Francesca crept closer to the doorway, careful to step around each creaky floor board. She gripped the doorknob, turning it soundlessly. After all, escape had been her plan for the day as well. The crisp morning air and vast Hampshire countryside were waiting for her. Taking a deep breath in anticipation of her freedom, Francesca threw open the door and found herself staring straight at her father’s scowling face.
Four
“Good morning, Daddy.” Francesca resisted the impulse to slam the door and run back to her room. Instead she gave her father a falsely bright smile and kissed his smoothly shaved cheek.
“Good morning, yourself, young lady.”
Young lady? His use of that address didn’t bode well. Neither did the vein popping out on his forehead.
“Do you know where I’ve been?” His voice rose sharply, and Francesca reached back and clicked the door shut. If her mother heard his bellowing, Francesca would have to deal with two dragons instead of one.
“I imagine you’ve been to the stables.” Francesca tried to keep her tone cheerful, innocent. But it wasn’t easy with her father’s already red face turning that distressing shade of mulberry.
“Correct. And do you happen to know what I found there?” He tugged at his cravat, and she saw the veins in his neck stood out too.
“Thunder?” Francesca dislodged a sparkling white pebble from the walk with her boot and scooted it around.
“If Thunder is the name of that ragged colt cowering in the back stall, then you are correct again.”
Francesca glanced in the direction of the stables. “Cowering? You didn’t scare him did you, Daddy? He’s very sensitive right now.”
“By God!” Her father’s voice exploded, and the gray hair at his temples seemed white compared to his purple face. “Am I now to concern myself with whether or not I’ve damaged the feelings of ahorse?”
“Daddy, I didn’t mean—”
“I told you last week,no more animals!” He pointed an accusatory finger at her. “None. Not one.”
“I know, but—”
“And this morning I find Shepherd in the back of my stables coaxing an ugly colt—”
Francesca jerked her chin up. “Thunder isnotugly!”
“—that looks suspiciously like Skerrit’s ugly colt into eating a handful of carrots.”
“Did he eat them?”
