Immortal Warriors 02 - Secrets of the Highwayman by Sara MacKenzie

Author:Sara MacKenzie [MacKenzie, Sara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2010-12-24T00:31:05.014000+00:00

A horse whickered. Nathaniel stood in the stable doorway, letting the familiar smells engulf him. This was always one of his favorite places, and after he returned home from Spain and recovered enough to ride again, he enjoyed nothing more than galloping away across the park. There was a sort of freedom in it, an escape.

He knew he shouldn’t be here, he should have gone straight up to Ravenswood, but somehow his steps had deviated. Perhaps he just needed a moment to think, to collect his thoughts, to put aside his doubts, before he began the task of persuading his family to believe the impossible.

He admitted to himself that he was relying on father’s quiet strength and intelligence to persuade his mother and sister to listen to what would seem a wild story. He trusted his father, and as a boy he’d wondered how he could ever replace him as lord and master in this little patch of England. Was that why he’d gone off to war? It was easier to charge the French or ambush some Spanish guerillas, than it was to set one’s mind to the difficult tasks of rents and crops and money in the bank?

“You’re straightforward. Honest,” his father said to him upon his return. “You treat everyone as if you expect the best from them. That’s a good thing, Nathaniel. You’ll grow into your inheritance. One day, when I’m gone, you’ll make a fine master.”

His father was right. He was beginning to grow into the job he had been born for…and then Pengorren came. Usurped him, stole all that was his. Pengorren wasn’t honest or straightforward, and Nathaniel was taken in. And by the time he realized it, it was too late.

The horse whickered again, this time more urgently. Nathaniel smiled when he recognized the dark face and erect ears above the door of the box. It was Neptune, his horse.

The horse he had raced alongside Melanie’s car had been a ghost horse, some demon from the between-worlds he’d borrowed for the occasion, and received a memorable telling off from the queen. That creature hadn’t been anything like the warm flesh-and-blood beast before him now, and he realized just how much he had missed the real Neptune.

There was a lantern hanging from a hook in the ceiling, but it was turned down low. The boy must have forgotten to turn it out again, he thought, because the stable was empty. Nathaniel came forward to pat Neptune’s nose, murmuring a greeting as the horse tossed its head and bumped against him.

“Good boy, good Neptune, I’ve missed you, too,” he said softly. “But it’ll be all right soon. Everything will be back to normal.”

He heard the footstep just before Pengorren spoke.

“Nathaniel.”

For a moment he was too shocked to turn, and then he swung around, disbelieving. It was Pengorren, there could be no mistake. He was standing in one of the empty stalls and he looked the same. A little disheveled, perhaps, without his shirt, and with only half of his handsome face lit by the lantern.

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