Harlequin Historical January 2018--Box Set 1 of 2 by Elizabeth Rolls

Author:Elizabeth Rolls
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781488087448
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2018-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

Klara smelled the kill pen before she saw it, the scent of fear and faeces, all preparation for the sight that met her eyes; horses of all shapes, sizes, colours and breeds crammed into holding pens. Nikolay shot her an encouraging look, lending her strength with his gaze. This was what he’d warned her against, but he was too much the soldier to say I told you so. Whether or not she should have come was irrelevant now. It was too late to turn back. And yet, for all of his strength and all of his stoicism as they pushed into grounds with the others, he was not unaffected. ‘Find the bay, Klara,’ he murmured, perhaps as much for himself as for her, a reminder of what they could do.

The words were not encouraging. How would they find one horse among so many? At the first pen, a dark bay mare ran along the fence, leggy and thin, perhaps once a beauty. She whickered and tossed her head as if she were beautiful still and the sight tore at Klara’s heart. Some horses would get out alive today—those who could still pull a cart and not cost too much to feed, those who were hearty enough to be useful to a cabbie or dray driver. The mare would not be one of them. No one would look at her and see that potential. A thoroughbred, Klara thought, an animal bred for beauty and speed, a luxury and not much else. Instinctively, Klara reached a hand out to the mare, petting her muzzle.

‘Don’t torture yourself.’ Nikolay’s voice was grim and low. ‘He’s not in this one, let’s go.’ He urged her on, but the mare followed, trotting along the fence until she ran out of room. She gave a last wicker. ‘Don’t look back,’ Nikolay ordered in a voice that would have kept men on the front line of battle.

The bay wasn’t in the next pen, or the next. Klara felt the minutes ticking by, she felt Nikolay’s nerves draw tighter. Already, people were walking out with horses they’d bought for discount rates and a new fear took her. What if they were simply too late? What if someone else got to the horse first? If Nikolay felt the same panic, he kept it well hidden, his eyes methodically going through each pen, assessing and discarding the potentials. It didn’t help that nearly every horse seemed to be a bay. By the fourth pen, Klara knew one thing with certainty: she never wanted to come here again. The people were coarse, the animals abused, the whole transaction process demeaning. She felt uncomfortable to the point of fear. She did not know this rough world. She didn’t want to leave Nikolay’s side, but she knew what she had to offer if they were going to find the bay in time. ‘We need to split up.’ If the bay was in a pen at the back, they’d never make it before the bell.

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