Page 87 of The Trouble with Anna

“My fault!” Marby yelped. “How is it my fault? You said Anna would run against any lord in London. Hartley’s a lord! He came back to London! How was I to know you didn’t meanhim?”

“Hartley wasn’t in London at the time we made the—oh, never mind!” Charlotte spun on Anna. “There’s no getting out of it. You’ll simply have to win.”

“He’s ridingEclipse, Charlotte.Eclipse!”

Charlotte looked at her blankly.

“Eclipse! Out of the Darley Arabian?” Anna thought she might be sick.

“Am I meant to know the name of every horse in England?”

“For heaven’s sake! The Darley Arabian is only one of the three founding stallions of—” Anna stopped midsentence.

Her face collapsed and her hopes fell with it. She’d been so proud and stupid.

So vastly stupid.

“You don’t understand. Eclipse has never lost a race. I could beat Hartley, if our mounts were evenly matched. At least, I think I could. He’s more of a trainer than a jockey, you see—”

“But I thought Archer—”

“Archer and Eclipse are different ages. They’ve never raced head to head. Hartley must have brought him down from Newmarket, just as I did with Archer. The hindquarters on that horse—I’ve never seen the like! And the way he—”

“Anna! Get hold of yourself.”

“All our work, all the money! I’ve lost it.”

Charlotte grabbed Anna’s shoulders and shook her. “Anna Reston! I have not been forced to listen to you blather on about oats, and bridles, and twelve years’ worth of excruciating equine genealogy, just to watch—”

Anna’s stomach heaved. “We’ll lose two thousand pounds. Oh dear lord, I’m going to be si—”

“I couldn’t give a damn about the money!” Charlotte yelled. The sentiment seemed to surprise her, because she paused briefly and collected herself. “Well, of course I give a damn about the money.” She shook Anna again, hard enough to snap her teeth together. “The point is, you musttry! If you lose, so be it. But you will not fall apart, so help me god. You cannot give up without afight!”

The words seemed to penetrate Anna’s skull, or perhaps the violent shaking had jolted her awake. “Oh, all right!”

She yanked herself away and stalked over to take Archer’s bridle. William, who had been eavesdropping madly, developed a sudden fascination with the patch of dirt he was standing on.

Anna rested her forehead against Archer’s neck, closed her eyes, and let herself take in the deeply comforting smell of horse sweat.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.The words buzzed loud in her head, but they weren’t helpful, so she pushed them aside. Anna made herself open her eyes and look at Eclipse, who had come around the curve and was now being walked up and down the track a short distance ahead.

He was an unassuming horse, no beauty. There was nothing threatening about him, not at first glance. But Anna had seen him run before and it was as if his strange, rather awkward shape only made sense once he hit the track, that big head carried low and flat, those shambling legs skimming long and straight and impossibly fast over the ground. When Eclipse crossed the finish well aheadof the rest of the field, the crowd had erupted with cheers, but Anna’s eyes had pricked with tears. She had no defense against the clean, pure beauty of that run. It was like seeing the mark of God in the motion of a horse.

Her grandfather had seen it too. He’d given her a rough pat on her shoulder and walked away, but they’d both known. Eclipse was the horse of the century.

Just not her horse.

William handed Anna her crop and cap. “Shall I give you a leg up, my lady?”

Anna buckled the chin strap, stepped into William’s cupped hands, and let him toss her gently into the saddle. She clicked Archer into a sharp walk, William jogging beside them.

“What do you reckon, William?” She jerked her chin toward Eclipse. “Weaknesses?”

William grimaced. “Temperament, maybe. He’s a tetchy bastard.”

That was in full evidence already. While Archer preened along under the calls of the crowd and his ears twitched to catch every compliment, Eclipse kept his head low and swaying, like a snake’s. His ears were flat with warning, and with every few steps forward, he skittered one step sideways, away from the press at the rails.

Anna shook her head. “Some horses run better angry.”

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