Chapter 5
Miss Templeton marched off toward the stables, her head high, chin up, and the slender line of her back rigid with irritation, leaving Adrian slack-jawed in her wake.
What did the woman mean, interrupting him while he was speaking, then stomping off without so much as a backward glance? She was awfully haughty for a governess, lecturing him about anatomy and botany and the danger of making assumptions, all with that glimmer of temper in her eyes.
Yes, she was entirely too high in the instep for a servant, though to be fair, he may have been a trifle hostile just now.
No doubt that had set her teeth on edge.
Damned if he knew what it was about her that turned him into such an insufferable arse, but something about her forthright gaze doused the charm he was so admired for in London.
In certain circles, at any rate.
He glanced between the castle and the open stable door. If he had any sense at all he’d go back to his bed and leave his uppity governess to conduct her lesson in peace. It was bloody freezing out here, so cold his fingers had gone numb, and he’d left a blazing fire in his bedchamber.
Yet as much as he detested the idea of running after Miss Templeton like some naughty schoolboy, he couldn’t quite make his feet turn back toward the castle.
It wouldn’t do for her to think she’d chased him off.
No, that would give her far too much satisfaction, and then there was the matter of these mysterious animal husbandry lessons.
Who were these animals they were studying?
Miss Templeton had said they ‘made do with what they had,’ which was suspicious in itself.
At the moment, the stables housed only Cyrus, the horse he’d ridden from London, and a few old cart horses.
There were no cows to milk, no pigs to slaughter, not even any chickens, and hence, no eggs.
How could Miss Templeton be conducting animal husbandry lessons without any animals about?
Surely, he should know what was going on in his own stables? He was the earl, after all.
He picked his way across the stable-yard, skirting a pile of frozen horse dung and ducked inside the stables, blinking in the dim light and breathing in the familiar scents of dust and hay, and underlying that, faint but unmistakable, the earthy, animal smell of what had once been a busy stable with dozens of horses and servants bustling about.
Had that only been three years ago? It seemed like another lifetime, when he and Sophie used to rise early in the mornings so they might ride out together.
But the stables were empty now, aside from Cyrus, who was tucked into a stall busily munching his hay. The horse lifted his head when Adrian entered and stuck his nose over his stall door with a whinny of welcome.
“Hello, boy.” He gave the horse’s nose an absent stroke, but his attention was caught by Miss Templeton, Ryan and Etienne, who were crouched over something in a far corner of the stables, their heads bent together.
Miss Templeton was murmuring something to them, her voice too low for him to hear her, so he crept closer, and saw the edge of a wooden pen.
“…startle her, Etienne, and be careful of her claws. She’s still quite wild, you know, and her claws are very sharp. You won’t like it if she scratches you.”
Good Lord, did he even want to know what she had in that pen? Not raccoons, surely? Or, God forbid, rats? Surely even Miss Templeton would draw the line at rats?
He drew closer, peering over their shoulders, and saw…not rats. Whatever was in the pen was too big to be a rat, thankfully, because the only thing he despised more than rats was—
“Her belly is very fat,” Ryan was leaning so far over the side of the pen he was in danger of toppling in. “When is she going to have her babies, Miss Templeton?”
“Let’s consult the chart, shall we?” Miss Templeton drew a neatly folded paper from the pocket of her cloak.
“Now, we know domestic cats gestate for sixty-four to seventy-one days, and most commonly deliver between days sixty-three and sixty-five. Now, boys, according to the chart, how long has Hecate here been—”
“Cats? For God’s sake, Miss Templeton, you call this animal husbandry?”
The three heads hanging over the side of the pen all jerked around at once. Etienne and Ryan’s eyes went wide, but Miss Templeton’s narrowed, and she rose to her feet, dusting the hay from her skirts. “Is something wrong, Lord Hawke?”
“Wrong? Of course, there is. It’s no wonder my house is overrun with cats! You’re breeding them in my stables!”
“Breeding them? I beg your pardon, Lord Hawke, but you are familiar with the habits of stable cats, are you not? I’ve no need to breed them. They take care of that themselves.”
Unbelievably, a hint of a smile touched her lips. A smile, of all infuriating things, as if she found his objections amusing. “I believe I’ve made it perfectly clear that I despise cats, Miss Templeton.”
One dark eyebrow rose. “Abundantly so, yes, but this isn’t about you, my lord.”
“Hecate is a good cat, papa.” Ryan scrambled to his feet. “She’s not naughty like Hestia. She’s never leapt on us, or bitten or scratched us.”
“She doesn’t come inside the house, papa.” Etienne twisted his hands together. “She likes living in her pen.”
“Forgive me, Lord Hawke, but I’m afraid I don’t see what all the fuss is about. Surely, there’s no harm in observing the gestational calendar of domestic cats for educational purposes—”
“There’s nothing educational about observing feral cats, Miss Templeton, no matter if you do present it under the guise of teaching the boys animal husbandry.”
Silence, then one word, hard and clipped. “Guise?”
“Hecate’s going to have her babies very soon, papa.” Etienne’s anxious gaze was moving between Adrian and Miss Templeton. “You can’t send her off now. What will she do?”
“You needn’t worry, Etienne.” Miss Templeton’s cool gaze never left Adrian’s face. “No one is going to send Hecate off, I promise you.”
It hadn’t even occurred to him to get rid of the cat, but whatever wicked impulse had been urging him to bedevil Miss Templeton since the moment he’d laid eyes on her made him snap, “That isn’t up to you, Miss Templeton. You have no business promising anyone anything.”
It was, once again, the perfectly wrong thing to say.
Etienne let out a little cry and hopped over the side of Hecate’s pen, throwing his small body in front of the cat as if to protect her, and Ryan moved in front of his brother, his hand up to keep Adrian back. “You can’t take her away, papa. We won’t let you.”
“Take her away?” He stared at his boys in astonishment. Did they truly think he’d do away with their cat? “I’m not going to take her—”
“It’s alright, boys. Hecate isn’t going anywhere.”
Miss Templeton’s voice had gone so soft it was hardly above a whisper, but something about it made him pause. God knew he hadn’t the vaguest idea how to read her, but that shift in tone and the flush of color streaking her cheekbones were, in his experience, universal to all females.
They meant he’d do well to hold his tongue.
But it was too late for that. Miss Templeton’s eyes had narrowed to blueish gray slits. “Is it your intention, Lord Hawke, to interfere with all of my lessons?”
“I…no, of course not. I simply mean to point out that animal husbandry is a science concerned with livestock. Since when are cats considered livestock?”
“Do you see any livestock here, Lord Hawke?” She swept an arm around the stables.
“Well, no, but that’s—”
“As I’m sure you’re aware, my lord, animal husbandry is a varied science, with many different elements of animal management and agriculture. I’d prefer livestock for my lessons, of course, but the boys will learn a great deal, regardless of the species of animal. Wouldn’t you agree, Lord Hawke?”
“I don’t see that there’s much to learn from cats, but—”
“Might I have a word with you, my lord?” She didn’t pause for an answer, but marched to the other end of the stables and stood there with her arms crossed over her chest, foot tapping as she waited.
A refusal didn’t seem likely to help matters at this point, so he followed reluctantly after her, feeling every inch a wicked schoolboy on his way to a sound thrashing. “I beg your pardon, Miss Templeton, but I—”
“Is it your intention, Lord Hawke, to take Hecate away from Ryan and Etienne?”
“What? No, of course not. I’m not fond of cats, but I’d never take their—”
“You’re aware, are you not, my lord, that your sons think you’re about to do just that?”
No, they couldn’t possibly think he’d do something so cruel as that.
Could they? “No, they don’t. They know I’d never—”
“They don’t know anything of the sort.” She nodded toward the other end of the stables. “Look at them, my lord. Anyone can see you’ve upset them.”
He did as she bid him, and his heart sank. The boys were still standing in front of the pen, their small bodies tense and their wary gazes fixed on him, as if they weren’t certain what he’d do next, and were determined to keep their eyes on him. “I didn’t mean to—”
“I understand it seems ridiculous to you to call our lessons animal husbandry, Lord Hawke. Despite what you may think, I do realize domestic cats don’t qualify as livestock. I’m not a fool.”
“I don’t think you’re a—”
“The boys enjoy being in the stables, my lord, and like most young children, they’re interested in animals. My intent with these lessons is merely to encourage that interest, and at the same time teach them how to behave towards animals with kindness and compassion.”
“I—I wasn’t going to take the cat.” He’d told her that twice already, and he sounded like a half-wit repeating himself over again, but those were the words that rose to his lips when he turned back to face Miss Templeton.
All at once it seemed imperative that someone, at least, understood that much.
“I would never take something they loved away from them. Surely, they must know that?”
“How would they know it?” Despite her harsh words, her face had softened a little. “It’s been months since they’ve seen you. That’s a lifetime at their age. They aren’t certain what you’ll do, because they don’t know you anymore.”
It wasn’t a pleasant thing to hear, but hadn’t he seen the truth of what she was saying for himself?
He might argue with her all he liked, but it wouldn’t change a thing.
“Tell the boys they can keep their cat, and carry on with their…animal husbandry lessons.” It took an effort for him to get that out. “I won’t interfere again.”
He brushed past her and strode toward the stable doors. A blast of frigid air hit him square in the face and crept under the neckline of his coat as he paused there, half-hoping and half-dreading one of the boys would call out to him, asking him not to leave…
Neither of them said a word.
But Miss Templeton did. “Wait, Lord Hawke.” He paused without turning around. Footstep approached from behind him, a determined click of a boot heel against the stone floor. “As I said, the boys don’t know you anymore, but they want to.”
He did turn then, startled. It was a kindness in her to tell him that. A kindness he didn’t expect, and one he didn’t deserve. Not from her.
For the first time, he really looked at her. Oh, she had a haughtiness to her, certainly, with that firm little chin and the determined brow, but there was a softness to her mouth, and compassion in those unusual blue gray eyes.
She was rather like Sophie, in some ways. Kind, but with a backbone of pure steel. There weren’t, after all, many governesses in England who’d dare to tell their employer his sons were afraid of him. Miss Templeton might be a troublesome, meddling bit of baggage, but she was no coward.
“What happened just now,” she waved her hand toward the corner of the stables where Hecate’s pen was located.
“And yesterday, on the staircase…there are bound to be rough patches as the boys become accustomed to your being here, my lord, but young boys have short memories, and your sons are eager to give you the benefit of the doubt. In the end, these little misunderstandings won’t matter much. ”
He sucked in a breath. She didn’t have to tell him any of this. Given the way he’d treated her since he arrived at Hawke’s Run, she had every reason in the world to want to keep him far away from her and his boys.
“They talk about you all the time, you know. Why not stay for the lesson? Ryan and Etienne asked you to come, didn’t they?”
“Yes.” But that was before he’d threatened their cat, and shouted at their beloved governess. No doubt they were eager to see him go now.
“You might learn something you don’t know about animal husbandry if you stay,” she added, a cautious smile on her lips. “You don’t have to touch Hecate.”
“I…no, I don’t think so.” He should have said more—a thank you, at least, for the consideration she’d shown him, but his chest was tight with shame, and all he could think to say was, “You’ll tell the boys what I said about Hecate?”
She nodded, but her smile vanished, her brows drawing together in a frown. “I’ll tell them, my lord.”
He returned to the castle and went straight to his bedchamber, but even the fire leaping in the grate couldn’t chase away the chill. He considered ordering another bath, but this chill went deeper than his skin, all the way down to his bones.
Guilt and shame could freeze a man from the inside out.
The way Ryan and Etienne had looked at him, when he’d lost his temper with Miss Templeton just now! They’d been truly frightened of him, and Ryan had jumped in front of Hecate’s pen as if he’d actually believed Adrian might hurt the cat.
God, the shame that had flooded him then…
The past two years had been the bitterest of his life, but he couldn’t recall a more bitter moment than that one.
He leapt up and began to pace from one end of his bedchamber to the other. What had Miss Templeton said, about the animal husbandry lessons? That she wanted to teach Ryan and Etienne how to behave with kindness and compassion?
Perhaps his sons weren’t the only ones who could benefit from such a lesson. God knew he’d made a bloody mess of things this morning, but he could try again.
Hecate was only a cat. Caring for her was such a tiny, insignificant thing compared to the many ways he’d failed his sons, all he owed them. But at least it was a start, and he had to start somewhere, didn’t he?
One limb at a time…
Cats, though. He ran his fingertips over the scratches that little gray creature had carved into his neck, wincing at the sting.
Of all the animals in the world, why did it have to be cats?