The Silver Horse Read Online Free PDF Page B

said, surprised. ‘I thought the Lord Protector couldn’t get enough of your horses.’
    â€˜He can’t. The only problem is, half the time we don’t get paid for them. The Roundheads just requisition them, for God and country, they say, or else they pay us a down payment and give us a deed promising the rest later. And because horseracing is illegal now, we can’t even hustle up some money that way. Times are tough for everyone, and we’re feeling the bite just like everyone else.’
    â€˜I see,’ Luka said. He did not speak for some time after, thinking things through. He was remembering the night of the betrothal, and how all the Hearne women had been heavy with jewellery, with bright scarves and skirts, and how the men had brought out fine wines and talked expansively of the good times they were enjoying with the Lord Protector’s favour. Had it been all talk, he wondered, to pique the Finch family’spride and make sure they offered a good dowry for Beatrice? If so, it had worked. Jacob had been determined not to sell Beatrice cheap, and it was partly because of their need to fulfil their dowry promise that they had gone to Kingston-Upon-Thames in the first place.
    â€˜Don’t get me wrong,’ Sebastien said. ‘We haven’t had any trouble of the other kind thanks to the Lord Protector’s interest. We haven’t been stoned or chased with dogs for a long time. People know our horses are good. Too good sometimes! Cromwell took my dad’s best mare last summer, and has already had a foal from her, we’ve heard.’
    â€˜The Roundheads took Emilia’s mother’s mare too,’ Luka said. ‘And didn’t give us a penny.’
    â€˜May they pay for their shame,’ Sebastien said, a ritual curse of the gypsies.
    Luka nodded, feeling oddly comforted.
    All the while they had been talking, they had been walking along the top of the Downs. Nowthey saw the lights of the town down in the valley, and Sebastien turned and began to lead the way down the steep slope.
    Luka hung back. ‘Where are we going?’
    â€˜To town,’ Sebastien said. ‘The night before the race, we slip down to the inns and give the wink to a few of the locals. They know what it means when we gypsies are in town! It means there’ll be more of a crowd for the race tomorrow, and better odds offered.’
    â€˜Isn’t it a bit of a risk?’ Luka said.
    â€˜In case the constables get to hear of it? Well, maybe somewhere like Kingston, where they’re all blue-nosed Puritans, but down in Epsom they like a drink and a gamble as much as the next man.’
    Luka hesitated. ‘I don’t know.’
    â€˜You’re not worried that the constables from Kingston are still after you, are you? They’d have turned back as soon as they reached the parish bounds, I promise you. They’ve got other thingsto worry about other than a snotty-nosed gypsy boy.’
    â€˜I’m not snotty-nosed,’ Luka said indignantly.
    â€˜Only because it’s summer.’
    â€˜Well, everyone’s snotty-nosed in winter,’ Luka said, following Sebastien down the track.
    â€˜Speak for yourself.’
    â€˜I guess you never get lice or fleas either.’
    â€˜Certainly not. But then I don’t hang around with bears or monkeys.’
    â€˜Zizi doesn’t have fleas!’ Luka said indignantly. Then he grinned. ‘I can’t swear for Sweetheart, though,’ he admitted. ‘She scratches a lot.’
    â€˜It must’ve been fun growing up with a pet bear,’ Sebastien said.
    â€˜She’s a funny old thing,’ Luka said. ‘My uncle Ruben has had her since she was a cub. I don’t know what I’m going to do with her. She makes us so conspicuous. I know you say the constables will have given up the chase, but that cold pig of aman, he’s out to get us, I know he is. As long as we’ve got