A Country Affair Read Free Page B

to look outside the window again, but the "Squire" had disappeared. The innkeeper's Johnny had fetched an axe to split logs.
    "Your Squire appears to have decamped," Richard remarked idly to his host.
    Mr. Croft checked his timepiece. "Yessir. It'll be time for milking up at The Grange, and Mr. Augustus be a good one for remembering his chores."
    "Is he now? And The Grange, I take it, is the Payley estate?"
    Mr. Croft confirmed this and, after giving Richard directions to The Grange, agreed to his borrowing a gig while his own horse rested.
    With Johnny's help, the gig was readied, and Richard soon found himself urging the inn's one horse up a road deeply rutted by cartwheels. Lurching and bumping with each rut, he reached the crest of a short hill and immediately spotted Augustus trudging homeward. The boy, who appeared to be in a vast hurry, was stumbling over the ruts in his haste.
    Richard lightly flicked the horse on the back with the reins and, in spite of the dismal road, soon overtook him.
    "May I offer you a ride?" Richard said, as the boy turned to see who was passing him.
    "Yessir! Thank you, sir!" Wreathed in smiles, Augustus clambered onto the seat beside him. His head was bare, and the winter's setting sun picked out the golden highlights in his hair.
    If Richard had not been on guard, he would have been disarmed by the boy's frank gratitude. As it was, he had to fight a strong urge to smile back at him.
    "Have you far to go?" Richard said, clicking to the horse, though the innkeeper had already told him the distance to The Grange.
    "No, it's not much farther. Just another mile up this road. I walk it all the time, but I left a little later than I should have, which makes me doubly glad you came along when you did, sir."
    They bucked down the road for a moment in silence, before Richard asked, “And whom do I have the pleasure of conveying?"
    Augustus flushed and bobbed his head in the best bow he could manage under the perilous circumstances. "Your pardon, sir, I ought to have introduced myself. Augustus Payley, Esq., at your service."
    Richard offered the boy his hand and was pleased by the firmness of his handshake. "Your servant, Mr. Payley." He hoped Augustus would not notice his failure to identify himself, but Richard knew he would be unlikely to get much information from the boy if he did.
    "Were you heading for The Grange, yourself?"
    Startled by the question, Richard hesitated before responding, "As a matter of fact, I was. How did you know?"
    Augustus chuckled. "Excuse me, sir, but you almost had to be. We have the only farm up this road. And, besides, we've been expecting you."
    "I see." So far, the conversation had been filled with surprises, none of which had helped Richard at all.
    "Yessir. We thought you might come yesterday, but when you did not, we thought you might have been taken ill."
    And who is we? Richard had started to phrase this question more politely aloud, when Augustus said, "Pardon me, sir, but it might be better for me to lead your horse down this hill." Without waiting for Richard's agreement, he jumped down from the gig.
    Richard, who was not used to needing his horses led, was completely taken aback until he saw the reason for the boy's action. A rut, deeper and wider than all the others, had made the next descent more than uncomfortable. It would be an easy matter to trap a wheel and overturn the gig while trying to pull it out.
    Richard had no doubt of his ability to guide the horse around it, but he let the boy do as he wished. This Augustus Payley, whoever he was, certainly had an engaging way about him.
    The hill once negotiated, Augustus scrambled back onto the seat. Richard thanked him kindly for his service and took control of the horse again.
    "We're coming to The Grange now, sir. Do you see our orchard?"
    Noting the pride in the boy's voice, Richard followed his gesture to see, indeed, that they were about to pass an immense orchard, filled with dormant cherry trees.