Page 15 of Miss Flibbertigibbet and the Barbarian
He considered that answer; it only made him even more curious.
Addie had determined that, given she was unlikely to see Nicholas Cynster after today, her best way forward was to keep him at a distance. She certainly didn’t want to engage in a discussion of the whys and wherefores of her alter ego, and she now had confirmation that he had heard of Miss Flibbertigibbet and knew that lady was her.
Hoping to avoid any further exchange on that subject, she lengthened her stride.
The Barbarian’s paddock lay just ahead. She reached the gate, opened it, and walked into the grassy field. Searching all around for the large bay horse, she strode toward the middle of the rectangular enclosure.
No glossy brown hide met her eyes.
Halting and putting her hands on her hips, she methodically scanned the field, slowly turning in a circle to take in every corner.
Confusion welled. She frowned. There were a few trees, but unless the horse had tucked himself behind them and even then…
She whistled. The stallion always came when she whistled.
But no welcoming whinny or drum of hooves eventuated.
Slowly, she turned, scanning again as Nicholas Cynster came to stand beside her. “Where is he?” She looked up and met Nicholas’s brown eyes.
His jaw was tight, his expression impassive. “Let’s quarter the field in case he’s down.”
The grass was long enough that it was just possible the horse might lie concealed…
She didn’t ask why the horse would be lying down, but promptly set off for one corner, while Nicholas strode in the opposite direction.
It didn’t take long to confirm that the horse wasn’t in the paddock.
They met again at the upper gate.
That Adriana’s mystification was genuine was writ large in her face. “Perhaps,” Nicholas suggested, sensing her rising panic, “your stablemen took the horse in. They might have heard you were arranging to sell him and thought to be helpful.”
Her features eased, but her frown remained. “I didn’t order it, and nor did Papa, but it’s possible Merriweather—our butler—assumed from our conversation over the luncheon table that the horse ought to be brought up.” Her chin firmed, and she nodded. “That must be it.”
They left the paddock and strode quickly back to the stable.
Neither spoke, but both scanned the fields as they went.
They reached the stable without sighting the horse.
Alerted by their heels ringing on the cobbles, the head stableman came out.
Adriana pounced, demanding to know if The Barbarian had been brought up to the yard.
It was instantly apparent that the head stableman knew no more than they. He called his men together, and questions flew, but not one of them had seen the horse since that morning, when Adriana and her groom had left the stallion cropping grass in his paddock.
When, plainly worried, Adriana turned to Nicholas, he met her gaze. “The horse couldn’t have got out of that paddock unaided.” He’d seen and approved of the latches on the gates. “He hasn’t wandered off by himself.”
She blinked, then resolution filled her eyes. “You’re right.” She swung to face the stablemen. “Someone has stolen The Barbarian. We need to mount a search.”
When she glanced at him, Nicholas nodded encouragingly. “He’s big and difficult to miss. Someone will have seen him, but you’ll need to act quickly.”
She drew breath and started issuing orders, which the men, Nicholas noted, were ready and willing to instantly obey. He supported her tack of covering all the estate’s fields first. The estate’s workers were most likely to have noted the big horse if they’d spotted him, and the paddock from which he’d been taken was more or less central within the large estate.
He shifted closer and, for her ears alone, murmured, “You need to cover all the compass points. Don’t make any assumptions as to which way they might have gone. And you should put as many men as you can muster out there now. Once you have a sighting, you can narrow the search, but to begin with, cast your net wide.”
She flung him a swift glance, then did as he’d suggested, sending a stable lad running to the house to summon every possible spare male and another to fetch the gardeners.
Nicholas didn’t know the area well enough to help craft the search, but it was obvious that Adriana did and equally obvious that every man there was entirely amenable to following her dictates.
