Black’s tone said he’d be more than happy if Alaric stayed behind. Where did the animosity come from?
“I’ll be there.”
“Have fun at the horse farm.”
Black had made his disdain clear on the last two words, and I wasn’t sure I liked him much either. What was wrong with a horse farm?
“Is there anything I can do to help?” I offered, more to annoy Black than anything. I already had my orders—monitor the company emails and send a holding message to each person until I could speak to Alaric. Start the search for summer holiday accommodation, a nice house so Rune could stay with Alaric while she was off school. Ensure there was food for dinner. Let the dog out.
But to my surprise, Alaric nodded.
“As it happens, there might be. Harriet lost some of her staff, and she can’t afford to replace them. How do you feel about helping out with the horses for an hour or two?”
If I couldn’t spend time with my own horse, the next best thing was pottering about with other people’s. A morning at a ranch sounded fascinating. How did they do things in Kentucky?
“I’d love to lend a hand. Just let me grab a pair of boots.”
CHAPTER 11 - BETHANY
“THIS IS YOUR dog?” Harriet asked.
Not really, so it seemed safest to avoid the question. “She’s called Barkley. You don’t mind us bringing her, do you? Otherwise she’d be left on her own.”
“I love dogs. Samson, our blue heeler, he passed away two months ago.” There was an air of sadness about Harriet, hardly surprising given the circumstances. “It feels like I’m losing everything.”
“I’m so sorry,” I said, my words totally inadequate.
Harriet led us into the kitchen at Lone Oak Farm, where a bunch of devices were laid out on the huge kitchen table—two mobile phones, a laptop, an iPad, plus a notepad full of wobbly handwriting, most of it barely legible. On the way over, Dan had told me she planned to check through them for clues.
“Here’s everything I could find,” Harriet told us.
“What are all the notes?” Dan asked.
“That’s Daddy’s jotter. He kept it on his nightstand. If he wrote anything down in recent weeks, it’ll be on there.” Harriet peeled a Post-it note off a pad and stuck it onto the scarred wood beside the jotter. “And these are the passwords. I’ve already been through everything myself, and I can’t see anything unusual, but feel free to look again. Are you here to help Daniela?” she asked me.
“Oh, no, I’m not an investigator. Actually, I’m here to help you, if you’d like me to. Alaric thought you might need a hand with the horses?”
“You know horses?”
“I have my own back in England. A dressage horse. His name’s Chaucer.”
“We don’t do much in the way of fancy stuff here. Most of our horses are trained for barrel racing and team roping.”
I wasn’t even sure what barrel racing and team roping were. The window over the sink gave a view of the paddocks behind the house, and I spotted a pair of foals beside the barn, nibbling grass behind a post-and-rail fence, plus a handful of older horses grazing in the distance.
“You breed as well?”
“That’s my favourite part of the job—bringing on the babies. But this year… We lost one at birth, and I’ve had to sell some of the mares to make ends meet.”
“How many horses do you have here?”
“Thirty-one of our own, plus another three geldings for training. Two stallions, eleven broodmares, eight colts, seven fillies, and three Arabians left over from Daddy’s heyday. He liked to show them when he was younger, but we’ve gradually switched over to quarter horses. Nine live in the barn, and the rest are out at pasture. And we have a dozen Corriente cattle.”
Thirty-four horses? I found it time-consuming enough looking after one. Where did Harriet get the energy? She was a good six inches shorter than me, and she didn’t look particularly strong.
“Sounds like a lot of work.”
That was borne out by her scuffed jeans and faded shirt. She clearly spent a reasonable amount of time outside with the animals.
“It is, and now I only have Rodrigo left plus Rusty on the weekends when he’s not at school. And Stéphane, of course, but he takes care of my father’s affairs and the house, not the animals.” She leaned in a little closer and dropped her voice to a whisper. “In fact, he’s quite scared of them. You really don’t mind helping?”
“Not at all.” I’d only be sitting alone in a rented house otherwise, missing Chaucer. I wouldn’t get to see him until the middle of June when I flew home to watch my little sister get married. “Where do you want me to start?”
While Dan got stuck into the investigative work, I headed out the back with Harriet. She proved to be easy company, and by the time we’d mucked out the horses in the barn and given them their lunchtime feed, I’d learned the basics of barrel racing—basically, you galloped your horse around three barrels in a cloverleaf pattern, competing against the clock. Team roping wasn’t her main focus, rather something she did to stop the barrel horses from getting stale, and it involved two people on horseback catching a steer with ropes. Dressage seemed so much safer.
But the horses were docile, even the stallions, and although I was technically working, it felt more as if I were on holiday. People would pay thousands to wake up with that view—pastures and shade trees, and in the distance down a gentle hill, fields of tobacco and a winding river.
“This place is beautiful. Have you always lived here?” I asked.
“I was born in that bedroom up there.” Harriet pointed at a window on the top floor
