She nodded. “I see your point.”
Daniel helped her take her seat and she gazed at Trick, his hair blowing, the sleeves of his shirt billowing along with it. He looked so much like a pirate at the moment, she couldn’t help but chuckle. “We’ll be back this afternoon, Trick. And you’ll be joining us at dinner. I’ll have many questions for you.”
Trick shot a quick look at Daniel, then inclined his head. “If you say so, Ma’am. I’ll be looking forward to it.”
With a quick flick of the reins, Daniel pulled away from the stables and set them off onto the lane at an easy pace.
“I believe I detected a touch of Welsh in Trick’s voice,” Adalyn mused aloud. “Could he be from Wales?”
“He might,” responded Daniel.
She waited, but no further comments were forthcoming. So she tried again. “I know so little about you all, and yet you know so much about me.”
“There is much more about you we have yet to learn, Adalyn. A woman is always a mystery to a man. A woman like yourself, even more so.”
She blinked. “Me? You must be mistaken, Daniel. I’m nothing out of the ordinary, I can assure you.”
He opened his mouth to speak, but at that moment a magpie flew from the hedge and the horse shied a little in surprise.
“Oh dear.” Adalyn watched the bird dart into the sky. “One for sorrow.” She quoted the first line of the old adage.
“Not at all.” Daniel lifted his hand to his mouth and called after the bird. “Good morning, Mr. Magpie. How is Mrs. Magpie and the little Magpies?”
Adalyn stared at him.
He glanced back at her as he clicked the horse back into a trot. “You’ve not heard the way to offset the bad luck of a single magpie?”
She shook her head. “No, never.”
“You simply give him a polite greeting and ask after his family. That way, he’s so delighted with the pleasantry he leaves the sorrow behind.”
Adalyn laughed. “Well now I know, I shall certainly be sure to greet the next magpie I see.” Daringly she pulled her hand from her muff and tucked it under Daniel’s arm again. “I wonder what else I shall learn today?”
Chapter Five
The rays of sun were not strong, but provided enough light for Adalyn to see the layout of her lands.
Several fields lay fallow, others showed the remnants of the harvest that had failed most farms so terribly last autumn. The remaining ones were little more than grass.
“I’m not sure how long you’ve been here at Wolfbridge, Daniel…” She began the conversation casually. “But if you were in residence last year, I must ask how it was on the estate? I know the country as a whole suffered a great deal.”
His expression was sober. “You’re right, Adalyn. It was a very bad year indeed. We managed a harvest, but barely half of what we would usually expect. We had to thin our herds accordingly—some were butchered for food, others sold. These empty fields are for the cattle and a few sheep, but at the moment they’re in their barns or paddocks. It’s been too cold and snowy to risk what we have left.”
“So you were here?”
“I was. And to answer your unspoken question, I’ve been here at Wolfbridge for three years.”
“Ah,” she felt the colour rise in her cheeks. “Thank you for telling me.”
The lane took them past several fields with rows of what looked to Adalyn like carefully arranged sticks. She turned to Daniel, pointing, a question on her lips.
“Blackberries. Raspberries. That one over there is gooseberries.”
“Oh my.” She gazed at the regular rows. “That’s a lot of berries.”
“If you’ll be patient for a few minutes, you’ll see why.” He clicked the horse into a steady trot.
Adalyn realised they were going uphill. There was a rise ahead of them—not steep but enough to lift the land above the fields.
At the top, Daniel drew the gig to a halt and jumped down, coming around to help Adalyn alight. “Now. Now you can see.”
He tucked her arm beneath his and walked to one part of the lane where a convenient bench had been placed. They sat and Daniel snuggled her close to his side for warmth as he swept his free arm out before them.
“There. Now you can see most of Wolfbridge. There are the fields, the berry fields, the livestock pastures. And in the distance are the barns and the cottages. A few outbuildings, hayricks, and I believe you might just be able to see the Wolf river, winding down toward the sea. It’s a little over a mile from where we’re sitting, and a few miles more to its eventual destination.”
A break in the clouds conveniently allowed a tiny shimmer to glint in the distance, and Adalyn nodded. “Yes. There. I see it.”
“That marks the southern boundary of the Wolfbridge estate. We are standing on the northwestern edge, and because we’re on this hill, you can see how the fields are sheltered just a little from the full blast of storms coming in from this direction. It’s not much, but enough that our fields weren’t completely flattened last year by some of the terrible weather that tore through most of the country.”
She looked around with fascination. “’Tis almost as if Wolfbridge is in a little bowl, a dip in the land…”
“Indeed, yes. We gain the benefits of the sun and a measure of protection from the wind. Our river and the streams that feed it are capable of handling whatever rain we get, so there are few floods—none that I can recall—and the water is pure. Something to do with the underlying rocks,” he gave a half chuckle. “And that’s where my knowledge ends.”
“What is that?” She pointed off to the distance where several dark shapes stood out against a winter-pale field.
“Those are standing stones.”
“Really? You mean we have our own Stonehenge?”
“Well, not quite that dramatic,” he smiled. “Whatever circle might have
