Smuggler's Moon by Cynthia Wright

Author:Cynthia Wright [Wright, Cynthia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 20322805
Publisher: Boxwood Manor Books
Published: 2014-01-22T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter 20

Nearly a half hour later, Julia pushed through the gate behind Trevarre Hall’s farmyard. There was blood on her hands, her lungs burned, and her slippered feet were bruised. All the farm workers were off working in the fields, but as she passed the cattle barn and the piggery, she saw Keswick walking a lame horse.

“Oh, Keswick! I’ve never been so glad to see someone in my life.” The expression on his face when he looked up and focused her torn gown and her ankles showing beneath the hem of her thin chemise was nearly enough to make her smile.

“What’s happened, my lady? Have you been attacked?”

“No, I’m fine—just a bit tired.” She leaned back against the stone wall of the cattle barn and pulled aside the edges of the cloth surrounding the badger cub. “Look, Keswick. She’s been hurt. I had to bring her home.”

His eyes widened and his white brows flew up. “A badger! God’s blood, give the thing to us. You could be badly bitten!”

“Little Daisy won’t bite me. She’s nearly dead, I fear, but I am determined to help her.”

He didn’t question the fact that she had already given a name to this wild creature. Instead, he took the bundle from her and led the way into the stables where he had a room he shared with the blacksmith. Soon, Julia had made a little bed for the unconscious badger out of some old horse blankets, but she kept the torn gown as the top layer, agreeing with Keswick that the animal would remember her scent.

She held the badger while he cut away the wire that bound the cub’s leg. Together, they cleaned and dressed the wound.

When they were finished and Julia remained kneeling beside the little animal, Keswick shook his head with a sigh. “It doesn’t look good, my lady.”

“We shall do our best. At least she is a bit older and won’t have to be bottle-fed. Do we have any earthworms? I seem to recall that that’s what they like to eat.”

He gave a snort of laughter. “My lady—”

“Yes, I know, you think I’m ridiculous, but I don’t care. I have a special relationship with animals like Daisy. I always have.”

“We have no doubt of that.”

“I will ask you to sit with her while I go inside and change my gown. Then I shall return and stay with Daisy. I think that she knows that I’m here.” She folded one side of the torn gown over the badger cub, like a blanket, and touched its black-and-white striped head. “She’s a lovely little thing, don’t you think so?”

“My lady,” he replied, “we will sit with this badger if that is your wish, but we refuse to call it lovely.”

* * *

Throughout the afternoon spent sailing the Peregrine upriver, Sebastian kept the unopened letter from Raveneau in his coat pocket. Once the boat had been tied up at the Lanwyllow quay, tucked into a secret location off Lerryn Creek, he bade Tristan goodbye and headed home.

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