“I will see you at the tavern,” he told her. “Brencis and I have a horse to settle.”
Words of denial were on Lysabel’s lips, but she couldn’t bring herself to utter them. Brencis was giddy with delight and Trenton didn’t seem too annoyed at her request, so she simply smiled and nodded her head, knowing that any such refusals at this point would only see a hysterical daughter. As the wagon proceeded forward once again, Lysabel’s last glimpse of Trenton and Brencis was as the man settled the little girl across his lap and held tightly to her.
But Brencis wasn’t going anywhere. She was exactly where she wanted to be and nearly delirious with delight as she was permitted to ride in front of Trenton astride his big warhorse. She held tight to the arm that was around her, holding her steady as they entered the livery yard where the men were gathering. A few words from Trenton had the men moving over to the north side of the yard and away from the corral with horses in it, and he proceeded to enter the livery itself, a great stone structure with a heavily-thatched roof.
The livery inside was far less busy than outside. In fact, there were only a few animals in the cool, quiet interior and as Trenton entered, a round man in well-mended clothing approached him.
“Lodgings for your horse tonight, my lord?” he asked.
Trenton nodded. “My horse and a few others,” he said, gesturing towards the gang of men outside the livery. “Those are my men and they may need to seek a roof over their heads if the rains come, so I will pay you for the privilege. Most of the men are on foot but there are a few mounted soldiers, and we will need to feed those animals as well.”
The livery man nodded, eyeing Dewi, whose head was nearly as long as the man’s body. “He’s a big one, my lord,” he commented. “Since he’s muzzled, I’ll assume he bites?”
“Quite happily.”
“Will you unmuzzle him so I can feed him?”
Trenton lifted Brencis up and handed her over to the livery man, who quickly took the child and set her to her feet. “Aye,” Trenton replied as he dismounted. “As long as you feed him, he shouldn’t snap at you, but be advised that he has a foul temper at times. Brush him and water him, too.”
The livery man simply nodded. “I’ve been in business for thirty years,” he said. “I’ve seen plenty of foul beasts come through here.”
Trenton smiled, but it was without humor. “I can only imagine how true that is,” he said, removing a glove so he could extract coins from his coin purse. He pulled out several, placing them in the man’s palm. “Just be cautious around my horse and you should survive intact.”
The man looked at the coins in his hand; it was a good deal of money. “Thank you, my lord,” he said sincerely. “Put your horse over here.”
He was indicating a particularly warm and cozy corner with a small window for ventilation. As Trenton led Dewi over to the corner that smelled heavily of hay, the livery man followed along, unstrapping the enormous saddle and pulling it free of the horse. It ended up slung over the side of the stall as Trenton pulled his horse into the warm, dry area and removed his bridle, tying a rope into the halter he wore to secure him. He glanced around, looking for Brencis, who seemed to have strangely disappeared. So once the rope was secure and the livery man was pouring water into the horse’s bucket, he left the stall to hunt down the child.
It didn’t take him long to find her.
She was standing in a stall next to the entrance with a small white pony, hugging the animal and whispering to it. Trenton could hear her as he came up, and she was telling the pony much of the same things she had said to Dewi, only the pony was far more docile. As he came to the edge of the stall, a smile on his lips, she petted the pony’s face and scratched his velvety nose, kissing the animal between the eyes.
“I see you’ve found a new best friend,” Trenton said, leaning against the post of the stall. “Dewi will think he has been jilted.”
Brencis looked at him, beaming. “I saw her when we came into the stable,” she said. “She looks so tiny and alone here. Where is her mummy?”
Trenton peered at the pony, noting the whiskers and the faint white dusting of hair around the muzzle. “This is not a young horse,” he said. “She is older. See the white whiskers?”
Brencis looked at what he was pointing to. “Oh,” she said simply. “She looks young.”
“She is small.”
“I love her very much.”
“I am sure she appreciates that.”
Brencis continued to hug and pet the pony, who was really very tolerant of the little girl fawning all over her. Trenton wondered how he was going to pull her away from the little thing without causing a battle.
“We should find your mother now,” he said. “You can come with me in the morning to visit the pony again when I come to collect Dewi.”
Brencis’ face fell but she didn’t argue. She simply looked at the pony with that terrible longing as one does when leaving something one very badly wants. In fact, Trenton had to look away because, more and more, he was becoming sympathetic to Brencis and her undying love of horses. It was really very sweet to witness, such innocent joy in something so simple. But it was more than that – this child, who had grown up with such a cruel father, still found the ability to love. As he stood there, waiting for her to separate herself from her instant best friend, the livery man came up beside him.
“I see she’s found Snowdrop,” he said.
Both Trenton and Brencis looked at the man. “Snowdrop?” Brencis said. “What’s that?”
The livery man pointed at the little white pony. “It’s her name,” he said. “Snowdrop because of the white snowdrop flower.”
Brencis looked to the little pony in delight, resuming her hugging and petting. Trenton scratched his neck in a reluctant gesture. “I am not entirely certain we are going to be able to leave,” he muttered to the livery man. “My lady seems to be quite fond of Snowdrop.”
The livery man watched as the little girl petted Snowdrop and the pony tried to nibble on her. “A man gave me the pony in payment for shoeing his palfrey,” he said. “I’ve no real use for her. She eats my food and grows fat. Why not buy her for your daughter? I will give you an excellent price.”
If Trenton could have throttled the man for saying such a thing in front of Brencis, he would have. The little girl’s eyes lit up and she hugged the pony around the neck so hard that it startled the little beast.
“I will take the best care of her!” she said, tears already streaming down her face. “I want her and she has no one to love her. She will love me and I will love her. Please… may I have her?”
Trenton exhaled, long and slow, sensing a losing battle ahead. He knew what his answer was going to be; his only concern was in telling Lysabel that he’d purchased a pony for Brencis. He knew he shouldn’t, and he further knew that she would probably become angry with him, but he thought that it was time to put poor Brencis out of her misery when it came to her love for horses. Clearly, she lived and breathed them, and this little pony needed an owner. A six-year-old owner who would love her more than anything on earth.
Besides… he was afraid to deny her. As a man who held absolutely no fear, in any arena, the fear of tears from a lonely little girl had him surrendering.
He was a fool.
Stepping into the stall, Trenton crouched in front of the weeping girl and the fat, white pony, watching for a moment as Brencis snuggled with the pony “We have a long trip ahead of us,” he said. “It will be a very long trip for a pony with such little legs.”
He was giving a last-ditch effort to reason with her, but Brencis was beyond reason. She only knew what she wanted.
“She is strong, I know it,” she insisted, wiping the tears on her cheeks. “I will ride her the whole way. She will not be tired at all because I will be very gentle. I will not make her tired.”
She sounded so very sincere and Trenton could see that nothing short of an act of God could discourage her. So much for t
rying to reason with her.
“Half a crown and the pony is yours,” the livery man said, throwing another nail in the coffin of Trenton’s decision. “I’ll even throw in a bridle and a saddle for the little miss. They came with the pony.”
Trenton was close to throttling the man again, who was trying hard to seal the deal, but the truth was that the decision was already made. Standing up, he sighed heavily.
“Do you have another pony?” he asked. “There are two girls. I cannot purchase a pony for one and not the other.”
The livery man nodded quickly and scurried away. Trenton returned his attention to Brencis as the little girl was now petting the back of the pony, running her fingers through the white hair. He could see how delirious she was. That kind of happiness was foreign to him, so very happy that one could nearly burst with it. Trenton couldn’t even remember when he’d been that happy, or if he’d ever been that happy, and he was wildly envious about it. Perhaps in making Brencis so happy, he was living vicariously through her.
Was there truly such happiness in all the world?
As he continued to watch Brencis and her new pony, the livery man appeared again, leading another pony, a fat brown animal that was dark all over except for her flaxen-colored mane and tail. When Trenton turned to look at the animal, the livery man had the pony walk a circle.
“This little lass belongs to my own daughter, but she doesn’t ride her any longer,” he said. “She’s become too old for her, I fear, so Honey has no one to love her. Will your other little girl love her?”
Trenton didn’t even know how to answer that, considering he’d be giving the pony to Cynethryn, who hadn’t shown him much warmth since she’d known him. He simply shrugged and dug into his coin purse again, pulling out a couple of coins and handing them over to the livery man.
“Feed them and brush them, and when we leave in the morning, we shall take them both,” he said. “Include the bridles and blankets and anything else that comes with them.”
The livery man was thrilled, having offloaded two useless ponies for a tidy sum. As he took Honey back to her stall, Trenton turned to Brencis, who was now standing at the rear of the pony and trying to braid her tail.
“Well?” he said to her. “Did you hear all of that?”
Brencis looked up from the tail. “What?”
“You are now the proud owner of Snowdrop.”
Brencis blinked. “Me?”
“You.”
“She… she is mine?”
“She is yours.”
Brencis stared at him a moment before dropping the tail and running to him, throwing her arms around him and squeezing him as tightly as she could. He was so tall, and she was so short, that she ended up embracing his upper thighs, but the message was clear.
“Thank you,” she murmured as she hugged him. “Thank you for my pony. I love you very much.”
With that, she rushed back to the white pony and hugged the horse’s neck again, squeezing so much that the animal was once again startled. It was clear the pony wasn’t used to all of the attention, but that was going to soon change.
Trenton was sure of it.
Little Brencis had thanked him like no one else ever had. I love you very much. He was certain she’d said it only because he’d given her the pony, but he was equally certain she meant every word and that fascinated him. Were there really people in the world who loved so freely and showed emotion so freely? He was seeing a good deal through the eyes of Brencis, a side of the world he’d never really seen before. His world was death and espionage, and that was something he’d learned to guard himself against. But this… this was something he’d never experienced before.
He thought he could get used to it.
“Now that you know she is yours, you will bid her a good eve,” he said. “We must return to your mother and tell her what we have done.”
Brencis looked at him, rather fearfully. “You will not let her give my pony back, will you?”
“Nay. It is my gift to you.”
She seemed relieved. “And my father? You will not let him take it away?”
He could hear the fear in her voice and he felt a stab of rage that was unexpected. He could hardly imagine this lovely, sensitive child subjected to Benoit’s horrific behavior. Shaking his head, he held out a hand to her.
“Nay, lass,” he said quietly. “I will not let him take it away. Come along, now. We must go.”
With the promise that the pony was hers – truly hers – Brencis separated herself from her new pet somewhat easily. Her gaze still on the white pony, she took Trenton’s hand and let him take her from the stable, but she wouldn’t take her eyes off the pony until she could no longer see it. Outside the livery, sunset was beginning to fall and the dark clouds overhead had obliterated the sky, and the smell of rain was in the air.
With Brencis in hand, Trenton hurriedly made his way down the road until he came to a sign that said The Greene and The Glory. A small, two-storied building was attached to it and he pushed his way inside, coming into a small common room that was crowded with people, including Lysabel, Cynethryn, and Markus.
It was warm and fragrant in the tavern, with contrasting smells of baking bread and spilled ale, and as Trenton carefully planned out what to tell Lysabel, Brencis had no such restraint. She ran to her mother, threw herself into the woman’s arms, and announced that she now had a pony named Snowdrop.
With the secret out, Trenton had no choice but to confess what he’d done and plead for forgiveness if necessary. He tried to make it sound as if the pony would be thrown out into the wild had he not purchased it, making it appear as if he had little choice in the matter, but he could tell by Lysabel’s expression that she didn’t believe him. But he could also see that she, too, couldn’t deny Brencis. The little girl finally had what she wanted and there was no curbing her excitement.
It was palpable.
When Trenton told Lysabel that he’d also purchased a pony for Cynethryn, that seemed to bring the older girl around. Hearing her name, and realizing that not only had her sister been given a pony, but she now had one as well, had her on her feet as she begged her mother to see it. As the rain from a summer storm began to fall outside, Trenton found himself leading Lysabel and both girls back to the livery where Brencis ran to Snowdrop and Cynethryn was introduced to Honey.
As Lysabel stood with Brencis, admiring her new pony while casting Trenton expressions of both joy and exasperation, Trenton stood with Cynethryn as the girl looked over her pony with disbelief.
It appeared the girl was in shock. Trenton finally turned away from Lysabel to see that Cynethryn was staring at the dark pony with her mouth hanging open. She hadn’t even touched it yet.
“Do you like her, my lady?” he asked the little girl. “If you do not, I can ask the livery man if he has any others. He told me that his daughter had grown too old for Honey and that the pony had no one to love her any longer. I thought you might like to love her.”
Cynethryn couldn’t seem to take her eyes off the pony. “For me?” she finally asked. “She is truly for me?”
Trenton nodded. “Truly,” he said. “Do you know how to ride?”
Cynethryn nodded. Then, she shook her head. And then she burst into quiet tears, something that concerned Trenton greatly.
“What is the matter?” he asked. “If you do not like her, I shall find you another one, I promise. You needn’t be worried.”
Cynethryn shook her head. Weeping, she finally reached out to touch the pony as if hardly believing any of it.
“I want her,” she whispered tightly. “You… you gave me a pony.”
“Aye. You and your sister.”
“But why?”
“Because these ponies needed girls to love them.”
She turned to look at him, her big blue eyes watery. “But I did not ask for a pony.”
“You did not have to. I simply thought you would like one.”
Cynethryn digested his
answer, wiping furiously at her eyes. “I… never ask for anything because my father will not… he tells me no.”
Trenton was starting to understand, just a little, why she was so stunned with the pony. It seemed to him as if she’d never received an unexpected gift in her entire life. It also gave him a clue as to why the girl had seemed so morose and grumpy. A little older than Brencis, she’d learned the harshness of life that her younger sister hadn’t yet, and she had no idea that a man could actually be kind to her.
“I will not let your father take the pony away,” Trenton said after a moment, giving her the same answer he’d given Brencis. “You may keep her as long as you wish. She is yours.”
Cynethryn wiped away the last of her tears, using two hands to pet the pony now. Trenton thought he could see a little joy in her eyes, this stony-faced lass, until she finally looked up at him.
Slowly, a smile spread across her lips.
It was all the thanks Trenton needed.
The summer storm was pounding overhead, with bolts of lightning lighting up the common room.
The hour was late as Trenton sat at a table near the hearth, listening to the snoring going on around him as travelers seeking shelter were sleeping around the fringes of the room. Over his head, snug and warm, Lysabel was sleeping in a big bed with her two daughters, both of them undoubtedly dreaming of their new ponies.
It had been an eventful day for them all.
Trenton’s thoughts lingered on the ponies, too, and the way Lysabel had looked at him when she realized how kind and generous he’d been with her daughters. It was a look Trenton hadn’t seen from her before, one that caused his heart to race. There was gratitude there, but there was also something else, and it was that something else that Trenton was currently contemplating.
He knew he shouldn’t.
Staring into the flames of the low-burning fire, he was feeling a great deal of turmoil. Lysabel was a woman, newly widowed, whose husband had been a beast. Now, she was free of him and she had a chance to find a decent man. Trenton only wished that man could be him.