Before he’d left Newmarket, Nicholas had paid a visit to his mother’s cousin, Dillon Caxton, currently the Keeper of the Breeding Register and the Stud Book, the official tomes of the Jockey Club that effectively ruled the breeding and racing of Thoroughbred horses in England. From those registers, Nicholas had gleaned a technical description of The Barbarian and learned of his background, as far as it was known.
Young Gillies glanced at him. “You said his last registration was some time back.”
Nicholas nodded. “More than five years ago. Then The Barbarian disappeared from the register. The theory is that he was sold, then sold again before being reregistered, and the new owner wasn’t interested enough to notify the Jockey Club and renew the registration.”
Young Gillies’s eyes had returned to the prime horseflesh currently kicking up his heels before them. “So how old is he then? Eight?”
“He’s turned nine years old.”
“Perfect for breeding, then.”
“Indeed.” Nicholas drank in the horse’s lines. “The description for a renewed registration will need to be significantly updated.”
They continued to study the horse, which finally grew bored with them and settled to crop grass.
Young Gillies sighed. “He really is a magnificent beast. Your sister was right. We definitely want him.”
Nicholas nodded. “We do.” Having seen the horse, he no longer harbored the slightest doubt. “Now, I just have to work out the right offer to tempt the earl.”
He was already calculating. He had to wonder what it would take to get past the dragon guarding the earl’s door.
“Hsst!” Young Gillies ducked and tugged at Nicholas’s sleeve. “Someone’s coming.”
Nicholas ducked, too. Crouching beside Young Gillies, he peered through the hedge.
On the other side of the paddock—the side closer to the house and stable—a groom carrying a side-saddle and leading an already saddled hack swung open a gate and held it for a slender female figure.
Garbed in a teal riding habit with her face shaded by the brim of a fashionable shako, the lady waited for the groom to shut the gate and tie his horse to the rail, then she led him down the paddock toward the stallion. In her gloved hand, she carried a quirt and a bridle and bit.
The Barbarian raised his huge head and watched the pair approach.
Nicholas expected some dramatics, but surprisingly, the horse took a step forward to eagerly greet the lady, who, now she was closer, Nicholas confirmed was Lady Adriana Sommerville.
She smiled, raised a hand, ran her palm down the horse’s long nose, and crooned something that the big horse clearly considered his due while she expertly fitted the bridle to his big head. The massive beast shook out his mane, but otherwise stood calmly, allowing the groom to place the side-saddle on his back and secure the strap.
When the groom nodded his satisfaction and stepped back, Lady Adriana led the horse to a stile farther along the hedge behind which Nicholas and Young Gillies were hiding.
Having noticed a gate in the hedge beyond the stile, even farther from their position, and guessing that Lady Adriana would use that exit to leave the paddock and ride out across her father’s fields, Nicholas tweaked Young Gillies’s sleeve. When the groom glanced his way, Nicholas tipped his head along the right of way, then, still crouching so as not to be seen, led the way back to their mounts.
Halfway there, an overhanging tree and a bend in the track hid them from those in the stallion’s paddock. Nicholas straightened and strode quickly for his horse.
* * *
As Lady Adriana had waited for her groom to return to his horse and mount before leading the way out of the paddock, Nicholas and Young Gillies soon had the pair in their sights.
At first, Nicholas had wondered at the wisdom of a female—a not-terribly-strong-looking female at that—riding such a powerful horse, but then images of his mother and of Pru rose in his mind, and he could all but hear them telling him not to be stupid.
An excellent rider could manage any well-broken horse.
That certainly seemed to be the case with Lady Adriana and The Barbarian. They flowed over the sward in an effortless canter, the big horse’s stride relaxed and graceful. The teal-clad figure on his back moved smoothly with each stride, her long rippling train a bright splash of color against the horse’s gleaming hide.
Her groom increasingly lagged behind.
Nicholas caught Young Gillies’s eye, nodded toward the other groom, then tapped his heels to Tamerlane’s sides. The big gray responded with a surge of speed that carried Nicholas past the startled groom, who was immediately distracted by Young Gillies coming up on his other side.
A few more paces and Nicholas saw Lady Adriana, still some way ahead, tap The Barbarian’s shoulder with her quirt. Obediently, the stallion lengthened his stride and shifted into a ground-eating gallop.
Whether she’d realized Nicholas was approaching, he couldn’t have said, but he and Tamerlane were more than up to the challenge.
