Page 492 of From Rakes to Riches

Actually, Hannibal wasn’t yet viewed thusly, but he would be.

Gemma was determined.

One person, however, had noticed what she’d been doing every morning—Wilson. Like her, the man was an early riser, and he’d seen her returning Hannibal to his box three days ago—the day the colt had allowed her to place a saddle on his back. Wilson would’ve noted it, and she suspected that was why hewas permitting her to proceed. A saddle on Hannibal’s back was the right sort of progress. It spoke to the trust she’d built with the animal.

And today she would earn more.

Today was the day she would mount this splendid Thoroughbred. Not in conquest. That was where so many owners and jockeys got it wrong. They wanted to break and conquer the animal to get it to do their bidding. But that sort of brutish handling wasn’t only unnecessary; it ran counter to what they were attempting to achieve.

Nay, it was about trust. Gain a horse’s trust—and honor that trust—and he would walk through fire for his master.

Gemma led Hannibal into the paddock and immediately saw they weren’t alone. On the far end were Lady Artemis and her filly, Dido. The close bond those two shared was apparent for anyone to see. Dido was a sweet goer, that was for sure. A reflection of her owner, too, though Gemma had only seen Lady Artemis around the stables from a distance. A high-born lady wouldn’t have noticed a lowly stable lad like Gem.

Gemma always thought well of an owner with a sweet-natured horse.

And the opposite of an owner when the opposite was true.

Which put her in two minds about Rakesley. The duke ran an indisputably good stable. Yet…he seemed single-mindedly intent on getting what he wanted out of Hannibal.

Which Gemma didn’t like.

Hannibal had boundaries that needed to be respected and addressed before he could be the racehorse he’d been bred to be.

“Are you the lad called Gem?” Lady Artemis called out.

Gemma glanced up from beneath the warped brim of her slouch hat and found the lady watching her expectantly. She couldn’t very well ignore the question, but, oh, how she wantedto. No good could come from “Gem” conversing with the duke’s sister.

“Aye,” she mumbled, gaze returned to the tips of her brown boots.

When the silence held for a few heartbeats longer than strictly necessary, Gemma risked another glance at Lady Artemis, who was now walking over with Dido. “Does my brother know you’ve been taking Hannibal out in the early mornings?”

“Can’t say,” was all Gemma mumbled. She’d been keeping her speech short and to the point since her blow-up at Rakesley a week ago. If she was found out as a woman, she was done for.

And she wasn’t ready to be done for. She hadn’t yet earned her fifty pounds.

There was also Hannibal to consider.

He needed her.

A smile entered Lady Artemis’s deep brown eyes. Eyes so similar to her brother’s. But where his were hard and unfathomable, hers were soft and kind. “Your secret is safe with me, Gem. You’ve done wonders for Hannibal already. You have a rare gift if you can achieve harmony with that beast,” she finished on a laugh.

Though Lady Artemis had spoken the words with humor rather than cruelty, Gemma’s hackles couldn’t help rising—and she couldn’t help speaking a bit of her mind. “That’s where we think wrongly about horses. When they suffer a malady of the body, we do all we can to mend it. But when it’s a malady of the mind, we call the horsesbeastsand dismiss them as worthless.”

Lady Artemis canted her head to the side as she listened, her gaze narrowed not on Hannibal but on…Gem.

Oh, why had she opened her mouth?

“And you see all that?” asked Lady Artemis, slowly, an impressed smile spreading across her face. “You have the patience and the ability to heal such a malady, don’t you, Gem?”

Gemma’s gaze returned to her feet, a blush surely heating her cheeks. She’d never known what to do with compliments. “I wouldn’t want to overstate my abilities.”

“Whyever not?” laughed Lady Artemis. “Don’t hide your candle under a bushel.Isn’t that how it goes?” She wasn’t finished. “Is that your mission, Gem? To help horses who are damaged in the mind?”

“Aye,” muttered Gemma. Lady Artemis was quite the inquisitive lady.

Too inquisitive for Gemma’s comfort.

Lady Artemis’s eyes suddenly lit up. “Oh, I know,” she exclaimed. “You could create a horse sanctuary.”

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