Page 7 of The Royal Governess
“To the c-castle. That big building. Over there.” How many castles were there around here?
A chilly breeze made me pull on my jacket. “Castle.” I said again, making all kinds of motions with my hands to indicate the height and breadth of the building. Time to get a move on. Lexi would be looking for me.
Were these two laughing at me? The dark horse nuzzled one of my hands and I jumped, backing away.
“Diablo thinks you have food.” The younger man patted the horse’s neck. The horse was huge, all powerful muscles and strong legs––kind of like the stable boy.
Shrugging, chuckled. “No food. Just bugs.”
The men exchanged a look. Then, with a low chuckle, the stable boy mounted the horse in one liquid movement that made it look so easy. Maybe this horse thing wouldn’t be that hard after all. “Up. Yes?”
When he extended an arm, my eyes went to the corded muscles on his forearm. Yep, he’d definitely been doing lots of mucking out stalls.
“Well, all right. Thank you.” What choice did I have? He seemed to know where he was going.
“Your arm,” he said again. No time to ponder. I had to get back to the castle. When I gripped his arm, he somehow swept me up.
“Ooof.” I landed on my stomach across the rear end of the beast. This felt like my first belly flop at the Gordon Park pool. As if this were happening in slow motion, I slid off the horse’s rump. My stomach hurt with a dull ache and I felt nauseated. Diablo snuffled and the stable boy seemed to think this was funny.
“No, no,” he said between chortles at my expense. “You must put your legs like…this.” And he sketched a horseshoe in the air.
Well, now I felt like a total numbskull. Thank goodness Lexi wasn’t here to see this debacle.
From his towering height, he seemed to reconsider, looking at the back of the horse. “A better way.” Sliding back, he patted the seat in front of him.
Ohno–ohno–ohno.
The arm came down again. What could I do? I extended my left arm and somehow he swirled me up, swinging my legs to the left. Facing the front, I didn’t miss the crooked grin on the older man’s face. His left arm around me, the stable boy held the reins in his other hand. One tightening of those legs and Diablo took off.
Not knowing where to put my own hands, I grabbed the pommel at the front of the saddle and hoped for the best. “Do you know the way?”
“Oh, yes.” He clucked to the horse.
I was starting to relax until I felt him sniffing my hair.
“What are you doing?” I tried to turn around but the horse picked up speed.
“Your shampoo is very nice.”
“Target. I got it on sale.”
“The target,” he murmured.
“In the States. Target. It’s a big box store.”
“Big box, huh?” His body was warm on my back and I could feel his breath on my neck. I probably hadn’t been this close to a man since my divorce. Was I going to be running into this guy often? Well, I did have to check out the stable and soon.
Thank goodness, we weren’t that far from the castle. From where I sat, I could see it towering above the trees. Diablo’s hooves clattered on the stones as we rode up. Those men in red appeared again. I guess they quickly sized things up because one of them ran for a little stool. But by the time it arrived, I’d somehow slid down.
“Thank you,” I called out as my rescuer headed off, probably going back to the stables.
When I reached my room, a note on the table told me that dinner would be served at eight. To my relief an ancient clock above the mantle of the fireplace seemed to work. Somehow I’d lost my phone. Not even here a day and I could not find it.
After checking with Lexi, I delighted in a hot shower and passed out on the bed for a short nap. When I woke up, I glanced at the clock and froze. Ten minutes past eight! How had this happened? Sweeping my hair into a bun, I quickly dressed and went to get Lexi.
“My phone is gone,” she announced when she opened the door.
“Are you sure?” I didn’t want to admit that mine was missing too. “We’re late. Why didn’t you wake me up?” One glance above her fireplace told me Lexi also had an antique clock which seemed to be working.
