A Roll in the Hay, стр. 24

Dave walked up just in time to catch her in the act. “Impressive, right?”

“It’s beautiful.” Tess was quite sincere about that. The gardens were immaculate, and each view was more beautiful than the next. That was even before she started on the imposing wooden structures that formed the stables and barns. The house itself was too much to take in on top of all that.

“This way.” Dave jerked his head in the direction of big wooden doors that had been pinned open. “You can’t miss them.”

He wasn’t wrong about that. Long before Tess saw Susannah brushing down Billie Jean, she heard the unmistakable stomping and snorting of stabled horses. The place was as neat as she’d ever seen, barely a stray piece of straw out of place. With a high roof, there was more light than a lot of stables would bother with, but at the stall level the horses were kept in a nice, gentle glow. There were four of them spread across six stalls, with Billie Jean the farthest from where Tess stood. A couple of quiet stablehands went about their work, one hosing down the empty stalls and the other rubbing oil into some reins and saddles.

“She seems comfortable,” Tess said, approaching Susannah. “And you’ve given her plenty of room to rest, so that’s good.” While horses could sleep standing up, for their real rest they liked to lie down like most other animals.

“I just want to make sure she can get up and down okay before I leave her.” Susannah reached into a bag by the door and withdrew an apple.

“Here.” Tess gestured for her to hand it over. She pulled out the penknife she kept in her jeans pocket and made short work of slicing it up.

Susannah watched every movement like a hawk.

“Saves Billie Jean having to do all the work herself.” Tess handed the sliced apple back.

With a couple of chunks of apple laid flat on her palm, Susannah offered it to the horse, fingers tilted down, out of accidental biting range. Teeth that size were no joke if they chomped down on a pinky finger.

It provided distraction enough for Tess to root around in her own bag, stuffed with fresh supplies from the car. After a bit of magic with antiseptic wipes later, she had a syringe ready to go. “This will give her a painkiller that lasts about forty-eight hours, and enough anti-inflammatory for the week. That should be enough for her whole recovery, but any signs of discomfort and I can come back out. Or you can let the other vet guys know, whichever.”

“What do you need me to do?”

“Stand with me and keep hold of her; it’s safer than having her tied. You keep her attention, and I’ll be as gentle as I can with the needle. Base of the neck should be the least fuss all round.”

“I’ve had other vets go with the rump.” There was a challenge in there.

“Only for longer courses of treatment with multiple injections,” Tess replied. “This should be one and done.” She smoothed her hand down the side of Billie Jean’s long neck, mentally tracing the triangle within which it was safe to inject. The muscles used as markers were well-defined, so Tess injected efficiently and as gently as possible.

Billie Jean neighed a little but barely flinched.

“She trusts you,” Susannah said.

Damn, how did Her Ladyship get quite so close?

Susannah still had a soothing hand on her horse. “She’s a patient girl, but that’s calm even for her.”

“All part of the job,” Tess said, taking an instinctive step back just to feel like she could breathe. “I can stay with her a bit longer if you’d like. And I’ll leave some fresh support bandages with your staff too.”

“No, thank you. You’ve done enough, really. I’m sure you had appointments before I crashed your afternoon.”

“I do have one other farm to visit.” Tess checked her watch. “We’ll send a bill over, if that’s okay.”

“Of course.” Susannah enclosed Billie Jean into her comfortable stall and followed Tess out, hovering over her the whole time as Tess handed over a small box of elasticated bandages to one of the grooms.

“This really is a nice place you have here,” Tess said when they made it back to her car. “I came here a couple of times when I was still a wee one.”

“You did?”

“Easter Egg hunt, one time. Can’t remember why else. There was a young man greeting all the visitors. I think that must have been your husband? James, was it?”

“Jimmy, yes. This was his family home, but he wanted to do more with it.” Susannah gestured towards the stables. “So it’s all down to me now. To usher in a new age of Midsummer. Which I’m sure you also didn’t read about in the papers.”

Tess tried to look like she never saw a word of it. “What sort of things? I overheard some chatter about an amusement park.”

“Good lord, no.” Susannah visibly shuddered. “There are some properties to renovate that people can rent for holidays, that sort of thing. Maybe one day I could even turn it into a retreat for artists or something. But the sanctuary, that’s my pet project. As it were.”

“Horses?”

“And donkeys and dogs. All the animals that need space to stretch their legs. I have the room, so why not?”

“Huh.”

“What?” Susannah demanded.

“I just didn’t expect that from you, that’s all. It’s very…charitable.”

“Well, you shouldn’t believe everything you hear, Dr Robertson.”

It was just reflex, but Tess stuck her hand out, now that it was free of the disposable gloves she used for treatment.

There was a frozen moment between them where Susannah looked down almost in confusion, but eventually she took the hint and extended her own hand for the briefest of shakes.

“I guess I’ll be seeing you around,” Tess said.

“It’s a small village, so I suppose you will.”

With that, Susannah turned on the firm heel of her riding boots, the tan leather moulded to her shapely calves, and started back towards the house.

Tess should