to be something other than the truth. As for our financial arrangements, we do not starve and my brother attends school, but we prefer to live simply for a few years to set the estate on a sound footing once more."
"Very frugal," he said without obvious approval, "but I think the estate could bear the burden of a few indulgences. Another nag, for example. I'll act as your agent to buy one if you want." When she did not immediately agree, he said with an edge, "I engage to pay less than the cost of that dress you ruined yesterday."
Amy could think of nothing to say. He thought her the sort of feather-headed fool who would fret about a guinea or two while carelessly ruining a valuable garment, and there was no explanation she could make. She was relieved that they had arrived at the house at last.
Beryl appeared, flushed with excitement, trailed by the ever-watchful Prettys. Amy made the