Lina asked shrewdly. ‘If it were you that addressed someone wrongly?’
‘I agree it is unfair, but the standards are different for men and women. I could probably call someone Lord Coward, Duke of Half-Wit, and it would be laughed off within seconds.’
Lina nodded thoughtfully, pursing her lips. ‘My mother used to say that women have to hold themselves to higher standards than men. We have to have double the respect, double the strength, double the commitment.’
‘She sounds like a very sensible woman.’
‘She was.’
Alex heard the catch in Lina’s voice as she spoke and was just rising out of his chair to offer comfort when Lina turned to him with a breezy smile.
‘Enough of this,’ she declared. ‘Wouldn’t it be much more fun if we went to see your horses?’
‘And how exactly will that help me win this wager?’
‘I’ll practise addressing the horses as if they were lords and ladies.’
What would the stable boys think? Yet Alex felt the irresistible pull of the stables. All morning he had been eager to dash out to the yard and throw himself back into his work. Spending the time teaching Lina how to address the different ranks of nobility hadn’t been as bad as he had first feared—Lina was quick and clever and had a sly humour that made the time pass much quicker. Nothing, however, could keep his mind from wandering to his new Arabian and how he would approach the next stage of its training.
‘Half an hour,’ Alex agreed sternly. ‘Then it’s back to your studies.’
Lina was up and out through the door before Alex was even on his feet and as he quickened his pace to keep up his mind was calculating training timetables and regimes.
‘What is it that you do with the horses?’ Lina asked as they approached the stables.
‘I raise them, train them and then race them. Well, I get them ready to be raced,’ he corrected himself. ‘Someone else does the actual riding during the race.’
‘How many horses do you have?’
‘At the moment, fifteen. The number varies as I buy and sell them on. And they’re not all racehorses. I have two mares that I’m hoping to start breeding soon, four Cleveland Bays for the carriage and two old thoroughbreds for general riding.’
He saw the excitement in her eyes as he spoke and knew it wouldn’t be long before she had persuaded him to take her out riding. Not that Alex minded. As much as he enjoyed breaking in a new stallion or training a thoroughbred for a race, nothing could beat the feel of galloping over the fields purely for pleasure.
‘And the horse I saw yesterday?’
‘My latest project,’ Alex said. ‘An Arabian that had been giving its previous owners all sorts of problems. They haven’t been able to harness or ride him, so I took him off their hands for a very reasonable price.’
‘Will you race him?’
Alex shrugged. He hadn’t planned to initially. A large majority of the winning horses in the big races were thoroughbreds, but Arabians certainly took some of the titles. His initial plan had been to keep the new stallion for breeding, so good were his bloodlines, but after seeing his strength and spirit Alex thought he might well have a winning racehorse on his hands.
‘Can I race him?’
Laughing, Alex shook his head. ‘Most certainly not.’
‘You’d let me if I were a man,’ Lina grumbled.
‘I have no idea how good you are with horses or if you can even ride.’
‘I can ride. Give me ten minutes with your Arabian and I will have him eating from my hand and racing like a winner.’
‘Slow down.’ Alex laughed, although he had to admire her enthusiasm. ‘I’ll make you a deal. You show me you can care for a horse, and if you impress me, I’ll let you ride.’
‘The Arabian?’ Lina asked, her eyes shining.
‘Not the Arabian,’ he said firmly.
They entered the stables and Alex led her down to the very end where a gentle-natured horse was munching on a mouthful of hay.
‘This is Stormborn,’ he said, raising a hand to stroke the old thoroughbred’s nose. ‘My very first racehorse. He’s retired now, but still a joy to ride.’
He watched as Lina approached the horse slowly, lifting her fingers to rub his nose and murmuring reassuring sounds. Maybe she was good with horses, but Alex couldn’t risk letting her loose on any of his prize-winning racehorses.
‘Clean out his stall, rub him down, tend to the saddle and harness, and then I might let you ride him.’ He was certain Lina would argue; she argued about everything.
Watching in amazement as she hitched up her skirts, revealing two slender legs without any hint of embarrassment and vaulting over the stable door, Alex wondered what sort of deal he had just made. Still, Stormborn would keep Lina busy for a while and give him a chance to work with his new Arabian for an hour or two.
With a backwards glance Alex moved away to the other end of the stables, listening with half a smile as Lina introduced herself to the horse much more politely than he had ever heard her speak to another human.
* * *
Lina was in heaven. Rubbing down the old thoroughbred’s shiny coat might not appeal to many young women, but Lina could not think of anywhere she would rather be. She knew Alex had set her working in a bid to both stop her from asking to ride his precious horses, thinking she would not stick out the unglamorous work, and also to give him some time to work on his Arabian.
How he had underestimated her. She would be content to clean out the stables all day. In fact, she’d go as far as to say she preferred it to practising how to address people in Alex’s comfortable library.
It wasn’t that she was unimpressed with his house—she doubted there was a grander, more beautifully decorated dwelling in all of England, and certainly not one she’d ever be invited into. And Alex had been an exemplary host; he’d been kind and welcoming, even if his question as to whether she could read had stung her more than she cared to admit. No, her unease came from somewhere deep inside. Lina liked to think of herself as adventurous. The whole point of this escapade was to have a more exciting life. Well, that and to pay off the huge debt she owed Uncle Tom. But now she was here, she felt the first stirrings of inadequacy and she hated it.
All her life she had ranted against the aristocracy and the way they looked down on the ordinary people. She’d gone out of her way to avoid even the lower levels of the gentry, staying away from the country dances she dreamed about attending. Now she was here at Whitemore House and Alex and his sister were treating her with such kindness, Lina had to wonder if the problem was partly to do with her.
‘What do you think, Stormborn?’ Lina asked. ‘Am I the problem?’
The horse nuzzled into her hand, rubbing his head against her shoulder in a consoling manner.
‘How
