"Get on with your chores," Patrick said. His blue eyes were hard even though his voice was soft. "I'll bring Limerick out myself."
"She's here because you haven't worked him in a week," Mick said. "I told you she'd be on your back. They mean to race that horse next week no matter what condition his knee is in. It doesn't matter to them if they cripple him or not. Why should it matter when they can just buy another toy to race?"
"That's enough!" Patrick's words were harsh. "Get to work or you'll find yourself begging along the roadsides. It's only by Miss Nelson's generosity that any of us have jobs. And that's something she never intends to let us forget."
As Patrick strode down the barn, Mick shook his head. He spotted the black cat sitting by the wall. "Ah, the American cat. It's best for you if you take yourself off from here. If Miss Nelson sees you she might take it into her mind that you aren't part of the Nelson plan. Then you'll be in a pickle and Patrick right alongside you."
Familiar arched his back and rubbed against Mick's leg.
"So, you aren't intimidated by the likes of Catherine Nelson, are you?" He scratched the cat's ears. "Neither is Patrick. And that doesn't bode well for his future."
Mumbling to himself, Mick went to make sure the foals had been brought into the barn for their evening feeding. His mumbling ceased as he stepped into the sunshine. It was hard to be in a bad mood when the sun was shining and the grass was as green as a new bud.
Inside the barn Familiar sought deep shadows.
* * *
AH, THINGS ARE picking up. Instead of a bucolic holiday in the country, I get the feeling that Eleanor and Peter aren't the only ones dealing with an explosive situation. Catherine Nelson. What a babe. She carries herself like royalty, and she's got the face and figure to support the title. If she ever let that red hair loose from that braid, I'll bet it would go all the way to the top of those long, long legs. Really a classy piece of work in those boots and breeches. Maybe an ice queen, though. She's cold. But I suspect that Patrick runs just as hot. It's a tit for tat situation here. Now I'd better scoot to see how Limerick will fare in this contest of wills. I'm laying my bets on Patrick.
* * *
THE BIG GRAY stallion nosed his velvety muzzle into the halter that Patrick held. With a quick movement, Patrick latched the hook and stepped back to allow Limerick to enter the barn aisle. The stallion's stall was in a separate portion of the barn, removed from the mares and geldings. Patrick used the cross ties to secure him in the center of the aisle and quickly readjusted his green blanket before Catherine Nelson could arrive. He heard her before he saw her.
"He's the best prospect I've seen in years. That's one reason we've kept him over here in Galway. We didn't want to attract any attention. When we take him to Kildare County on Saturday we want to take them by storm."
Patrick's fingers clenched the cross tie as he watched Catherine walk into the barn with a tall, well-muscled man also dressed in riding clothes. His boots were polished to a high gloss, his tweed jacket immaculate. Just as always.
"Patrick, this is Kent Ridgeway. Kent, this is our trainer, Patrick Shaw."
The two men eyed each other, neither extending a hand nor making any gesture of common courtesy. Patrick knew Kent Ridgeway. They'd competed against each other for years, though they'd never met face-to-face.
"For God's sake, Kent," Catherine said with exasperation. "You two act like dogs ready to be thrown into the pit together. Surely you know Patrick's work. His horses have won everything in the country. As I understand it, Patrick's bloodlines have consistently put yours in second place."
"They're your horses now," Kent said easily. His gaze strayed over to the gray who had begun to paw the ground. "Yes, I'm familiar with the Shaw name in horse breeding. It was exceptional at one time. Tell me, Patrick, was it bad management, fondness for the bottle, or gambling that lost Beltene Farm for you?"
Patrick gently pulled in his breath. "I'm not certain that it's any of your business why I chose to sell my farm, Ridgeway."
"Kent!" There was genuine disapproval in Catherine's voice. "Patrick's right. That is none of your concern. If you're going to act like a boor I'll get someone to drive you back into town."
"Sorry, Catherine." Kent smiled at her. "I didn't realize how personal the question would sound. Forgive me, Patrick. I wasn't thinking." He smiled at Patrick, his blue eyes hard.
"Enough foolishness. Let's get the blanket off this big fellow and give Kent a chance to look him over." Catherine stepped forward and took the green blanket off the stallion before Patrick could protest. "Would you saddle him up and call Timmy to ride him?" Catherine was busy running her hands over the horse's legs. She missed the expression that blazed on Patrick's face.
"Did you not get the message I sent about Limerick's right knee?" Patrick asked softly.
"Indeed I did." Catherine's slender fingers pressed about the knee in question. "There's no soreness or swelling. He seems fit to me. Saddle him up."
"He's not sore because we've been resting the knee and giving him hydrotherapy along with hot rubs." Patrick's hands itched to pull her out from under the horse and shake her. Limerick's injury occurred because of one of Catherine's ridiculous orders— to keep him stalled. The horse was so anxious to get out of his stall that when he got a chance he had tried to leap over the door and had banged his knee.
"You're not resting his knee, Patrick. You're mollycoddling this animal." She finally looked up. If the thunder on Patrick's face intimidated her, she failed to show it.
"He needs another two days of walking and trotting. If you put him on the track pounding around now, you'll undo every bit of good I've done him. Then he won't be able to race Saturday or for the next three weeks!"
"It seems your employer gave you a direct order." Kent stepped forward. He put his hand on Catherine's arm. "I suggest you obey it."
"I suggest— " Patrick lowered his voice and smiled "— that you go straight to hell."
"Enough!" Catherine stepped between the two men. "I can see that this is more about male ego than about horses." She stormed toward the main section of the barn. "I'll take care of it myself."
"You're treading on thin ice, Shaw." Kent walked up to the horse and put a hand on Limerick's shoulder. The stallion shifted away from him and stamped the ground nervously.
"I'll take my chances." Patrick eased up to the horse, speaking softly to him. Limerick shook his head up and down.
"Catherine keeps you on because she feels sorry for you. She doesn't want it on her conscience that she sent another Irishman on the dole." Kent smiled. "She has a big heart for a Brit, doesn't she?"
"Why are you so concerned about who Miss Nelson hires or doesn't hire?" Patrick's fists were clenched white at his sides. Every few seconds the right one twitched, as if it had a mind of its own.
"Let's just say I have an interest."
Patrick started. "You don't mean to say that she's so stupid she's involved with the likes of you? She couldn't be that much of an idiot, not even if she poured half her brains out her ear and scrambled the rest."
Kent smiled. "You don't think much of me, and the feeling is mutual. If you ever had anything worth having here, you've ruined it. If you don't run a racehorse it isn't much good."
"That shows what you know about horses. I…" Patrick stopped. Catherine was walking rapidly toward them, a reluctant Timmy following behind with his racing saddle over his arm.
"Saddle up Limerick and let's get out to the track," Catherine said to the jockey. "I didn't come here to watch men argue, strutting their testosterone levels and acting like fools."
Timmy cast a silent appeal toward Patrick.
"Hold, Timmy," Patrick said softly. "You'll be putting the saddle away now. Limerick isn't going anywhere."
Timmy turned on his heel and started back down the barn.
"Timmy Sweeney, you'd better think who signs your paycheck before you take another step."
Catherine's clear voi
ce stopped the jockey in midstride. He turned back to look at Patrick.
"I won't put Timmy's job on the line," Patrick said. He unclipped Limerick's halter. "But I don't believe Timmy can saddle him if he's moving around." With that, he started out of the barn with Limerick following obediently.
"Wait just a minute!" Kent moved to catch Limerick's halter.
The stallion's head whipped around and his bared teeth caught Kent's jacket. With a jerk, the horse pulled half the sleeve away.
Patrick kept walking.
"Damn you, Patrick Shaw. This isn't the end of this. You can't behave as if that horse is still your property."
Patrick never turned around. "Go back to Dublin, Miss Nelson. I've heard you're quite good over fences on the hunt when you're not toting up your father's money at the bank. Go back to what you know and leave the training of these horses to someone who knows what he's doing. Limerick will race. And when he does, he'll win. But he won't race until he's ready."
Catherine watched helplessly as the tall trainer left the barnyard and walked down the tree-shaded lane. The gray was following him like a puppy.
She turned her attention to the man who stood rubbing his arm.
"Are you hurt?"
"No," Kent said. "He's one arrogant bastard, Catherine. I hope you don't intend to keep him around here much longer."
Catherine noticed Timmy still standing near a wall, his saddle over his arm. "That's all for today. Thank you." As furious as she was with Patrick, she didn't want to discuss his future in front of other members of the staff. If she decided to fire him, he'd be the first to know, not the last. And at the moment, she felt like booting him off Beltene Farm— except that he was the best man with a horse she'd ever seen, even if he did pamper the animals too much.
"Let's go to the house," she said, allowing Kent to take her elbow. "I'll get some ice for your arm."
"No wonder these people think they still run things. You're going to have to do something about that man. I didn't drive all the way from London to be told by the hired help that I couldn't watch a horse work."
"He's raised that stallion since it was a foal. It must be difficult." Catherine cast one last look over her shoulder. Limerick was still following Patrick around like a giant puppy.
"Difficult!" Kent was outraged. "You're not feeling sorry for that man, are you?"
"Not exactly sorry. It's just that he seems to have a special bond with Limerick. Kent, you should see him ride." She sighed. "Those horses come alive for him. They want to please him. I've never seen anything like it. And Limerick is the best he's produced."
"The horse is ill-mannered and dangerous. It bit my sleeve. If a horse in my stables had behaved in such a fashion, I'd discipline it. Shaw simply allows these animals to do whatever they wish. They run if they want to, they bite if they decide to do that." He raised his hands in the air. "What's next?"
"A glass of champagne and some cheese." Catherine put her hand through his arm. "Let's not let this ruin our day. Limerick will run Saturday. That's a promise. Patrick Shaw may think he's won the war but he's only fought the first battle. If that horse is sound, he'll run. And he'll win."
* * *
A SLIVER OF MOON hung just above the horizon, giving barely enough light to help guide the horse trailer that moved toward Beltene Farm. There were no lights on the trailer, and no one from the barn came out to greet the lone driver. The man got out of the Land Rover and went into the barn. Only a few moments later he returned, leading a large horse wrapped in a green blanket. The horse walked willingly into the trailer.
From the barn loft a small black figure watched. The cat's tail twitched several times, but he was as silent as horse and man.
Less than five minutes after he'd arrived, the man was driving away. He drove the road blind, without any assistance from headlights, until he was nearing the main intersection. There was no traffic, and he pulled the trailer onto the road and picked up speed.
Familiar heard the sound of footsteps below him on the barn floor.
"That should fix the high-and-mighty Catherine Nelson."
The voice that spoke was filled with enough anger to make even the brogue sound harsh and ugly.
"It could very well fix us all," a second man replied.
"You're always looking over your shoulder to pay a price, Mick," the younger man said.
"That's because I'm old enough to know that there's always a price to pay." Mick's voice was sad. "It's a bad situation when we come to this. A bad situation."
"They had no right to come in here and buy up everything we've worked for. They make us out to be nothing more than servants. This is less than what they deserve."
"Not by their standards. And not by the law."
"The law, is it? Is that what you're going to start living by now?"
Mick sighed. "What we've done is stolen a horse. That's the cold and simple cut of it. If we're caught, we'll pay the price."
"When should we tell Patrick that the horse is gone?"
Mick snorted. "We'll tell him nothing. Let him find out on his own."
"But we should tell him," the younger man insisted.
"You'll keep your mouth shut and that's the final say. Do you want to start the hue and cry this minute, when the van is hardly gone around the bend?"
"You've no stomach for this." The younger man turned back into the barn. "I'll get my jacket and we'll be gone."
Mick stood for a minute staring into the empty night. The wind had picked up and it was cold, even for late summer. He stuffed his bare hands into the pockets of his jacket and hunched his shoulders. "It's a bad night's work, and only the young are foolish enough to think no one will pay." He spoke to the night and then turned back into the barn.
Chapter Two
Patrick stood beside the cold fireplace remembering the room from when he was a boy of twelve. He'd stood waiting in just the same spot to confess to the sin of breaking the O'Keefe's front window with a ball. Twenty years had passed since he'd been inside the house. Twenty years and a lot of hardship.
When John Nelson, Catherine's father, had bought Beltene Farm for her, he'd also purchased the adjoining property. He'd left the stables as a working farm, but he'd renovated the O'Keefe house to serve as his weekend estate in the country— and Catherine's headquarters. What had once been the library in the old O'Keefe house was now the office of Catherine Nelson.
Patrick walked to the window as he waited. The stables weren't visible from the house. The road separated the two properties, but that wasn't nearly enough distance as far as he was concerned. It was bad enough selling the stables, but now that Catherine had expressed her intentions of moving from Dublin to the farm to take a serious interest in the horse business, Patrick knew that she would be too close in every respect. Too close and too pushy. The fact that she was beautiful didn't help matters, either. He found himself reacting with two diverse and contradictory impulses. It was a condition he'd been warned about often enough, by his mother, his friends and his church.
The door opened, and the redhead walked into the room. Light from the windows struck her face, and Patrick almost didn't believe that the woman who stood before him was the same one who'd been in the barn. Hair down well below her shoulders, Catherine wore a short skirt and sweater. Gold earrings dangled from her ears and patterned hose called attention to her long legs. She looked young and adventurous, not the cold and bossy woman he tried to remember. Her first words brought back the chill.
"I hope you've come to apologize for your behavior yesterday." Catherine walked past him to the desk, where she took a seat and motioned him into a chair. She sat because she did not want Patrick to see that she was uncomfortable. He seemed to fill the room, just as he did the barn. The men at the bank where she'd worked were different. They took up their space and no one else's. Patrick took it all, with a casual grace that was unnerving. She had to make him understand that she was in charge of Beltene. If she failed to show her streng
th now, he would never respect her as his employer. "The way you behaved was rude and— "
Patrick stood. "I did not come to apologize. I came to tell you that Limerick is gone." He'd meant to deliver the news with a bit more finesse, but he had to remember that Catherine Nelson's ignorance and power could ruin the animals he'd devoted his life to. He could not afford to be tender or kind.
"Gone where?" Catherine's furrowed brow was indication that she hadn't yet grasped the situation.
"Just gone." Patrick steeled his voice and his emotions. "I was hoping you'd tell me where he is."
She tilted forward in her chair, bracing her arms against the desk. "Are you telling me that my father's most valuable racehorse is gone? His stall is empty and there's no sign of him?"
"Yes, ma'am." Patrick took a perverse pleasure in his servile response.
Catherine slowly stood up. "Limerick has been stolen?"
"I did not say that. I said he was gone. If you didn't take him, though, then apparently he has been stolen."
"As simple as that, someone walked into my barn and walked out with a horse?"
"It does seem hard to believe."
She leveled a steady gaze at him— a gaze that had made executives in the bank step back. "You're taking this awfully calmly, Mr. Shaw. Aren't you concerned about the horse?"
"As you pointed out yesterday, Limerick is no longer mine to care about." Patrick stared at the floor as he spoke, giving nothing away by expression or voice. "I did want you to know as soon as I was told…so there would be no confusion or accusations."
Catherine found it difficult to absorb the news. Beltene was a big place, with stable hands constantly about. "No one heard or saw a thing?" Her voice registered disbelief.
"That's exactly the way it happened." Patrick watched the beginning of the quiver at the left corner of her mouth. He wasn't certain if she was going to cry, curse, or come out swinging. He dismissed the idea of tears. Catherine Nelson wasn't soft enough to cry. "According to your instructions, I'd spent a great deal of time working with Limerick's loading and unloading. He was awfully well trained about getting into the horse van. He liked to travel."
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