Unbefitting a Lady Read Online Free PDF Page A

brother Edward. Edward was off fighting Napoleon
but Troubadour had been left home. One night around the fourteenth, he started
acting all crazy-like in his stall, kicking, stomping. He wouldn’t eat. No one
could get near him except Miss Phaedra. She sat with him for hours getting him
to calm down. Mind you, there was no one here. All four of the boys were at war.
It was just Lady Phaedra and Lady Kate and the duke, of course. When Lady Kate
came out to see her, Lady Phaedra was crying something fierce. She told Lady
Kate Troubadour was dying and that she feared young Lord Edward was dead. Before
sunrise, Troubadour lay down in his stall and refused to get up. A month later,
word reached us that Lord Edward had fallen at Waterloo, the very night
Troubadour died.’ Anderson tapped his head with his finger. ‘She knows them,
knows what’s in their heads.’
    Bram nodded. He’d heard stories about horses that could sense
their masters’ distress. He’d never heard of anything quite as drastic as
Anderson’s tale. So, Lady Phaedra talked to horses and read their minds. Well,
he’d see about that for himself, but it was clear Tom Anderson believed it in
full.
    They passed a companionable evening discussing the horses and
their workout needs. There was the spirited mare the eldest daughter, Kate, had
left behind when she’d gone to America not long ago. There were the general
horses kept for guests, not that there’d been many guests outside of family in
recent months. There was Giles Montague’s black beast of a stallion, Genghis,
nearly as dark as Warbourne. And there was the elegant chestnut thoroughbred,
Merlin, Lord Jamie’s horse.
    ‘Lord Jamie?’ He quirked his eyebrow in question. Yet another
younger brother, perhaps? How big was this family? Bram was beginning to
wonder.
    ‘Lord Jamie is the eldest. But he went to war too, and didn’t
come home. Only Lord Giles and Lord Harry returned.’ Anderson shook his head.
‘It’s been a bad business all around for the family. Lord Giles wanted to be a
career military man. He never wanted to be the heir, never was jealous of Lord
Jamie. But it wasn’t to be.’
    ‘He died too?’ Bram asked quietly. He knew several families in
London who’d lost loved ones thanks to Napoleon. Families both rich and poor
alike had lost sons.
    Anderson shrugged, a light twinkling in his old blue eyes.
‘Don’t know. That’s a whole other kettle of fish brewing up at the house these
days. Lord Giles is pretty closemouthed about it, as he should be. But there was
no body ever recovered and then last fall this woman shows up with a little ’un
just about the right age claiming she’s Lord Jamie’s wife. She’s living at the
Dower House. The family is trying to do right by her, although the whole thing
seems off to me.’
    ‘Why?’
    Anderson jerked his head the general direction of the horse
stalls. ‘Merlin’s still alive. He and Lord Jamie were as close as a horse and
human can be, just like Edward and Troubadour,’ Tom Anderson answered
matter-of-factly, as if everyone bought into folklore without question.
    Bram refrained from comment. He supposed stranger things had
happened. When he’d driven through the gates of Castonbury today, it had looked
normal enough—the manicured grounds, the outbuildings in decent repair, the
stables immaculate. It had looked better than
normal. From the outside, one would never guess the turmoil that simmered
beneath the surface. What exactly had he let himself in for? Whatever it was, it
certainly wasn’t ‘boring.’ All fears of ennui had been effectively banished.
    * * *
    Phaedra rose early and dressed quickly in breeches and a
loose shirt. Rising early was imperative if she wanted to escape the eagle eye
of Aunt Wilhelmina. She did not approve of Phaedra roaming the estate in
breeches nor did the redoubtable lady approve of rising before ten in the
morning. Neither of which was surprising. Aunt Wilhelmina spent most of her