New Boss at Birchfields

by Henrietta Reid

  He had an extraordinarily brusque way of throwing out his questions that made her hackles rise. How right Hettie had been in everything she had said about him! The man had insufferable manners.

  ‘I took complete charge of “the animal”,’ she told him. ‘My father saw to that. He would let me have Pixie only on condition that I took good care of him, besides ‘

  ‘That’s all very well and good,’ he broke in. ‘And although this job is mostly about teaching young children to ride, there’s no division of labour here, you know. Everyone has to pitch in just as they’re needed. I do it myself and I expect everyone else to do the same.’

  ‘Just a moment,’ Briony said, nettled, ‘perhaps you’d be good enough to let me know if this job is still open. Perhaps you’ve already chosen someone?’

  ‘The job is still open for the right person,’ he replied. ‘Can you take care of a spirited horse, exercise it, groom it, feed it—by yourself that is—without expecting Johnny or one of the other boys to come running to your assistance every time it as much as rears?’

  Briony hesitated. There was such a temptation to pretend that she could. She wanted the job so badly. And it flashed across her mind that Johnny seemed friendly and would probably help her in the first few days. Perhaps she would be able to get by.

  But her hesitation had been fatal. Those strange brilliant blue eyes were fixed upon her with a look of such discernment that she knew instantly that this was just a test question. Already he knew she was incapable of doing this.

  ‘Of course I couldn’t,’ she replied, her manner as abrupt as his own.

  ‘Well, you’re honest at least,’ he told her.

  ‘Why shouldn’t I be?’ she flashed.

  ‘I must say I admire your nerve,’ he said. ‘To come here applying for a job handling horses when your total experience amounts to caring for a Shetland!’

  ‘Later on I had a New Forest pony,’ she informed him. ‘But if I don’t suit, that’s all you have to say. There’s no need to be so horribly rude.’

  She turned away and was about to leave when he said, ‘Just a moment! I’ll make the decisions here, if you don’t mind. It’s true you’re not suitable. On the other hand, no one who completely fits the bill has turned up. But I may as well warn you here and now that the Lennox Riding School carries no passengers. You’d better pull your weight or I’ll know the reason why.’

  ‘You don’t think I expect to be paid for nothing?’ she retorted. ‘I shall certainly give full satisfaction, you may be sure of that!’

  But this proud speech did not impress him. ‘That’s no more than I should expect.’

  Briony swallowed, restraining her temper with an effort. ‘I take it then that I’m hired?’ she asked icily. ‘And may I add that I consider—’

  But before she could get any further he interrupted, ‘Yes, I know what you’re going to say—that you consider me abominably rude. Well, I can’t say your opinion interests me a lot. But you must understand this clearly, if you’re going to work for me I’ve no intention of altering my manners to suit your refined sensibilities! By the way, where are you staying? We start the day early here. That means you’ll have to find lodgings near at hand. One thing I won’t tolerate is people straggling in at all hours of the day.’

  Briony drew a deep breath. How she would have loved to give him the answer she felt this remark deserved.

  ‘I’m staying at Amulree Cottage in the village,’ she told him, ‘so I should be able to be here in good time in the mornings.’

  And now she saw his expression change. ‘So you’re staying with Mrs. Gillies. You’re lodging with her, I take it?’

  She was silent for a moment, her heart sinking.

  By this time, of course, Hettie’s attitude towards him must have come to his ears. If he disliked Hettie as much as she disliked him, then the information that Hettie was her godmother might put paid to her chances.

  She plucked up her courage, tilted her chin and said clearly, ‘I’m staying as her guest. She’s my godmother.’

  ‘And does she know you’re applying for this job?’

  ‘No,’ she replied shortly.

  He gave a bark of laughter that held no amusement. ‘I’d be interested to see her face when she discovers I’ve hired you! That woman has a vendetta against me because I was fool enough to buy her broken-down old house. Not to speak of the grounds, if you could call them that—full of odds and ends of broken old glasshouses and bedraggled shrubs and stumps of apple trees! It’s taken me a fortune to level it out and get it into some semblance of order. But then there’s no dealing with people like your godmother! What do they call it? Paranoia, I think is the word. They’re convinced everyone is doing them down.’

  ‘How dare you speak of Hettie in that fashion!’ Briony snapped, her eyes blazing. ‘I agree, she doesn’t approve of you. And before I met you, I must say I thought she was exaggerating a bit. But now—well, now I’ve met you I know that every single thing she said is true.’

  With an effort she drew to a halt. This, of course, would be the end of everything! But to her amazement he said calmly, ‘Well, I must say you get full marks for honesty at any rate. And that’s something new in these interviews, I can tell you. I’ve been handed so much hogwash by so many applicants, both male and female, but you’re the first who’s spoken the truth—both about your qualifications and about your attitude towards myself.’

  But Briony was not placated. ‘I don’t see that Hettie’s attitude towards you should have anything to do with my application!’ she snapped. ‘This is between you and me.’

  ‘Very well!’ Blane Lennox said curtly.

  He turned away and began to examine the harness, and she realised she was being dismissed. Fuming with annoyance, she swung around and marched off down the drive.

  Rage earned her along the road on winged feet. Then as she began to simmer down and consider the situation detachedly she realised that, obnoxious as his manners might be, still she had got the job. Just let Mr. Blane Lennox be as nasty as he liked! She would learn to become indifferent to anything he might say or do as long as she held it.

  But as she drew near Amulree Cottage she was struck by the thought that Hettie would hardly relish the idea that she was going to work for her sworn enemy. How on earth was she going to break the information?

  She found her godmother setting the table in a leisurely way with rose-patterned china. ‘Did you have a nice walk, dear?’ she greeted Briony. ‘I’m so glad you came in now. I was just on the point of making tea.’ Her voice dwindled as she ambled off into the kitchen. ‘We may as well finish the scones I made this morning. And there’s some delicious heather honey I got in the village.’

  As they took their places at table and Hettie poured, she said, ‘I only wish I could keep you with me, Briony. It’s so nice having a young face in the house. And I’ve been so lonely since I lost Roy. Is there any possibility you could stay on for a while?’

  Briony instantly seized the opening this gave her, but she decided to be cautious in presenting her news. ‘Oh, but I’d love to stay!’ she said. ‘But if I were to remain for a while I’d need to find something to do. But there doesn’t seem to be many jobs around here.’

  ‘No, that’s the trouble,’ Hettie agreed. ‘Certainly nothing to do with the business world. We don’t even have a big hotel where you might find something to do—say, work as a receptionist.’

  ‘But I wasn’t thinking of anything like that,’ Briony said quickly. ‘In fact what I’d like is something more—well, outdoors.’

  Hettie looked at her enquiringly. ‘But what had you in mind? Girls don’t work on the land here, you know. Even if there were anything like that going, it’s very exhausting. You’d hardly be fit for it.’

  ‘I wasn’t thinking of that,’ Briony told her. ‘What I had in mind was something to do with riding. I used to love riding. And, as long as Daddy was alive, I always had a pony.’

  ‘Yes,
it would be nice if you could ride while you’re here,’ Hettie said agreeably. ‘But after all, it would only j be a pastime. It wouldn’t be of any financial help.’

  ‘Well, as a matter of fact it occurred to me I might be able to combine the two things. You were telling me some of the children from Laureston School are keen to learn riding. It would be a nice job. I’ve always got on well with children.’

  Hettie put down her cup. ‘Just a minute! I thought the children from Laureston School were to be trained by that Lennox fellow?’

  ‘Yes,’ Briony tried to sound casual, ‘and I believe he’s looking for someone suitable to teach the younger ones.’

  Hettie sat up straight and stared at her incredulously. ‘Do you mean to tell me you would actually take a job with that—man!’

  At any other time Briony would have smiled at the vehement way Hettie brought out the word, but now she said, ‘Oh come, Hettie, beggars can’t be choosers. You know I’ll be lucky to get a job anywhere.’

  ‘But not with that scoundrel!’ Hettie thumped the table with her fist. ‘Never, never, never,’ her voice rose, ‘will anyone from Amulree Cottage work for him!’

  ‘But I’ve already taken the job,’ Briony told her nervously. ‘I saw him this afternoon and he’s agreed to take me on.’

  She glanced apprehensively at her godmother and was appalled by the change which had come over her features.

  Hettie rose to her feet, her usually mild expression quite transformed by rage. She pointed to the door. ‘I should very much have liked to have kept you with me,’ she said in a low choked voice, ‘but I’m afraid I shall have to ask you to leave.’

  Although Briony had anticipated that Hettie would be difficult, she had not expected anything as appalling as this. There was nothing for it, she realised, but to let Hettie know the real reason for her arrival at Abergour.

  ‘It’s beyond my comprehension how you could consider such a thing when you know what the man’s like,’ Hettie told her fiercely. ‘After all, you have a good job to go back to, there’s no reason why—’

  ‘But that’s just it!’ Briony interrupted. ‘I don’t have a good job any longer. I threw it up before I came North. Do sit down a moment, Hettie, and let me explain. I don’t know if Mummy mentioned in any of her letters that I was engaged to a man called Jeremy?’ Reluctantly Hettie sank back into her chair. ‘I don’t see what difference that makes, but I think I remember the name. Your mother told me that, of all your boyfriends, he was the one she liked best. She said you seemed likely to marry and settle down.’

  ‘She was right,’ Briony told her. ‘I did like him best. In fact, I was completely crazy about him. But I know now that all the love was on my side. He didn’t really care. He got a very good job in Aberdeen and I chucked up my job and followed him. I thought, if he felt the same way as I did, we could get married. But he let me know right away exactly where I stood. He’d taken up with an American girl. Her brother’s very wealthy—he’s involved in this North Sea oil business—and of course money is the important thing as far as Jeremy is concerned, and I didn’t stand a chance. I know I was a fool, but that doesn’t help matters now.’

  Hettie’s expression had softened. ‘You’re not the first girl to throw everything away for love—and you won’t be the last!’

  ‘Well, that’s one mistake I won’t make again,’ Briony said bleakly.

  ‘You mustn’t let it embitter you,’ Hettie urged. ‘As time passes you’ll take a different view of things, you’ll see.’

  ‘No, I don’t think so,’ Briony said tightly. ‘But the fact remains that if you send me away I shall have to go home, and it won’t be easy for me to get another job. Mum’s not so well off either. Could I not stay with you here, at least for a while? After all, one doesn’t have to like one’s boss! Not that there’s much possibility of my liking Blane Lennox—he’s one of the most maddening men I’ve ever come across.’

  ‘So that’s why you wanted to take a job here,’ Hettie said reflectively. ‘I did get the feeling when you arrived that something had gone badly wrong for you, but I didn’t suspect what it was. You know I wouldn’t like to put you out, Briony, all the same the thought of you working for that man is almost more than I can endure. No doubt it will give him a great deal of satisfaction to make the work as difficult for you as possible, because he knows how I feel about him. Stay on here as long as you like, Briony, but as soon as you possibly can, try and get another job. Something suitable will turn up, no doubt.’

  When Briony had agreed to this, Hettie continued, ‘Now why didn’t you consult me before you took this step? It’s all been so sudden that it’s come as a shock to me.’

  ‘Now, Hettie, you know if I’d as much as hinted what I wanted to do you would have forbidden me,’ Briony told her.

  A faint smile touched Hettie’s face. ‘I suppose that’s true! And I would have been right to do so. But you’ll soon discover that for yourself,’ she added ominously. ‘And don’t come looking to me for sympathy, because I’ve given you plenty of warning.’

  ‘Don’t worry,’ Briony said airily, relieved that Hettie had accepted the idea, ‘I’m not going to let him nettle me. He can be as rude as he likes and I’ll remain cool and detached and completely indifferent. I should imagine,’ she added, ‘that would madden him more than anything else.’

  And suddenly they were both laughing.

  But later on that evening when Briony had climbed the steep steps to her room, she found no comfort in the crisp linen sheets and the soft downy mattress. The events of the day flashed before her eyes in little pictures. A full moon shone through the open window and in the woods she could hear the soft cry of a night-bird, yet she turned and tossed, remembering Jeremy’s eyes, angry and unfriendly as he turned away from her. She had been rejected, like a lovesick and importunate schoolgirl. She had looked on helpless as he had bent his handsome blond head towards the elegant American girl.

  When at last the long slow twilight of the north had filled the room with shadows she got up, crossed to the window, and stood there looking out towards Birchfields! Golden light spilled from one of the windows and suddenly there came vividly before her mind the outline of the face of that strange man, Blane Lennox, the square protruding jaw in the brown deeply lined face and those blazing blue eyes. There was a fascination about the harsh, near-ugly features. Jeremy’s nearly classically handsome features seemed to blur and fade. They belonged to the past, she realised with startled awareness. In the future belonged Blane Lennox, harsh as a figure carved out of granite.

  As she slid between the cool linen sheets she felt bemused and apprehensive. Blane Lennox was now her employer—and also her enemy. Well, he would find in her a worthy adversary, she thought with satisfaction, as she glided into sleep.

  She was up early on the following morning and got ready quickly. It was just five minutes to seven as she entered the gates of Birchfields. She had arrived exactly on time, she thought with satisfaction.

  When she had walked along the drive she found Blane Lennox in the stable yard, his feet planted in that arrogant possessive manner that she was soon to recognise so well.

  ‘So you’re on time!’ he remarked.

  ‘But of course!’ she replied aloofly. ‘I made a point of being exactly on time.’

  For a moment the long, deeply-carved mouth tightened. So Blane Lennox was not used to his employees sticking up for themselves, she thought with a little complacent glow. Well, he might as well learn right from the start that he couldn’t intimidate her!

  Without answering he swung around to speak to a boy over the half door of one of the stables. And as he came out, leading a horse, Briony saw that it was the same tall thin boy who had directed her to the tack room on the previous afternoon. He darted her a quick rather unfriendly glance and was about to move away across the yard when with a slight movement of his hand his employer arrested him.

  Blane Lennox turned his attention to Briony again
. ‘By the way, you didn’t tell me your name yesterday. What is it?’

  ‘Briony Walton,’ she told him.

  ‘Miss Briony Walton will be working here in future,’ he told the boy, ‘so you and Johnny had better watch your Ps and Qs.’

  The boy’s face grew sulky and Briony bit her lip in exasperation. This was just the sort of remark calculated to make the boys antagonistic towards her. Was he testing her out to see if she could stay the course, or had it been no more than one of his usual rough, unthinking remarks? It would be hard to tell.

  As the boy led the horse off towards one of the paddocks, Blane Lennox said to her, ‘I’m rather surprised to see you here today. I felt sure Mrs. Gillies would put her foot down. How did she take the news that you’d decided to work for that ogre Blane Lennox?’

  If she had been speaking to any other man, Briony would instinctively have tried to smooth over Hettie’s objections. But to him she was determined to make no concessions. ‘She wasn’t pleased,’ she told him flatly. ‘She doesn’t like my working for you. In fact, she objects very strongly.’

  His thick dark eyebrows pulled down in a straight line across his forehead. ‘And you don’t like working for me either?’

  ‘There was nothing else available.’

  ‘Well, that answers my question, doesn’t it? Are you always as forthright as this?’

  By admitting this was not so she would be confessing to the chink in her armour and letting him know she was being deliberately defensive. But before she could reply he said thoughtfully, ‘Briony—that’s an unusual name, but somehow it suits you. And now, Briony, it’s time you got to work. As it’s your first day you can start off in the tack room. Try to square it up. The boys leave it in an awful mess as a rule. After that you can help water the ponies.’ And turning, he strode away.