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"To the stables" It really was dark, so he let her catch up and took her hand in his It felt oddly intimate He had walked arm in arm with ladies his whole life, but it was different to walk through the trees in the dark, feeling only the clutch of a woman’s hand She had a small, delicate hand for such a shrew

"Why the stables?" she said Then she stopped, pulling hie to find a pub, are you?"

The scorn in her voice stiffened his backbone "Actually, no" And he hadn’t been That was too de, as if he were--indeed--in servitude "I have a horse on the point of foaling"

They followed the path by avoiding the pitch black of the woods around the their way He could hear only little rustlings in the woods For a moment his stomach roiled, and then quieted

"It sounds as if we’re walking through a huge abandoned house," Ien said He could hear the fear in her voice She was holding his hand tightly

"A an emotion that characterizes ladies Afraid of the dark, are you?"

She didn’t answer They walked into the yard surrounding a long roashed stables A boy started to his feet as they walked in the door, rubbing his eyes

"You shouldn’t sleep with the lamp lit," Rafe said, his voice harsh "You could start a fire"

"Yes, sir," the boy stammered "Yes, sir, 1 know that I just dropped off for a moo to your bed? We’ll blow this out e leave"

"I can’t, sir," the boy said "Mr James said as hoas to stay because Lady Macbeth is expecting to foal, sir, and if she o wake Mr James, sir"

"I looked at her this afternoon, and I doubt she’ll foal tonight But I’ll bring the lantern back to you"

They walked down the alleyway between the stalls None of the horses see in their clean, spacious stalls, staen walked down the aisle "It’s the foal co," Rafe said "They can tell, and they don’t sleep"

"I would guess this is Lady Macbeth," Ilossy, swollen sides She turned to look at them, a bit of hay stuck to her nose in a way thatcat’s whiskers

"She won’t have the babe tonight," Rafe said

I her palen breathed "Oh, you’re a beauty, aren’t you?"

Rafe walked on, carrying the lantern, and after a reeted that irl’s palaver with ponies," he said

"Oh? Because you have is to do, do you? Out here in the ht about howa ride"

"A ride? In the dark?"

He liked the idea more and more "You needn’t join !" she said, just as he knew she would "But where will you go?"

"You look awake," he said to a cheerful-looking gelding with an arching nose and sweet eyes