‘Lightning for her ladyship.’ Katherine swallowed hard. ‘Her ladyship’s man is saddling him up. His Grace thought you might like to try Xerxes, my lord. He’s a bit of a handful.’ He nodded towards a large grey in the middle of the yard, which was attempting to bite the unfortunate stable lad who was holding him. ‘He likes to see how far he can go with a rider,’ he added laconically.
‘Hmm.’ Nick eyed the animal, who was now rolling his eyes and lashing out with his hind legs at the stable cat who was crossing the yard. ‘I see his Grace has not lost his sense of humour. This looks like your mount, Kat.’
John was leading out a middling-sized blue roan, which, much to her relief, appeared to be content to follow him placidly. ‘John!’
‘Miss Katherine—your ladyship, I should say.’ He waited until she reached his side, then added quietly, ‘You all right, Miss Katherine? Jenny says you’re in clover, but I wanted to ask you myself.’
‘I am fine, at least for a week or two. How are you? Have they given you a comfortable room? And I have your wages at last.’
‘I’m suited fine, don’t you be worrying about me. Now, what’s all this about you learning to ride?’
‘His lordship is set on teaching me, so I thought it churlish to refuse.’
‘You’ll be all right with this beast, then.’ John slapped the roan on its neck. ‘It’s like a sofa with legs.’
‘Good,’ Katherine breathed, then followed John’s gaze to where Nick had mounted the grey, which was doing its level best to unseat him. ‘He’s a good rider, isn’t he, John?’
‘That’s an understatement,’ the groom agreed. ‘Bloody hell … sorry, Miss Katherine, but did you see what that brute just tried?’ They watched in silence until the grey subsided and stood, its neck flecked with sweat, its ears flicking back to listen to what Nick was saying to it.
This appeared to be a lively description of its habits and character, delivered in a style that had the audience of grooms cackling in appreciation. Katherine closed her ears firmly to the several choice adjectives that her husband was employing and waited patiently. Hopefully he would feel he had had sufficient challenges for the day and would decide against teaching her to ride. But no. Nick swung down, tossed the reins back to the reluctant stable boy and walked over.
‘John.’
‘My lord.’
‘Will you have a word with Durren and get me something else saddled up? That’s not a safe animal to take out with her ladyship.’ He watched the groom make his way across the yard and remarked, ‘Good man, that. Now, then, we’ll get you up.’
Katherine managed a bright smile. ‘How?’
‘I’ll give you a leg up. Now, stand like this, and hold the reins like that …’ He patiently sorted the reins out for her, then cupped his hands. ‘Right foot in here. One, two, three, up.’
Katherine found herself seated sideways on a moving, slippery surface. ‘Now, then, you put this foot in the stirrup. Hold on, just let me lengthen it a little.’ Competent hands moved against her leg, doing something, then her foot was pushed into a stirrup. ‘Now, the other leg goes here, over one pommel and under the other. Yes, like that. Now shift so you are sitting square on the saddle: from the back it ought to look as though you could have a leg on each side.’
How she was remaining on top of the horse and not on her back on the cobbles Katherine had no idea. The horse was moving, just a little, but enough to make her feel quite unsettled; the saddle was slippery under the folds of cloth and the position Nick’s hands were turning her into felt completely unnatural.
‘Is the habit smooth between you and the saddle? It will be uncomfortable otherwise. Just stand in the stirrup and let me tug at the skirt. Good.’ He broke off and looked at her face. ‘Kat, what is it? You are stiff as a board. Is it that I am touching you? I’m sorry, I did not mean to put you to the blush, only it is very difficult to explain without doing so.’
‘No, not that. Oh!’ The horse shifted, apparently taking the weight off one hind leg and Katherine lurched. Nick grabbed her and thumped the horse, which straightened up with an affronted snort. ‘It is so high up,’ she finished lamely.
‘High up? We’ve got beds that are higher up than this.’ Realisation dawned and Katherine saw his face relax into rueful apology. ‘Kat, are you scared of horses?’
‘Yes. I am very sorry.’
‘Why did you not say?’
‘I thought you would think me very feeble.’ If only he would stop looking like that: so understanding and gentle and …
‘I know how brave you are, Kat, I would never think you feeble. Would you like to get down now and I will have a carriage put to instead?’
Suddenly that was the last thing she wanted. ‘No. Not if you think I can do this.’
‘Very well. Now sit up straight, hold the reins as I showed you, keep your heel down and off we go.’ He was leading the horse around the yard. Katherine held her breath, but it did not break into a gallop, rear, buck or do anything that the grey had done. In fact, it plodded. ‘Good. You see? Quite safe. Now just wait there and I’ll see what Durren has found for me.’ Nick let go of the bridle and strode off to where the head groom was waiting with a leggy black gelding.
Katherine gave a squeak of alarm, but the misnamed Lightning merely stood where he had been left.
‘Lift your hands a little,’ Nick said, bringing the black up alongside. ‘Just so you can feel his mouth and he knows you are in charge.’ He spoke without any apparent irony. ‘Then press your heel back into his flank and say “walk on”.’
Convinced that the horse was about to bolt, Katherine tentatively did as she was told and to her amazement the roan began to walk sedately forward. ‘Oh,’ she said, pleased, then ‘Oh!’ as she began to slip sideways.
‘Press down in the stirrup, sit up straight—there, good girl!’
They walked out of the yard and down the carriage drive, Nick maintaining a steady flow of reassuring comment and instruction. Katherine had expected him to be demanding, perhaps critical of her lack of skill, but his good-humoured encouragement reminded her of the way he had dealt with her in the prison cell.
She risked looking at him and met his eyes. He was smiling and it suddenly seemed the most natural thing in the world to smile back.
‘Enjoying yourself, Kat?’
‘Why, yes,’ she admitted, surprised. ‘I thought I would be terrified—for the three seconds it took me to fall off. We are not going to go any faster, are we?’
‘Not unless you want to,’ Nick said.
‘Doesn’t your horse want to?’ Katherine eyed the twitching ears and the playful sidle the black kept employing.
‘He wants to gallop and it will do him good to learn to walk when he’s told to.’
Just how Nick was managing to stop the animal taking off and
