Page 79 of Her Tempting Traitor
Cassian watched his son reverently pull the smoldering lace from the lantern. The lad waved it around the elephant’s face, until the beast lifted her trunk to swat away the smokey disturbance.
“Excellent,” Gabby whispered, face full of concentration. “Keep leaning, Cassian.”
He complied, and watched the elephant inhale deeply. Once. Twice. The smoke was around her trunk and mouth now. He felt her muscles tense, and then…
She sneezed.
An immense sneeze that surprised Gus enough to send him stumbling backwards.
Another sneeze.
A third.
The movement caused Cassian to stumble forward, to fall heavily against the elephant’s side.
And when she sneezed a fourth time, she released a massive…well, there really was no word for it.
The poor animal released a colossal fart.
Then another.
He glanced over to see Gabby’s look of concentration as she pressed the animal’s side, so he pressed harder as well. Poor Elizabeth farted again, the sound reverberating around the dark space, then rolled to her feet.
When she moved, both Cassian and Gabby lost their balance and stumbled forward. He grabbed the woman and rolled to the side, away from the huge mammal’s dinner-plate-sized feet. They ended up splayed in the hay, her on top of him, and Cassian’s shoulder most definitely resting in…oh, excellent. A pile of elephant dung.
“It worked,” Gabby announced with a tired smile. “Right, no more oats for her.”
“What worked?” He wasn’t really paying attention to her words, or the squelchy mass beneath him; nay, he was too mesmerized by her smile.
“The food Sir Dickie had been feeding her has likely caused a bad build-up of gas. If her previous owner fed her the same thing, the poor dear’s likely been suffering for years, and her last owner foisted her off with a lie about being with calf. And all this time, thinking she is pregnant, Sir Dickie has been making it worse.”
“In what way?” Cassian whispered, trying to ignore the dung. Was it in his hair? It was in his hair, wasn’t it?
“By forcing her to rest and be sedentary, she did not have the opportunity to walk off the gas. By feeding her mash, they were worsening the gas. She has had long-term colic and indigestion for months, poor thing. I last saw a case this bad?—”
“Ye’re no’ a doctor’s sister, are ye, Gabby?”
She blinked down at him. “What?”
How had it taken him so long to figure this out? Grinning at himself, he ran his hand up her spine. “Hunter is a shite animal doctor.”
Gabby’s cheeks pinked, but she didn’t look away. “That is because he is not a veterinarian.”
“But ye are, are ye no’?”
Gus threw himself down at Cassian’s side. “Elizabeth is eating more hay from the trench, Gabby. And aye, Da, shehasbeen trained. She went to all the best veterinary schools, but since she’s a girl they won’t give her the fancy bit of paper, so she can’t be an actual veterinarian!”
Cassian raised his brows at the lovely and rather disheveled woman looming over him. “Ye didnae think Sir Dickie would believe ye were the veterinary doctor? So ye set yer brother up as the expert, the puir bastard?”
She snorted softly. “Sir Dickie is a good-hearted man with old-fashioned sensibilities. He would not even allow me tostudythe elephant.” She tipped her head toward Gus. “Move the cabbages out of her reach, please. She needs hay and grasses.”
“Got it!” the lad grinned, hastening away. How much dung was inhishair?
“Ye’re right,” Cassian murmured. “Uncle Dickie likely would have turned ye away if ye’d shown up and announcedyewere the expert.”
“Yes.” She sighed. “I have faced a lifetime of attitudes from men like him. He is not mean-spirited about it, he just doesnot realize the possibilities. I knew I was coming to Inverlochy Castle to solve two different problems. I did not want to have to tackle his misogyny as well.”
Cassian grinned, his hold on her tightening. “And now?”
