Joan Wolf Read Online Free PDF

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    For David, too, life had changed irrevocably. At fifteen he went to work fulltime for the Marquis. His aunt's health was failing and it had been some years since Mr. Althorpe had been able to teach him anything David considered worthwhile. His aunt had bitterly opposed David's decision to become a stablehand. She had cherished secretly a hope that he would become a lawyer, like her father.
    "There isn't money enough, Tante Heloise,” David had said unarguably. “And besides, I shouldn't like it. I like working with horses. It's what I'm good at."
    He was very good at it. In the spring of David's sixteenth year his aunt died and Tuft approached the Marquis on his behalf. “I'd like to train David to take my place, my lord,” the old head groom said gruffly.
    The Marquis had looked startled. “Take your place, Tuft? What do you mean?"
    "I mean, my lord, that I'm getting old. I've saved my money and I'd like to retire in a few years. My sister has a nice cottage in Sussex, by the sea. She wants me to come and live with her."
    The Marquis stared at the face of his faithful retainer and realized with a shock that Tuft was indeed old. It didn't seem possible. Tuft had run the stables ever since the Marquis was a child; Heathfield without him was unthinkable. He cleared his throat. “You will have a handsome pension, Tuft, whenever you choose to leave. But this idea of training David! He is only a boy. Far too young for such a responsibility."
    "David trained Dolphin, my lord,” Tuft said simply.
    The Marquis looked thunderstruck. “What?"
    "Aye, my lord. I let him handle the whole program. He came to me once or twice with questions, but the credit for Dolphin must go to David.” Dolphin was the Marquis's prime three-year-old, bred at Heathfield. He had won the Guineas at the Newmarket meeting two weeks ago.
    "I can't believe it,” the Marquis said slowly.
    "It's true, my lord. The boy has a sixth sense about horses. I've never seen anything quite like it. It's as if he knows what they're feeling. I used to be sorry that he's grown so tall because it limits his uses as a rider. He is a very fine rider; but he will be a genius as a trainer."
    "Will the grooms take orders from a sixteen-year-old boy?"
    "The men will do anything for him. They like him, but they also respect him. They see the same thing in him that I do."
    "I see,” the Marquis said slowly. And so David Chance, age sixteen, became the heir-apparent to the top racing stud in England.
    * * * *
    That summer was the last one of the old Jane-and-David relationship. And even then, there were changes. David, who had always lunched with Jane at Heathfield during her holidays, now insisted on eating at his own cottage. He lived alone since his aunt had died, and Mrs. Copley, who had worked for Mlle. Dumont for years, continued to come every day to clean and to cook his dinner. Breakfast and lunch he did for himself.
    During that summer Jane took to going home with David for lunch. Privately, she felt it was much more comfortable since Mlle. Dumont was no longer there. At first, she would watch while David cooked; later, she would often do the meal herself.
    David's scruples about coming to Heathfield had their origins in one main factor. As children he and Jane had always had their meals in the nursery; it was only this year that Jane had been allowed to dine downstairs. Eating with Jane was one thing, David felt, but eating in the Marquis's dining room was quite another. “It wouldn't be proper,” he told Jane stubbornly.
    Jane thought he was being ridiculous, but since she liked going to David's cottage better than eating under the eye of Miss Kilkelly in the nursery or McAllister, the Heathfield butler, in the dining room, she didn't pursue the point. On the whole she enjoyed her new status. Her Uncle Edward was much more interesting to talk to than Miss Kilkelly.
    The Marquis enjoyed the change as well. She didn't come down when there was company, but she was