Page 96 of His Duchess in Disguise
“I know. My horse went lame, and I traded with a farm wife for some lunch and the loan of a steed until I could get wherever I’m going.”
“Where might that be, Miss?”
“I don’t quite know. I thought I might go to the coast and catch a boat to Australia.”
“Oh, you don’t want to go there, Miss. Taint nothin’ but criminals and wild men. Tender young thing like you, they’d feed you to the can-nee-balls in before you could say ‘green.’”
“Why do you say that?”
The lad ignored her for a minute while he coaxed Rags to him, and then handed the shaggy lapdog up to his mistress. “Why, cause I’ve been watchin’ you since you et yer lunch. Yer lost in so many ways I couldn’t even begin to count them. It is sure a good thing that England doesn’t have wolves anymore. You an’ that donkey would have been dinner yerselves. As ‘tis, it’s good that you lost yerselves back here away from the road.” The boy took the donkey’s reins and started leading him along.
“Why is that?” Emma asked.
“Coach, an’ several travelers got robbed. They says they’s a new highwayman operatin’ not far from here.”
The boy picked up Emma’s pillowcase and handed it up. “You got anythin’ warm in that, you best be puttin’ it on. I shoulda said somethin’ sooner, but I didn’t want to stop your fun.”
“If I wasn’t grateful for the chance at a warm fire and a meal, I would ride off and leave you,” Emma nearly snarled at him. “That was just mean!”
“Well, now hardly that, Miss. If I was going to be mean, I would’ve took your donkey an’ left you in the cold. You sure were workin’ hard. I kep’ thinkin’ you might figure it out before long.”
“Figure what out?”
“That you can see the chimney stacks at Menhiransten from here,” he said.
Emma squinted at the horizon and realized that to the left of where she had been heading there were, indeed, several columns of smoke in the distance. “Oh,” she said, feeling a little foolish.
“Don’t feel too bad,” the boy comforted her, “Not too many townies would have made it this far. Guess you spent the night in the sheep byre.”
“How did you know?”
“Cup. You used it to pick berries. Right nice berries this time o’ year. There’s another patch over on the other side of the spinney. I had some myself.”
After that, they went along in silence for a time. Huddled in her cloak, and no longer responsible for guiding the donkey, Emma began dozing in the saddle. She awoke with a start when the donkey’s hooves clattered on paving stones instead of soft dirt.
They were riding into a well-appointed stable yard. The buildings were trim and neat, the paddock fences in good repair. The paving stones had been recently brushed, and Emma could see a man rolling a wheelbarrow full of refuse away toward what could only be a kitchen garden.
The ragged youth lifted her down off the donkey and set her on her feet. A middle-aged woman in a cook’s uniform stepped out the backdoor. The scent of cooking food wafted out on the wave of warm air that accompanied her, and Emma nearly moaned with longing. “Robbie? Where have you been? Stablemaster’s been looking for you this last half-hour. Did you find Farmer Jenkins donkey?”
“You might say I did. An’ I found the young lady what traded with Mrs. Jenkins for the loan of the donkey, too.”
“Loan?”
“My horse was lame,” Emma said. “I couldn’t ride her any farther. And I was so hungry. Mrs. Jenkins kindly gave me lunch and leave to ride the donkey until I reached my destination. I just didn’t know it was so far to the coast.”
“That would have been yesterday,” Robbie put in. “She took the tin cup and some oats from the sheep byre.”
“I left a penny for them,” Emma began to sniffle. “I ain’t no thief!”
“A penny. Cold comfort that will be to the next lost traveler or shepherd,” the cook scoffed. “It will wait until tomorrow, but Rob, you’d best take it and put it back. An’ make sure the blankets an’ firin’ is all right.”
“B-blankets? There were blankets?”
“Should have been blankets and a lantern in the same box as the cup,” the cook commented.
“There wasn’t any,” Emma said. “Just some lucifers, the tin cup, and a jar of oats. I only took three of the lucifers, the cup and some of the oats,” she added in a very small voice.
“Well, well,” said the cook. “Robbie, you take that donkey on down to the stable and put the dog in the kennel with the others. Does that saddle belong to Farmer Jenkins, too?”
