High Stakes Chattel (4 page)

As Samantha entered Lord Chattel’s barn, she stared around in amazement. The beautiful stone building with its many architectural details was much too big and fancy to be called anything as pedestrian as a barn. More like a mansion for horses.

Not all the stalls were full. Only about a half dozen horses were spread out amongst the easily twenty stalls
. She breathed a sigh of relief. If his barn were full, this would take all day.

She still couldn’t believe he’d asked this of her. Not
that she minded. She deserved the punishment after the trick she’d tried to play on him. But in those moments while she’d been blindfolded, the air was hot with the attraction between them. He’d had her completely at his mercy, could have done almost anything to her, and he’d chosen this. Strange.

Shaking away
those thoughts, she walked down the aisle, admiring Lord Chattel’s horses. Most were common carriage horses, though even those were very fine, but there was a chestnut at the end that was absolutely gorgeous, easily rivaling Henry’s horse. She was a large mare with white markings above her eyes, a braided mane and a shiny coat.

When
she reached the chestnut’s stall, the mare came over to nuzzle her hand, obviously expecting a treat. Samantha stroked the horse’s beautiful, satiny neck, smiling. “I wish I had a treat for you, but I didn't know I was coming here.”

“
The boss says I’m to take the afternoon off while you do my work,” said a voice behind her.

Startled, she whirled
around, finding a young, blond-haired man standing in the middle of the aisle. He was about twenty years old, short, muscular and attractive.

“Yes,
” she admitted reluctantly. “I suppose I am.”

“I’m John, the groom.” H
e leaned confidently on a rake, his sky blue eyes smiling as he spoke.

“Hello, John,” she said
warmly. “I’m Samantha. I came to convince Lord Chattel to mentor me so I could enter a Chattel contest,” she admitted, waiting for his shocked reaction. To her surprise, he just continued to smile at her.

He handed her the rake.
“Aren’t those contests for men?”

“I would be disguised as a man,” she said sheepishly. “You won't tell anyone
, will you? It would ruin my plan, and I desperately need to win the money to save my farm and care for my mother.”

“I won't tell,” he assured her. “Lord Chattel has very strict rules about gossip. No one gets to work for him that would do such a thing. Besides, I wouldn't want to stand in the way of saving your farm.”

Samantha took the rake and looked closely at John.
“Do you really think it's possible and not a crazy harebrained idea?” she asked him. He was the first person she’d spoken to about this who hadn’t tried to talk her out of it.

“It's
harebrained, all right, but anything is possible,” he said with a smile that showed off his dimples. “I started out as an orphan in Cheapside who didn't know anything about horses. I never dreamed I’d end up in a place like this, working with such beautiful creatures in the sunshine and fresh air. A little bit of luck, a lot of prayer, and hard work is all it takes.”

“Thank you, John,” she replied, with a smile of her own.
She liked him already. “I really needed to hear that right now.” His words truly did make her feel a little better. Just because Lord Chattel had refused to mentor her didn’t mean she still couldn’t enter the game. She was confident of her abilities. Look how long it had taken the master of the game to beat her!

“Well
, let me show you around and introduce you to the horses. Then I’ll go get some grub while you do my work.” He looked sidewise at her while they walked. “You must have made him angry,” he said with a laugh.

Samantha said nothing but thought about Lord Chattel blindfolding her.

After John showed her where everything was and explained what needed to be done, he took off with a jaunty wave, obviously happy for the unexpected break. She was glad at least one person was benefiting from her stupid mistake.

She grabbed a shovel and headed for the chestnut’s stall, leading
her out into the paddock so she could thoroughly muck out the large stone room. After a few moments, she fell into a rhythm, her muscles falling back into the repetitive work she’d done all her life.

Her mind drifted once more to the hours she’d spent with Lord Chattel. What an
interesting and intimidating man he was. She’d expected someone completely different, someone far more like Henry and his friends. What she’d found was a serious, handsome genius who she desperately wanted to get to know better and not just so he could teach her his game.

She’d been so sure he was going to kiss her
while she was blindfolded, and truthfully, she had been wishing that he would. She wanted to know how that hard mouth of his would feel against hers.

If she hadn’t chosen to lie to him,
and then become so entranced by their time together that she’d forgotten the lie, who knew how this afternoon would have gone? Now she’d made him so angry she’d probably never see him again.

* * *

Nico leaned against the barn door, watching the lovely Mrs. Blake muck out his stalls. She’d accepted his edict with surprising grace and didn’t seem to mind the work at all. Her silky auburn hair had come free of most of its pins, tumbling around her shoulders and face in a bright nimbus of color. With every thrust of the rake into the old straw, her trousers lovingly cupped her bottom and her shirt strained across her chest.

He could gladly watch her work all day.

“I know I can still win the contest. I don’t need him to do it. I have to win,” she said aloud as she dumped a large rakeful of hay into the wheelbarrow.

He smiled at her determination, his ang
er all but gone. Lovely little farm girl. Whatever was he going to do with her? He thought of the desperation that had driven her to come to him.

This afternoon had been a revelation to him. Her company intrigued him, and for the first time in nearly a decade he’d enjoyed the game that had once
defined him. A few weeks, she’d said. Perhaps he really should take her under his wing and do whatever he could to help her. He’d been cooped up alone with his experiments far too much lately. What would it hurt to have her around for just a little while?

Mind made up, he pushed off the wall and started toward her. “Having fun?” he asked with a grin as he approached
the stall.   

“Hello
, my Lord,” she said, giving him a nervous smile as she tried to bring some order to her hair and rubbed her sleeve across her sweaty face. He couldn’t believe how attractive she was in this condition.

“I
have decided I will mentor you,” he told her before he could change his mind.

Her lovely green eyes widened.
“Truly?”

He nodded, trying hard to contain another smile at her excitement.

“That’s wonderful,” she cried, jumping a little in the air in a victory celebration.

“But only
during breaks from my research,” he hastened to add. He attempted to give the air of a strict schoolmaster. “I cannot guarantee any specific time of day since I work day and night. If you’re here when I’m ready, we can play. If you’re not around when the moment strikes, I’ll probably just go back to my work.”

“I don’t understand,” she said, some of her excitement fading. “It’s such a long
distance from my house, nearly eight kilometers. Do you want me to make the trip every day and wait around, hoping you’ll make time for me?”

“You’re the one who wants my help,” he reminded her. “Surely you don’t expect me to change my schedule.” The solution had already
come to him, but he didn’t intend to make this easy on her.

“Of course not,” she said, blushing. “I’m very grateful, don’t get me wrong. I just don’t see how I can possibly make
the journey twice a day, especially in this cold weather.”

“I suppose there’s no other option than for you to stay here during the mentorship,
” he told her, hoping she wouldn’t refuse.

Her blush intensified. “Surely you know that would be completely unacceptable. What’s left of my reputation would be destroyed.”

“I have very discreet servants and virtually no guests. Your secret will remain within these walls.” He paused and turned to pet one of the horses.

“Don’t you trust me?” He wasn’t actually sure that he could trust himself to keep his hands off of her.

She
licked her lips nervously. Watching her little pink tongue was having a powerful effect on him. “I don’t know. I really want to. I just—”

“I’ll have John take you home,” he said,
anxious to have the matter settled. He was used to giving orders and taking charge. “There’s nearly a month before the next contest, so make sure you pack everything you’ll need.”

He turned away, but she reached out and grabbed his hand, squeezing it tightly. “Thank you very much,” she said, staring at him with those earnest green eyes. “I can’t tell you how much this means to me.”

“Don’t get too excited,” he told her roughly. “All I can do is show you a few pointers and practice them with you. I still don’t think you can win.”

“
You’re wrong. That is all I need. And it will be enough, you’ll see.” She flashed him a confident smile.

He stared at her, completely transfixed.
What an amazing creature she was. “You can stop mucking out the stalls now. I never really expected you to last this long. I just wanted to teach you a lesson.” With a shake of his head, he took the rake from her. “Mrs. Blake… promise me you’ll never lie to me again?”

She swallowed and then nodded. “Yes, of course
, my Lord.”

“I
will see you tomorrow then.” With that, he turned away before he did something even more ridiculous, like tumble her into the fresh straw and kiss her until neither of them could breathe.  

After
Lord Chattel walked away, Samantha spread fresh straw in the chestnut’s stall, then went to lead the horse back in. As she was finishing up, John returned to take her home.

“I’m sorry,” she said as he approached. “You were meant to have the afternoon off.”

He laughed good-naturedly. “Lord Chattel never expected you to clean the whole barn. I just ran up to the house for a while and snagged some of Mrs. Lotte’s fresh cinnamon bread. I was going to come and relieve you shortly.”

She smiled at him as she closed the stall door. “Neither of you had any faith in my ability to do hard work?”

“I had no doubt myself. I know a hard worker when I see one.” As he spoke, he led out one of the carriage horses.

Samantha stared at the fancy coach with Lord Chattel’s crest on the side, biting her lip. Now that she’d agreed to this wild p
lan, she had to find a way to minimize the consequences. “Is there another coach we could take? Something a bit less fancy? Something no one would connect to Lord Chattel?”

Evening was fast approaching, and too many people would be out on the roads. If anyone saw her in Lord Chattel’s coach,
she’d never survive it. She truly would be a pariah if anyone thought she’d taken such a powerful lover less than a year after Henry’s death.

John gave her a sympathetic look. “Of course. It’s not very well sprung, but if that’s what you want, I can definitely hitch up the old coach. It will take me just a bit longer though, it’s out back.”

“Thank you,” she said, relief washing through her as she followed him outside and saw the coach he’d referred to. It was plain and black, with curtained windows. No one would know she was inside, and even if someone saw it parked in front of her house, it wasn’t fancy enough to raise any eyebrows.

Half an hour later, they were on their way
. She felt strange riding in the back of the carriage and wished she could have sat up front with John, though she supposed that would have defeated the whole point. She quite liked Lord Chattel’s young groom and would have liked to have been able to pick his mind a bit more about Lord Chattel, especially now that she was going to be sharing his home. What were his habits? Why was he considered eccentric? Was that only because of the science work? Was he always so demanding and bossy or did he have a softer side?