Page 98 of The Affairs of Ashmore Castle

What he did see – only a glimpse between heads and shoulders, but the eye of love was keen, and he was sure he was right – was Tabby’s jolly straw boater decked with artificial cherries, and beneath it her golden hair, which was a colour different from everyone else’s, so you couldn’t mistake it.

She seemed to be on the arm of a man, but William was unable to see which man. Her boss, perhaps? Or her father? He tried to hurry after her, but the crowds were so thick they impeded his progress, and by the time he reached the place where she had been, she was long gone. Then he started to doubt he had actually seen her. He wandered on, from stall to stall, without purpose. If she was here, she had said she would find him, but in such a throng, would she be any more successful than him?

Alice examined the horses and ponies tied up for sale, which gave her both pleasure and pain: pleasure because she loved all horses, pain because some of them were so old and poor she feared for their future. She wished she had lots of money and could buy them all so they’d be safe and cared for. She stopped to stroke a very thin pony with a dull coat and hipbones that stuck out like a cow’s, and it flinched away from her hand as though it expected to be struck. But then it sighed, and even leaned against her fingers a little, as if remembering better days.

‘Lovely pony that,’ said the exceedingly dirty man standing near it, who looked even thinner than his charge. ‘Suit you perfect, miss. I can see you like him.’

‘He’s very thin,’ she said disapprovingly.

‘No, he’s just lean and fit. You don’t want no fat pony, miss, that’ll lose his puff if you try to gallop. Fat ponies ain’t healthy. Carry you all day, will this pony, up hill and down dale. Doesn’t know the meaning of tired. Got more courage ’n a lion. Your pa here, miss? Get him to buy you this here pony, and you’ll never regret it.’

‘I’m sure I wouldn’t,’ Alice said, meaning something quite different.

‘Starved,’ said a voice beside her. ‘And beaten too, if I’m any judge.’ Alice glanced round and saw it was Miss Eddowes.

‘It looks so sad,’ Alice said quietly to her. ‘I wish I could do something for it.’

‘People who mistreat animals make my blood boil,’ Miss Eddowes said. ‘But judging by his appearance, the owner can’t afford to feed himself, let alone a horse.’

‘What will happen to it?’ Alice asked fearfully.

‘If the fellow’s lucky, he’ll get a few shillings for it from the knacker for its skin and bones.’

‘It’ll be killed?’

‘Then its troubles will be over,’ said Miss Eddowes. She looked at Alice, and read her thoughts. Everyone says you’re very rich. You could buy it. A few shillings would be nothing to you. You could feed it up and make it happy.

‘My dear Lady Alice,’ she said, ‘I doubt if anything much could save this poor beast. It’s probably twenty years old, and riddled with disease into the bargain.’

‘Oh, but—’ Alice began. She felt tears gathering in her eyes and was angry with herself. She wanted to be calm and rational – that was the way to persuade. She knew instinctively that passion wouldn’t do it with Miss Eddowes. She swallowed and tried again. ‘I’m sure he was loved by someone once. See how he likes me scratching his head.’

Miss Eddowes looked a query. ‘They don’t give you an allowance up at the Castle.’ It was half a question, half a statement.

Alice felt embarrassed. ‘I never really have to buy things.’

‘No, I suppose not. Your mother—’

‘She’s away. She was at Cowes, then she went to Scotland. I don’t think she’s coming back until the autumn.’ There were a lot of questions competing for Alice’s attention just then, foremost among them, Why does my mother hate you? But the pony gave a trembling sigh and eased its weight onto the other foot, and banished them all.

The owner spoke up again. ‘This your ma, miss? She looks like a good judge of ’orses. Buy the young lady this nice pony, lady, what she’s lost her heart to?’

‘I’m not her mother,’ Miss Eddowes said briskly. ‘And this poor animal should be put out of its misery.’ And she walked away.

Alice stood stunned, trying to think of a way out. Could she offer to buy the pony and promise to pay later, when she’d had a chance to beg some money from Giles? Or from Uncle Sebastian, more likely? But the man didn’t seem like a local – she’d never seen him before and he didn’t know who she was. So he’d want his money right away so he could go home. He’d never trust her for it.

Then a voice from behind her said over her head, ‘Give you five bob for him.’

All the hair stood up on the back of Alice’s neck. She knew that voice.

The owner’s gaze tracked upwards to address a taller person. A hopeful look came into his sunken eyes. ‘Lot of interest in this ’ere pony, guv’nor. Young lady’s thinking of taking ’im. Twelve bob, I was thinking of asking.’

‘Better think again, then. Five bob, and that’s four bob more than it’s worth.’

‘I’d get eight bob from the knacker.’

‘You’d never get it as far as the knacker. Take five bob before it drops dead and you’re left holding a bit o’ rope. Come on, I haven’t got all day.’

And a moment later, the end of the dirty bit of rope that constituted a halter was in Axe’s hand, the thin man had melted into the crowds with his two half-crowns, and Alice was staring up at her hero with a mixture of gratitude and bewilderment.