“I don’t mean that!” Now she was frowning at him, looking insulted. “Do you think me such a… a fribble that I’d care for my income over a tenant’s ability to feed his children?”
Harry couldn’t think of anything to say. All the landowners in his experience did indeed have more concern for their income than the well-being of the people who worked their land.
She continued, “We will, of course, waive the rent monies due me for this year if the harvest fails. And I will make available loans to any farmer who might need one to see him through the winter.”
Harry blinked, startled by a sudden lightness in his heart. Her offer was more than generous. She’d removed a burden from his shoulders. “Thank you, my lady.”
She looked down at her gloved hands. “Don’t thank me,” she said gruffly. “I should have realized. And I’m sorry for being cross with you. I was embarrassed to know so little about my own estate. You must think me an idiot.”
“No,” he replied softly, “only a lady who is city bred.”
“Ah, Mr. Pye.” She smiled, and his chest seemed to warm. “Ever the diplomat.”
They crested a rise, and Harry slowed the gig to turn into a rutted lane. He hoped they wouldn’t lose a wheel in the potholes. The lane led to a crofter’s cottage, long and low, with a thatched roof. Harry pulled the horse to a halt and jumped from the gig.
“Who lives here?” Lady Georgina asked when he went to her side to help her down.
“Sam Oldson.”
A shaggy terrier ran out from around the building and began barking at them.
“Sam!” Harry shouted. “You there, Sam! Are you home?”
He wasn’t about to go nearer the cottage with that dog growling so seriously. It was a smallish dog, true, but the small ones were more apt to bite.
“Aye?” A burly man wearing a reaper’s straw hat came from the shed. “Shuddup, dog!” He roared to the still-barking terrier. “Get on with you!”
The dog tucked its tail under its rear and sat.
“Good morning.” Lady Georgina spoke brightly from beside Harry.
Sam Oldson snatched the hat from his head, baring a wild nest of black hair. “Ma’am. I didn’t see you there at first.” He ran a hand through his hair, making it stand up even more, and looked helplessly at the cottage. “My woman’s not home. Visiting her mum she is, otherwise she’d be out here offering you a drink and a bite to eat.”
“That’s quite all right, Mr. Oldson. We did arrive unexpectedly, I know.” She smiled at the man.
Harry cleared his throat. “This is Lady Georgina Maitland from Woldsly.” He thought it best not to introduce himself, though Sam was no fool. Already he was beginning to scowl. “We’ve come to ask you about the sheep you lost. The ones that were poisoned. Did you find them yourself?”
“Aye.” Sam spat into the dust at his feet, and the terrier cringed at his tone. “A little over a fortnight ago, it were. I’d sent my lad to bring them in and he come running back quick. Said I’d better come see myself. There they were, three of my best ewes, rolled on their sides with tongues sticking out and bits of green leaves still in their mouths.”
“Do you know what they’d eaten?” Harry asked.
“False parsley.” Sam’s face turned purple. “Some son of a bitch had cut down false parsley and fed it to my sheep. And I says to my lad, I says, when I get my hands on the villain that’s killed my sheep, he’ll wish he’d never been born, he will.”
Time to go. Harry grabbed Lady Georgina around the waist and threw her up onto the carriage seat. She squealed.
“Thank you.” He walked swiftly around the front of the carriage, keeping an eye on Sam Oldson. The dog had begun to growl again.
“Here now, why’re you asking questions?” Sam started toward them.
The dog lunged and Harry bound into the carriage and caught up the reins. “Good day, Sam.”
He turned the horse’s head and slapped it into a trot down the track. Behind them, Sam made a reply not fit for a lady’s ears. Harry winced and glanced at Lady Georgina, but she was looking thoughtful rather than outraged. Maybe she hadn’t understood the words?
“What is false parsley?” she asked.
“It’s a weed that grows in wet places, my lady. About the height of a man with little white flowers at the top. It looks something like parsley or wild carrots.”
“I’ve never heard of it before.” Lady Georgina’s brows were knit.
“You probably know it by its other name,” Harry said. “Hemlock.”
Chapter Five
“Do you know that when I first met you I didn’t like you?” Lady Georgina asked idly as the old gig jolted over a hole in the road.
They were driving slowly down a track on the way to Tom Harding’s cottage. Harding had lost two sheep last week. Harry only hoped he wasn’t pushing their luck, staying on Granville land so long. He tore his mind away from thoughts of hemlock and dead sheep and stared at her. How was he supposed to answer a question like that?
“You were so stiff, so correct.” She twirled her parasol. “And I had the distinct feeling you were looking down your nose at me as if you didn’t particularly like me, either.”
He remembered the interview many months before in her London town house. She’d kept him waiting in a pretty pink sitting room for over an hour. Then suddenly she’d blown in, chattering at him as if they’d already met. Had he glowered at her? He didn’t know, but it was likely. Back then she’d conformed to all his expectations of an aristocratic lady.
Funny how his estimation of her had changed since.
“That’s probably why Violet so dislikes you,” she said now.
“What?” He’d lost the thread of her conversation. Again.