Page 10 of Winning Her Duke

Lady Tomison simply let out a resigned breath and gave a small shake of her head.

“My apologies, Your Grace,” Gia said seeming less than sorry for her wording.

“None needed. Please go on.”

“I trained Dante as well as many others. I sold Godspell before his training was complete, however. I can’t believe you purchased him. How is he?” she asked as one would ask after a real person. Though Hale did suppose he was guilty of treating his horses as people as well.

They were much easier to relate to. And his horses had been his only friends when he’d been a boy. They’d been the one thing his parents hadn’t thought to take from him. And he’d formed a bond.

If it hadn’t been for his horses, he would have been utterly alone.

Hale had become the duke only a few months before he turned seventeen and had vowed not to marry or have a child unless he was certain he could treat them in the way family should be treated.

Having no experience with such things, he didn’t know what that meant, but he did know he’d never abandon his own children.

For now, what he knew was horses, so it was an easy thing to collect a number of them.

“Godspell is well,” he answered. “I think he may be ready to race this season.” He didn’t get into the problem he’d been having with him.

“Excellent. Have you broken him of his desire to move to the outside? I was working with him on that when he was sold.”

Hale found himself filled with excitement to discuss his horse. And not just what he knew of the stallion, but to learn what she knew as well. It seemed she cared for them as much as he.

“I’ll check on the tea,” Lady Tomison murmured before leaving the room. He hadn’t even noticed if she’d left the door open as propriety demanded, he was too enthralled in conversation with the woman before him.

“He does still move out of the fray. He’s getting better. I hope to have it corrected in time for the Epsom Derby. How were you breaking him of it if I may ask?”

“If I have a shy horse, I tend to put a heavier blinder on that side, so he doesn’t notice the horses at his flank.”

“Do they not sense the horses there anyway?”

“Yes.” She nodded. “That’s why I secure a thin blanket to that side, so they don’t.”

“Brilliant.” He laughed. It seemed so simple.

“You might also try walking him in a tight group and working up to full run. I often think they feel less control at a gallop and are therefore more reserved.”

“That does make sense.” He was pleased to hear her speak of how the horses felt. He, too, took their feelings into account. Many people thought them to be just animals. But they had personalities and emotions. They surely expressed those emotions when he’d done something to displease them.

He’d been shot off a horse more than once.

“He is a wonderful horse with a kind heart. He won’t want to step on another horse if it can be helped,” she went on. “I’m sorry Arabella isn’t suitable for breeding him.”

“I bred him to my mare, Hera, soon after I purchased him last year. She will deliver in the next few weeks.”

“How exciting,” she said but he couldn’t help but note the sadness in her dark eyes.

“If I may ask, why did you sell him? As I said, I purchased him from a broker and dinna know the reason he was being sold.”

She let out a breath and shrugged. “I cannot keep them all.”

“All? How many do you have?”

She tilted her head toward the ceiling in thought. “I have brought four to town and have…” She shifted on the chair as if uncomfortable and then mumbled something he couldn’t make out.

“Pardon?”

“Thirty at home in Surrey.”