Read Online Anne Ashley by His Makeshift Wife - Free Book Online

speak.’
    Briony decided it might be wise to steer the conversation into
a slightly different direction. ‘Evidently your new master intends to breed
horses, Sam.’
    ‘Seems so, miss. I said as ’ow the beast could go in the
smaller stable away from t’other ’orses. But master said as ’ow ’e’d ’andle
easier if ’e were kept at a goodly distance. And master should know.’
    Leaving Sam to continue whittling in peace, Briony wandered
into the larger stable to discover an unknown youth settling four fine bays into
their respective stalls. Beside them, already champing happily away on hay, were
two fine greys and a handsome chestnut gelding.
    Curious to see the other animal that had arrived that day,
Briony wandered through the large kitchen garden in the direction of a gate set
in a high brick wall, which sheltered the more delicate plants from damaging
winds. Beyond the wall were several fields where Lady Ashworth had kept various
types of livestock during her lifetime, more than enough to provide meat and
poultry for the household throughout the year. Beyond the easternmost field was
a small wood. This, too, had been the sole property of Lady Ashworth and had
provided her eager young nephew with plenty of game to shoot.
    Although she had been taught to handle a gun herself, and was
judged to be a fine shot, Briony had never been keen on reducing the number of
rabbits and pheasants herself. Even so, she had wandered through the wood on
countless occasions during the years she had lived at the Manor, so had no
difficulty whatsoever in locating the single-storey, half-timbered structure
nestling among the trees, adjacent to a large thicket.
    She spotted the tall figure of her husband almost at once,
standing outside the stable attached to the lodge. He was in earnest
conversation with a man of below average height who, like herself, scarcely
reached Luke’s shoulder. As she drew closer she noticed the stranger walked with
a limp; noticed, too, that they ceased talking abruptly the instant they
detected her footfall. Moreover, unless she was much mistaken, there was a hint
of disquiet flickering across Luke’s features, as though he suspected she might
have overheard some part of their private discourse, a moment before his
expression changed completely and he came smilingly forwards to greet her.
    ‘Why, my dear!’ He reached for her hand and held it firmly in
his own. ‘I didn’t expect to see you up and about so early.’
    ‘Not so early,’ she returned. ‘And I’m not accounted a
slug-a-bed as a rule.’ She cast a brief look at the man who was staring fixedly
in her direction, as though attempting to get her measure, and then raised one
fine brow in a questioning arch as she turned her full attention back to her
husband. ‘I trust I do not intrude?’
    ‘Not at all, m’dear,’ he returned with courteous aplomb, though
whether he truly meant what he said Briony wasn’t altogether sure. ‘In fact,
your arrival is most timely,’ he added. ‘It offers me the opportunity to make
known to you Ben Carey, who has been with me for a number of years.’
    As he touched his forelock politely, he limped a pace or two
towards her, thereby drawing her attention once again to his disability. ‘Would
I be correct in assuming that you met in the army, and that is also where you
acquired your injury, Ben?’
    ‘That you would, ma’am,’ he answered, in a distinct
north-country accent. ‘Got wounded at Oporto—lost part of my knee. Were lucky to
have kept my leg, as it happens, but my marching days were over. Would have been
sent home and kicked out of the army to live I don’t know what kind of life if
it hadn’t been for the Major here. Took me on as his personal servant—his
batman, like. Been together ever since.’
    Clearly he was devoted to Luke. And understandably so, Briony
mused. Evidently her new husband possessed an altruistic streak, which he did
his utmost to refute a moment later by