Page 18 of A Fearless Heart
Luckily, Gabe was used to wrangling big creatures (though in the war, he’d been more likely to be dealing with a recalcitrant horse or wayward cow—some animals simply did not respect battle lines). He soon got both Romulus and Remus moving in the same direction at a steady pace. The dogs sniffed and yelped happily, but they’d been well trained, and when Gabe tugged lightly at the leads, each dog responded instantly.
With the dogs, his daily task of walking the perimeter of the grounds was actually fun. They knew where to go, making him think that this was a habit they used to share with the old master, or perhaps a now-departed servant, one of the ones who’d run off when things started going badly at the estate.
Gabe continued along his route, which wrapped around the huge open area centered on the great house, and carried him into the woodland along the north part of the property. The wooded area the dogs were leading him through was just waking up after a long winter. There were as yet no leaves on the branches above, but tufts of grasses and small mounds of flowers poked out amid the brown litter of the forest floor. White star-shaped flowers on nodding stalks swung in the breeze, and little butter-colored blooms peeked out here and there. Even the mosses on the rocks seemed especially green. Gabe grudgingly admitted that it was beautiful. He normally didn’t spend much time thinking about landscapes, but compared to the scenes he’d spent so much time in while a soldier…the churned-up fields, the endless mud, the piles of broken and discarded things that any army left in its wake, and always the stench of death…well, this was better.
Suddenly, both dogs went still, their heads high and snouts quivering. Gabe tightened his grip on the leashes, anticipating a wrenching tug if the dogs scented prey.
“Romulus, Remus, stay,” he warned in a low voice.
Then he heard a rustling sound a hundred yards ahead. He saw a flash of color across the path, and the shape resolved into a figure, just for a second. Then it vanished once again, and he heard the figure running away.
Romulus howled, eager to chase down something after so long. Remus howled too, and the pair strained to run, their front paws rising into the air.
Part of Gabe wanted to see the dogs in action, and wanted to know who was lurking in the woods. But he feared that any chase would end in blood, so he spoke firmly to the wolfhounds, assuring them that the time for hunting would come later.
Eventually, the dogs calmed, and though Remus cast wistful glances to the woods ahead, he allowed Gabe to turn back toward the meadow and lead the dogs across the wide open space behind the house.
They passed by the formal rectangular building called the orangerie, and continued on, nearing the house. After passing by a rabbit who’d been exploring the young shoots in the vegetable garden, Romulus got so excited he reverted to puppy status, whining and rolling around in the grass. Gabe looked around and decided it was safe enough with walls on two sides. He let the dogs’ leashes go and allowed them to romp and wrestle on the soft grass of the lawn.
They yelped playfully as they tumbled over the grass. Gabe realized he was smiling like an idiot as he watched them. It had been a long time since he’d done something like this—there wasn’t much call for dog-walking in espionage.
Something flashed in his peripheral vision. He looked up toward the house. A curtain flicked on an upper floor, and the fabric fell in front of the window. But just for a split second, he’d seen the perfect silhouette of a woman in a dark gown.
Arcadia.
* * * *
Cady watched in amazement as the two massive wolfhounds leapt and rolled and played on the green grass, happy as puppies. And so willing to let Gabe be in charge, even though he was an entirely new person in their lives. Some people just had the gift, she supposed. The gift to be accepted by everyone, to simply slide into new lives and new places and fit in like a puzzle piece.
She pulled the curtain closed when Gabe looked up at one point, afraid he’d notice and think she was even stranger than he must already. She’d acted so oddly before, in her workroom. But the panic always shut down her better sense, and she couldn’t bear anyone to see her like that—scared and unreasoning in the face of the nameless fear that kept coming back to haunt her, no matter how much she tried to avoid raising its specter again.
Cady had spent nearly an hour enduring the attack and its aftermath, which left her feeling faint and unwell, her breathing weak and her whole body wrung out. God, she hated what the fear did to her, how it turned her into this pathetic caricature of a person.
Oscar’s presence had helped. One of the cat’s most charming traits was his comfort with being picked up and moved anywhere. He never scratched or struggled when Cady scooped him into her arms. He merely readjusted his body and went back to the important business of dozing. The soft rumble of his purr calmed Cady as she tried to forget the worst of the panicky feelings.
She ought to have known this would happen. She always reacted badly to surprises, or new situations. And having an unknown man within arm’s reach certainly counted as new.
And it wasn’t just that he was new. It was also disconcerting to look at him and feel so shy and simultaneously so intrigued. Cady rarely got a chance to see such a virile man up close. Some of Trevor’s friends had been stunningly handsome, back when Trevor still lived at Calderwood and his friends would come visit. Cady always peeked, even though she really had no business noticing them.
But Gabe Court was different. Big and strong and capable…all things Cady was not. And she couldn’t deny that he was attractive. Or at least she was attracted to him. Cady had no female friends to share these sorts of thoughts with, so perhaps other women might not be as drawn to him?
“Nonsense,” she told herself. Those blue eyes would melt any heart.
She abruptly turned away from the window, annoyed that she was acting so silly. What did it matter if he had blue eyes or no eyes? Cady would be better off never seeing him again.
Unfortunately, she had agreed to meet with him in the mornings to discuss the necessary tasks for the gardens and grounds. And she couldn’t ignore the importance of that, for Calderwood was only a few weeks away from reverting back into a wildwood.
Clearly, he didn’t need much instruction from her about most things. He’d apparently charmed the dogs to his side in a matter of minutes, and now they regarded him with total adoration. Cady loved animals herself, and there was a time in the past when she would have been delighted to play with the dogs on the lawn. But after so long when she had ignored them and been scared of them, just because they were big and shaggy and didn’t speak human language…well, Cady was sure the dogs hated her now. Why wouldn’t they? She could have gone to see them every day since her father’s death. But she didn’t. Instead she hid inside and was scared of her own shadow. Dogs could sense fear. Her father always warned her of that.
Cady ought to leave the dogs and the whole grounds to this new gardener, if that’s what would keep him here. She needed this man to help her keep the place civilized.
When she looked at Gabe Court, however, civilized wasn’t how she felt.
Chapter 10
The next morning, Cady pushedOscar off her pillow, and pulled the bell cord to summon Martha.
“Help me get dressed, please. I’ll need an outfit to stand up to the weather.”
