Page 20 of Miss Flibbertigibbet and the Barbarian
“No, of course not,” Addie hurried to reassure him. This was not the moment she would have picked for him to suddenly lose his mental way. “But you needn’t worry. We’ll have a sighting soon, and we’ll be hot on his heels. We’ll get The Barbarian back.”
Her mother blinked again. “We?” Her gaze traveled to Nicholas. “Are we to take it you intend to assist, Mr. Cynster?”
“Indeed. I and my man will accompany Lady Adriana and her people. We’ve organized a group with all the necessary skills.” Nicholas glanced at Adriana. “Lady Adriana’s maid is included in the company. Along with the others chosen, she’s holding herself ready to depart at a moment’s notice, as are her ladyship and I.”
Addie watched relief seep into her parents’ expressions. No matter what she felt about Nicholas accompanying her, for that alone, she would accept his presence without the slightest quibble.
Besides,a sly voice murmured in her head,this might be my chance to learn a thing or two about why I react to him as I do.
A clearing of a throat drew all eyes to the doorway, where Merriweather stood. Majestically, he announced, “Dinner is served, my lord. My ladies.”
“Thank you, Merriweather.” Her mother rose, bringing the rest of them to their feet. She smiled at Nicholas and gestured for him to walk with her. “Shall we?”
Nicholas promptly offered his arm, and with an approving smile, her mother laid her hand on his sleeve and led him to the dining room. Addie smiled warmly and accepted her father’s arm, and they fell in behind the other two.
As they crossed the hall, a clatter of feet on the stairs drew all attention to the three youngsters who came pelting down.
“Sorry!” Mortie sang. “We lost track of the time.”
The latter statement was delivered with the charming smile that invariably got him off the hook for all minor misdemeanors.
Sure enough, her mother smiled on him, as well as on Angie and Benjamin. “Well, in this case, you missed out on talking to Mr. Cynster in the drawing room and hearing the latest rather shocking news, but I’m sure you’ll catch up over the dinner table.”
Addie nearly groaned. She did roll her eyes; as if her siblings needed any encouragement to interrogate a guest.
Her father noticed her reaction and chuckled and patted her hand. “Never mind, my dear. And it will help pass the time.”
Apparently, she wasn’t hiding her impatience to be off after The Barbarian as well as she’d thought.
With her siblings clustering around Nicholas, on a wave of almost unsettling domesticity, she and her father followed the group into the dining room.
Nicholas slipped easily into the persona he routinely used to charm his elders and his juniors. Given his family, he had plenty of experience on which to call.
As an honored guest, he was seated in pride of place at the earl’s right hand, with Adriana opposite. Mortie sat beside Nicholas, while Benjamin, the youngest, sat beside Adriana, with Angela beside Benjamin, on her mother’s right. Most of the leaves had been removed from the table, allowing for comfortable conversations that included everyone there.
Once the first course had been served and the curiosity of the three youngsters over what shocking event had recently occurred had been satisfied, Nicholas concentrated on interacting with the earl.
In that, he was aided by the earl himself, who, frowning lightly, said, “I had assumed…well, I had heard that your brother…Toby, is it? That he was the head of the Cynster breeding stable.”
The countess looked up the table and caught Nicholas’s eye. “That is the case, is it not?”
Nicholas inclined his head. “Normally, Toby would have been the one to respond to the rumor that reached us. He would have come here to assess and make an offer for The Barbarian.” He smiled his most charming smile. “However, Toby is currently from home, so that task fell to me. While I routinely manage our racing stable, leaving the breeding stable to Toby’s oversight, I am in overall charge of the entire enterprise—all that the Cynster Stable encompasses—so in Toby’s absence, it fell to me to step in.”
“Ah, I see.” The earl nodded. “You’re the senior partner, so to speak.”
That was an odd yet accurate way to put it, and Nicholas inclined his head in agreement.
Glancing across the table, he noticed Adriana’s eyes had widened, although her gaze wasn’t on him but rather on her father.
Then the earl’s gaze, which had, Nicholas noticed, grown somewhat vague, sharpened, and he glanced at Nicholas.
“So, sir, once you catch up to them, how do you plan to wrest the horse from the blackguards who took him, heh?”
“We think,” Adriana rushed to say, “that it might well be that whoever took The Barbarian thinks he’s simply a good-looking horse. A riding horse.”
The earl looked confused, and Nicholas clarified, “There’s been no attempt to steal the horse’s papers, which Lady Adriana has shown me and which are safe and secure in your study. That the horse has been taken without those documents suggests that it’s not one of the known gangs who prey on Thoroughbred owners in order to supply illicit breeders. As I’ve explained to Lady Adriana, without his registration documents, The Barbarian is reduced to being simply a good-looking but temperamental stallion.”
Adriana glanced down the table at her mother and siblings. “I’ve alerted the staff to the need to ensure the documents remain safe”—she returned her gaze to the earl—“so you need have no fear on that score.”
