A Rogue in Sheep’s Clothing Read Online Free

gray coat glowed like pearls. The beauty of him stabbed deep. His soft nostrils fanned with the smell of apple in her pocket. He munched his treat into foam, then used her dressing gown as a napkin — his head rubbing up and down her side. She had to brace herself to keep her feet. “Oh you animal,” she said, murmuring into the horse’s muzzle. “How desperately I’m going to miss you.”
    She threw her arms around Manifesto’s neck and kissed his soft muzzle. The stallion breathed sweet apple and hay scent on her cheek. She smiled in spite of her grief. “Do you know you’re the best friend I ever had?” Tears spilled from her eyes and guttered into Manifesto’s white mane. Her unhappiness upset him. He pawed his straw and tossed his head.
    “You’re right, darling,” she told him, gently rubbing his eyes. “You need to get some sleep. It’s a big day tomorrow.”
    Ellie patted the horse’s neck, ran her hand down his back, and tried to walk away. Her feet would not go. She smoothed knots in his mane, and again, tried to leave, but the pain doubled.
    What will I do with my days? I can’t sit with my sisters in the parlor sewing, reading, embroidering. I’ll go mad.
Chest cramped with sorrow, she rested her head against the horse’s withers and closed her eyes.
    A jolt snapped Ellie to attention, catching herself as her knees buckled. Sleep had almost dumped her on the floor. She swept a hand over Manifesto’s pearly coat, down the neck, across the barrel to the haunches, until her fingers dropped from his rump. In the empty stall next to his, she lay down in the straw and closed her eyes. She would stay with her stallion until … until he was gone.
    • • •
    Dawn pinked the window when Ellie woke to the sound of loud voices. “What in bloody hell’s the matter with you? Get him out and get him going!” she heard Lank shout.
    Manifesto snorted and smacked the side of his stall with a vicious kick. “He don’t like to handle for nobody but Lady Ellie,” she heard head groom Jimmy James explain.
    “To hell with that,” Lank said. “Throw a rope around him and cut his wind.”
    Ellie blazed out of the adjacent stall. “Cease and desist, sir!”
    Lank whirled on her. “What in bloody hell are you doing here?”
    “You forget, sir, that my father is lord of this estate. I insist you leave my horse alone.”
    “He’s not your horse anymore, and you, showing up in the barn in naught but your night shift. That ought to cause quite a stir in the scandal sheets.”
    Ellie grabbed a horse blanket and drew it around her shoulders. “I won’t be intimidated by you, Mr. Lank.”
    “You’d be better off if you were. Are you going to lead the horse, or shall I?”
    “Help you? No, by God.”
    “Then the bloody beast needs to learn his new boss.” Lank hauled Jimmy James from the stall. With a vicious smack, he banged a rolled up bullwhip against the enclosure wall.
    Manifesto shied, snorting in fury. Crack! went the whip. The stallion aimed his rump at Lank, and the bullwhip landed hard on the horse’s haunches. Manifesto crashed into the walls.
    “Are you mad?” Ellie screamed. “Let him alone!” The whip cracked again and again.
    She tore at Lank’s arm, grabbed his coat collar, pulled his hair — trying desperately to yank him away.
    “Look out!” Jimmy James shouted.
    The stallion, ears back, headed straight at Lank. Ellie leaped aside, and Lank dodged behind the half door as the horse charged from the stall.
    Manifesto galloped to one end of the barn just as a stable boy slammed the door shut. In a frenzy, the animal tore back down the aisle.
    “Calm, sweeting,” Ellie cooed, but her words were choked and frightened. Jimmy James took Ellie’s arm and pressed a bucket of oats into her hand. “Spare the horse another beating,” he said. “Help me tie him to the wagon.”
    Lank had moved into the stall and closed the door to protect himself. “You have five minutes,” he