“I was wondering if you’d represent Bellerose Stables at the dressage competition. I can’t pay you anything, though, and it might get you into more trouble with your father, so you can say no.” I wouldn’t ask her, but I’m desperate. My overdraft is getting bigger and bigger, and the bank letters have gone from terse to downright threatening. I don’t give a damn about the house itself, but the land and the stables are my home. They’re the only connection I have to my mother, and it would kill me to lose them.
“Of course, I will,” Aubrey says.
I half sit up in surprise. “You will? I can waive your fees here indefinitely. It’s not the same as sponsoring you, but maybe that’s something?”
“I’ll happily promote the stables, and you’re not waiving anything. I’m the one who cost you business by riding Onyx and getting you into the papers.”
“The business was in trouble already. I was being an asshole by making you think it was all your fault.” I search her eyes, wondering if telling her the truth has just cost me, but she’s still smiling at me.
“I’ll happily represent the stables. I’ll arrange for your logo to be printed on my horse box, and I’ll tell everyone I can that this is where I stable Cinnamon.”
“You’re an angel. Thank you.”
“Are you really worried about the business?”
I sink back with a sigh. “Yes. Varga and his circle used to pay all my bills, and I had stable hands and instructors working for me. Now the place is empty, except for you. I don’t know how much longer I can last.”
“We’ll change that,” Aubrey promises. “With these stables and fields and proximity to Royal Park, we’ll have this place buzzing again. You’ll see.”
I like the way she says we. The only other person who’s ever said we to me is Muriel. She’s always looked after me, but in the past few years, since her health and strength has gone downhill, I’ve been the one looking out for her. I want to give her the dignity of growing old in the house she loves.
“Thank you,” I murmur, pressing a kiss to her forehead. “It’s far more than I deserve.”
There’s a hesitation on her face, and I frown.
“What is it?”
“Can I ask you a favor, too?”
“Anything.”
I regret that a moment later as she says, “Daddy and Wraye’s wedding is just after the dressage competition.”
I swallow my burn of regret and try to maneuver the conversation in a different direction. “How has it been between the three of you lately?”
“Wraye and I have been getting along much better. It’s like how it used to be between us.”
“And you and your father?”
She wrinkles her nose. “We can’t find much to say to each other, especially since the engagement party. I suppose Rasmussen told him that you and I were…you know.”
My body stiffens. Rasmussen. I could happily break that asshole’s nose and both his legs. If he shows up here unannounced again, I don’t know if I’ll be able to stop myself.
“Daddy keeps telling me I need to be happy for him and Wraye and get on with my life, but I don’t know what my life is supposed to be. I just like being here with you and riding and competing. That’s as far into the future as I can see right now.”
A warm feeling fills my chest. I like her being here with me, too. She’s the only person who can put a smile on my face. “Then you do what you love and everything else will fall into place.”
She gazes up at me with her beautiful hazel eyes. “You won’t throw me out of here because I’m a troublemaker or I was asking about your mother? You won’t let Daddy or anyone else take Cinnamon from here?”
If being here makes her happy, then no one’s going to take Cinnamon away or prevent her from coming. “Over my dead body, baby.”
I hold her tightly, our bodies wrapped around each other. We have nowhere to go to be alone together but here. It feels so right, among the horses and the scent of hay. In these stables with Lady Aubrey is the only place I want to be.14AubreyI chicken out asking Cassian to the wedding. The alarm that flashed through his eyes at the mere mention of it was enough to tell me that if I pushed him now, the answer would be hell no and over his dead body. I’ve planted the idea in his mind, though, so perhaps, he’ll come around to it. That, or his natural inclination to stand up to Daddy and Rasmussen will have him accepting my invitation, just so he can prove to them he doesn’t give a damn what they think. It’s not the best reason for agreeing to be my date, but I’ll take it if it gets him there.