I went. He had heavy lidded eyes and a few purple thread veins on his nose and cheeks. He looked at me with superior bored disdain. I am five feet nine inches tall; he was four inches taller, and he made the most of it.
'You'll pay for it if those horses of mine don't last the day. I ride them hard. They need to be fit.'
His voice had the same expensive timbre as October's.
'They're as fit as the snow would allow,' I said calmly.
He raised his eyebrows.
'Sir,' I added.
'Insolence,' he^pa, 'will get you nowhere. '
'I am sorry, sjifi didn't mean to be insolent.'
He laughed unpleasantly.
'I'll bet you didn't. It's not so easy to get another job, is it? You'll watch your tongue when you speak to me in future, if you know what'srgood for you.'
'Yes, sir.'
'And if those horses of mine aren't fit, you'll wish you'd never been born.'
Cass appeared at my left elbow, looking anxious.
'Is everything all right, sir?' he asked.
'Has Roke done anything wrong, Mr. Adams?'
How I managed not to jump out of my skin I am not quite sure. Mr. Adams. Paul James Adams, sometime owner of seven subsequently doped horses?
'Is this bloody gipsy doing my horses any good?' said Adams offensively.
'He's no worse than any of the other lads,' said Cass soothingly.
'And that's saying precious little.' He gave me a mean stare.
'You've had it easy during the freeze. Too damned easy. You'll have to wake your ideas up now hunting has started again. You won't find me as soft as your master, I can tell you that.'
I said nothing. He slapped his stick sharply against his boot.
'Do you hear what I say? You'll find me harder to please.'
'Yes, sir,' I muttered.
He opened his fingers and let his stick fall at his feet.
'Pick it up,' he said.
As I bent to pick it up, he put his booted foot on my shoulder and gave me a heavy, over-balancing shove, so that I fell sprawling on to the soaking, muddy ground.
He smiled with malicious enjoyment.
'Get up, you clumsy lout, and do as you are told. Pick up my stick.'
I got to my feet, picked up his stick, and held it out to him. He twitched it out of my hand, and looking at Cass said, 'You've got to show them you won't stand any nonsense. Stamp on them whenever you can. This one,' he looked me coldly up and down, 'needs to be taught a lesson. What do you suggest? '
Cass looked at me doubtfully. I glanced at Adams. This, I thought, was not funny. His greyish blue eyes were curiously opaque, as if he were drunk: but he was plainly sober. I had seen that look before, in the eyes of a stable hand I had once, for a short time, employed, and I knew what it could mean. I had got to guess at once, and guess right, whether he preferred bullying the weak or the strong. From instinct, perhaps because of his size and evident worldliness, I guessed that crushing the weak would be too tame for him. In which case it was definitely not the moment for any show of strength. I drooped in as cowed and unresisting a manner as I could devise.
'God,' said Adams in disgust.
'Just look at him. Scared out of his bloody wits.' He shrugged impatiently.
'Well Cass, just find him some stinking useless occupation like scrubbing the paths and put him to work. There's no sport for me here. No backbone for me to break. Give me a fox any day, at least they've got some cunning and some guts.'
His gaze strayed sideways to where Humber was crossing the far end of the yard. He said to Cass, Tell Mr. Humber I'd like to have a word with him,' and when Cass had gone he turned back to me.
'Where did you work before this?'
'At Mr. Inskip's, sir.'
'And he kicked you out?'
'Yes, sir.'
'Why?'
'I… er…' I stuck. It was incredibly galling to have to lay oneself open to such a man; but if I gave him answers he could check in small things he might believe the whopping lies without question.
'When I ask a question, you will answer it,' said Adams coldly.
'Why did Mr. Inskip get rid of you?'
I swallowed.
'I got the sack for er… for messing about with the boss's daughter.'
'For messing about…' he repeated.
'Good God.' With lewd pleasure he said something which was utterly obscene, and which struck clear home.
He saw me wince and laughed at my discomfiture. Cass and Humber returned. Adams turned to Humber, still laughing, and said, 'Do you know why this cockerel got chucked out of Inskip's?'
'Yes,' said Humber flatly.
'He seduced October's daughter.' He wasn't interested.
'And there was also the matter of a favourite that came in last. He looked after it.'
'October's daughter!' said Adams, surprised, his eyes narrowing.
'I thought he meant Inskip's daughter. ' He casually dealt me a sharp clip on the ear.
'Don't try lying to me.'
'Mr. Inskip hasn't got a daughter,' I protested.
'And don't answer back.' His hand nicked out again. He was rather adept at it. He must have indulged in a lot of practice.
'Hedley,' he said to Humber, who had impassively watched this one-sided exchange, 'I'll give you a lift to Nottingham races on Monday if you like. I'll pick you up at ten.'
'Right,' agreed Humber.
Adams turned to Cass.
'Don't forget that lesson for this lily-livered Romeo. Cool his ardour a bit.'
Cass sniggered sycophantically and raised goose pimples on my neck.
Adams climbed coolly into his Jaguar, started it up, and followed the horse box containing his two hunters out of the yard.
Humber said, 'I don't want Roke out of action, Cass. You've got to leave him fit for work. Use some sense this time.' He limped away to continue his inspection of the boxes.
Cass looked at me, and I looked steadily down at my damp, muddy clothes, very conscious that the head lad counted among the enemy, and not wanting to risk his seeing that there was anything but submissiveness in my face.
He said, 'Mr. Adams don't like to be crossed.'
'I didn't cross him.'
'Nor he don't like to be answered back to. You mind your lip.'
'Has he any more horses here?' I asked.
'Yes,' said Cass, 'and it's none of your business. Now, he told me to punish you, and he won't forget. He'll check up later. '
'I've done nothing wrong,' I said sullenly, still looking down. What on earth would my foreman say about this, I thought; and nearly smiled at the picture.
'You don't need to have done nothing wrong,' said Cass.
'With Mr. Adams it is a case of punish first so that you won't do anything wrong after. Sense, in a way.' He gave a snort of laughter.
'Saves trouble, see?'
