Page 95 of Managing the Major

“Yes, I did. And I told him he was about to meet his instructor, who is far more terrifying than any general he’s served under.”

“You didn’t!”

“But I did. He’s shaking in his boots.”

“Alastair!”

“Actually, Corporal Adams is waiting at the barn with Peter, and Freya is keeping them company. She endeared herself by bringing a very dead field mouse as a gift. Shall we go there, and I’ll introduce you to the corporal?”

She nodded, and they walked up the gently sloping hill, loosely clasping hands. The stone structure of the stables loomed at the top, with Fairfax Manor in the distance.

In the smaller pasture adjoining the barn, Sigrun reared, nipping at the new two-year-old’s rump. The colt kicked up at her, then cantered off in a long, sweeping gait. Sigrun squealed and cantered after it, while Thor grazed nearby, entirely unaffected by their antics.

“Is Corporal Adams very badly injured, Alastair?”

“It’s not good. He’s lost his arm from the shoulder and refuses to consider a prosthetic. There’s quite a lot of anger and despondency swirling around inside the corporal. It won’t be as easy as the last man you helped rehabilitate with riding.”

“Horses are still the best cure for that, don’t you agree? And I have faith in my methods.” She smiled up at him, and he stopped to press a kiss to her mouth.

“I do too, sweetheart.”

“We shall just have to teach him to ride one-handed. The older horse we purchased in Sussex is perfect for that. And our program worked amazingly well for a certain major that I know.”

She lifted a hand to his cheek, and he turned his face against it, tenderly kissing the hollow of her palm. “My Valkyrie.”

They stayed like that a moment while the stallion dropped its head to graze. “I almost forgot that I have good news,” he said, straightening.

“Do you?”

“Sir William proposed to Nerissa, and they’ve set a date in March.”

“Ha! Now you’ll have to admit that I’ve proven myself as a matchmaker. Abigail and Theo are to marry in October, and with Nerissa and Sir William’s wedding five months later…”

“I can’t deny your aptitude for matchmaking, my love—don’t forget your very first success. You managed quite successfully to lull me into proposing marriage when I had no intention—”

“What? I was the one who was absolutely set against marriage. If you will remember, Major Alastair Lawton Fairfax, I was very happy just—oh, you brute! When will I ever learn not to take the bait?”

“Now who is managing whom?” he teased.

“Sometimes, I’m amazed we can be so happy despite our differences,” she laughed.

“Oh, I think we do better than that, my love…you do an incomparable and magnificently superb job of loving me.”

“And your love, Alastair, is more than exemplary, exceptional, and perfect.”

And having settled the issue, they walked into the stables to meet the next soldier willing to chance happiness on the healing power of a horse.

The End