Page 12 of Winning Her Duke

Not that Gia hadn’t noticed how handsome he was. His hair, the many shades of an oat field in the morning light. His eyes, she could see now that he was close, were dark blue.

She cleared her throat and set about sorting the pages as she removed them from the stack.

“Here we are. All of my horses in one place.” She pointed to the bottom corner. “Along with their pertinent information.” She’d included their names, dates of birth, sires, and mares along with siblings. In some cases, she added notes about their characteristics or temperament. She’d painted each horse’s face as well as their body from the side to note their individual markings.

She flipped through the sheets until she found the one she was looking for and held it out.

“Godspell.”

He smiled as he looked down at the page. “This is my boy. The artist captured him perfectly. See the way the star on his forehead is slightly to the right?”

“His back left sock comes up higher than the others,” she pointed out.

“I don’t think I’ve ever noticed that. What detail.”

Gia shrugged. “I want to remember everything about them so I paint all the details I can.”

His head snapped up. “You painted these?”

She nodded and shrugged. “There are many available hours in the country.”

“I’m aware,” he said quietly though he seemed unhappy about it. “These are lovely. You have quite a talent.”

“Thank you. Though my father and Lady Tomison would much rather I focus my artistic designs on a nice landscape or vase of flowers. I find I much rather enjoy painting magnificent creatures.”

His brows went up and his smile grew.

She pointed to the painting again.

“Here you see I have a note regarding the way he pulls out of a pack.” She brushed her finger over the last note. “And the date he was sold.”

“You miss him, even with thirty other horses vying for your attention?” he asked wistfully, as if he understood.

“Oh, yes. Each one of them touches my soul in their own way and I will never forget them.”

Why had she said something so… personal? She couldn’t tell him how much it pained her to have to sell Dante and Godspell to pay her father’s debts and keep their estates flush. Her father had learned his lesson and given up aggressive investments after seeing how much it pained her, but she knew it was not easy to cover the expenses of thirty horses.

At least she still had Arabella. Unless the duke offered a prize sum for her and her father agreed.

While Gia called them her horses, the truth was, she was a woman and therefore didn’t own anything. Despite all the work she put into them, they all belonged to her father and their fates were held in his hands.

Of course, since his trickery in getting her to London, he had kept his distance, spending time at his club to avoid her glares and his guilt. Surely, he wouldn’t do anything to aggravate the current strain on their relationship.

“Thirty horses seems like a large undertaking.”

“Actually, I also raise ponies and palfreys so gentle and sweet that lords will transport them as far as Lincolnshire for their wives and children. As well as work horses. Selling them covers the cost of upkeep on the racehorses, which are my passion.”

“And the only horses you paint.”

“Yes. There is something about watching a horse run at full speed that I find captivating.”

“I know exactly what you mean.”

A moment of deep understanding passed between them and she felt as if he were an old friend she hadn’t seen in a long time. She shook her head. She would be wise to remember men, even ones as attractive as the duke, were not to be trusted.

They went through her other paintings talking of each horse. In fact, she had lost all track of time until someone cleared their throat by the door.

“Lydia,” Gia said in surprise.