Royal - Danielle Steel Page 0,73
do what he wanted, not figuring out who they were and what they needed.
She went back to the trainer she’d been assigned to then, and he had her exercise two of the horses. Flash was the high point of her day, and Anthony stopped by and told her he’d pick her up at seven.
She changed into slacks and a sweater before they left for dinner, and was surprised when he turned up still in his riding clothes with a rakish look. “You don’t mind, do you?” he asked as they got into the Ferrari she’d seen the night before. She had no experience with men like him, and far more with horses. Her romantic life had been nonexistent so far. She’d spent all of her time around stables and with her father, except for the boys she’d gone out with at university, but had never fallen in love with any of them. They just seemed young and foolish to her, and she didn’t flirt the way the other girls did, nor did she play games with them. She was simple and direct, and without artifice. She spoke to Anthony like one of the guys at the stables when they got to the pub, and he laughed after she talked about the racehorses she’d seen in the barn.
“Do you ever think of anything except horses?” he asked her after they ordered dinner and a bottle of wine.
“Not often,” she admitted with a smile. “I was a disaster in school. I rarely went to class at university. I begged to come home the entire time. All I ever wanted to do was train horses and work with my father. You don’t need a degree for that. I thought about vet school for a while, but it takes too many years. I’m basically lazy,” she said modestly, and he laughed.
“I doubt that. You’re just not an academic. Neither am I. My father studied physics and psychology at Oxford. I don’t know how he wound up in a horse barn. He can quote Shakespeare for hours. He says he wanted to be an actor. He’s a Renaissance man.”
“And what about you? What are you passionate about?” she asked. She had a feeling it wasn’t horses, although he had been around them all his life because of his father. But it wasn’t a love affair for him. It seemed more like something to do between parties.
“I just invested in a nightclub with a group of friends. It’s a lot of fun. I like people more than horses, and women in particular.” He gave her a look that was meant to melt her heart, or her knickers, but it didn’t. “I’d like to own a restaurant one day. Or a small hotel, maybe in the South of France. I lived in Paris for a year. It was a fantastic experience. I’d like to live there again one day.”
“I’ve never been,” she said innocently. She hadn’t been anywhere, although that was about to change in her new life. Until then, she had spent most of her life in Kent on the Markham estate, and Liverpool where she went to college. “I’d like to go to the States one day. It seems so exciting.” There was something about her openness to new experiences which touched even him. She was very young, and seemed even younger than her years. There was an Alice in Wonderland quality to her, which was accentuated by her girlish looks and tiny size, and at the same time there was something very old and wise in her eyes.
She was an odd mix of naïveté and experience. She was different from the women he knew. They all seemed so jaded and sophisticated compared to her. He liked the childlike quality about her, much to his own surprise. She had a lot of growing up to do, and a lot of the world to see. “I’ve been thinking about going to Australia to race there. And I’d like to see the Kentucky Derby one day.”
“I went with my father once. We had a horse in the race. He didn’t win though. Kentucky is an odd place. We bought a horse there. I like New York better.” America was a mystery to her, as was his way of life. He had mentioned that he was thirty years old, and the difference in their ages and life experience was enormous. He had gone to Eton and Cambridge, had traveled extensively, and moved in a fast crowd.