Page 11 of The Butterfly
Farther across the stable, he detected the low tones of Adam speaking with another one of the grooms. The two had set off an hour ago for a ride, and must have just returned.
“Yes,” she replied, resting her chin against the wood of the stall to watch as he brushed Cally’s tail. “Papa is leaving today … going to London on business, and he is to be gone for weeks.”
Niall clearly heard the relief and excitement in her voice, this girl who’d never truly had a father. While Lady Edith’s marriage had given Olivia protection, a home, and more money than she’d ever know what to do with, one thing it had never given her was a father. Oh, the earl provided for her in the way that a stepfather ought, but there was no warmth between them, no affection. It baffled Niall, who was hard-pressed to keep from smiling whenever Olivia was near. How could anyone not love her?
Between him and Adam, she was as loved as any little girl could be, as indulged and spoiled as all the other future debutantes. If she missed the presence of a mother she’d never really known, Olivia did not let on.
“Is that so?” he murmured, finishing Cally’s tail and reaching for his pouch of tools used for cleaning hooves and repairing shoes.
“Adam and I are going to the pond for a swim today. You know we can only do it when Papa is not about.”
He nodded, knowing how the earl frowned upon any behavior he thought unbecoming children of privilege. “Aye, then. Have fun.”
She giggled. “You’ll come with us, won’t you?”
“Of course he will,” Adam interjected, appearing at his sister’s side. Like Niall, he stood tall enough to see over the top of the stall, and unlike Olivia, did not need to perch on anything to peer inside.
Glancing up from the low stool he occupied while working on the hooves, Niall snorted. “If my da will let me.”
“He will,” Adam insisted, one of his lazy, affected shrugs lifting one shoulder.
Typical of young lords, he was well aware of the power he already wielded, even before coming into his title and inheritance. It never occurred to him that something he wanted could never be his. He simply did what he pleased, even when it vexed the earl, because he could. There existed few people who could tell him otherwise.
Adam did speak true. While his da did not like that he’d become so close to Adam, there was not much he could do about it. As long as Niall completed his work, as well as his chores at home, he was allowed to run off with his friend. The last thing Conall wanted was to anger the master’s son by denying him Niall’s company.
“It’ll have t’ be after I finish my chores,” he reminded them.
Olivia nodded, her smile brightening the dimness of the stable. “We will come after dinner.”
Perfect. By then, his father would have no reason to keep him from leaving.
“Aye, then,” he agreed. “Go, so I can finish. I’ll be ready.”
Adam urged Olivia down off her perch, and after chirping “good-bye” to him in her sweet voice, she followed him out of the stables.
Niall threw himself into his work, moving swiftly while remaining efficient, finishing all his duties well before his usual time. Conall frowned when he set off for their little cottage, but could not protest once he realized that Niall’s horses had all been tended to above and beyond the usual expectations. He had no choice but to let Niall go.
Running home, he made quick work of sweeping the cottage floor and fetching water for his maw to use for cooking dinner. He then went for more water to wash the dishes from their breakfast, after which he placed the cups, plates, and bowls neatly upon their shelves. By the time he had done that, his maw had returned from the house to set about making dinner. While she did that, he retreated to the tiny chamber where he slept. There, he replaced the sweat-stained clothing with clean ones, and changed his shoes.
Then, he waited for his maw to call him to dinner, watching as his father entered the cottage, settling at his customary place near the hearth. Once it came time to eat, Niall scarfed down his food with relish, finishing just before Adam and Olivia appeared at the door.
Conall scowled, but waved Niall off without so much as a word. His focus had already shifted to the bottle of gin he held in his fist. With any luck, he would have drunk himself unconscious by the time Niall returned.
Once free of the cottage, they took off toward the thick outcropping of trees surrounding the house grounds, Olivia calling after them to slow down so that her short legs could keep up. Niall lifted her onto his shoulders with a laugh, while Adam took over carrying the little sack she had brought with her. If he knew Olivia, there were books inside. The girl never went anywhere without one.
The three of them became different people once out of view of the house, no longer a lord, a little lady, and a stable groom. No, out here, he and Adam were brother knights and Olivia was their little princess, to be protected and indulged and made to laugh. Out here, there were no brutish fathers, dead mothers, or uncertain futures. He had not realized then that this would be the final summer of such freedom, of being able to spend this much time with the people he loved most.
While not the largest of the earl’s properties, Dunvar House still boasted a decent-enough wooded area, complete with a small, crystal-clear pond at its center. It was there they went, tossing off the layers of their clothes and hurrying to the water. Olivia in only her shift, he and Adam in their trousers, they plunged into the pond and swam for what felt like hours, chasing each other about. The two boys had taught Olivia to swim two summers prior, and now, she was as fast and confident in the water as they were.
After a time, they trudged back to the bank, lying out in the warm grass to dry off. It was then that Olivia went into her mysterious sack and pulled out something unexpected. Niall smiled when she pitched an apple at him, catching it midair and bringing it to his lips for a healthy bite. Adam was treated to one, then she retrieved her own, crunching into it as she went back into the sack to produce the one thing Niall had expected … a book.
He watched, both charmed and amused as she opened it to the place she had marked with a bit of ribbon. Glancing up to find him watching her, she grinned. As usual, the effect on his heart was an immediate, tight squeeze deep in his chest. She was even more sprite-like sitting in the grass, her damp chemise pooled around bare legs, her braid wet and dripping, hanging down her back. It wasn’t desire he felt, not anything so salacious. No, this was something else, something indescribable. He could not have given the feeling a word if he’d tried.
“Gulliver’s Travels. It is one of my favorites,” she said, moving closer, until she was nearly in his lap.
He almost nestled her closer, safe in the shelter of his body where she could read to her heart’s content, but then paused just as she began extending the volume toward him. The letters meant nothing to him, simply a string of markings he’d never be able to decipher. In his line of work, one did not encounter books … ever.
To his horror, she gazed up at him with anticipation in her eyes, seeming to expect him to take it.
