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‘Yes. The coachman is staying with his vehicle. I wonder, Mrs Brown, if I might take something out to him?’
‘I’ll take it,’ Farley said, holding out his hand for the plate their hostess was already filling.
Adam sat down next to Sophie. ‘How is Miss Sadler?’
‘She is feeling rather sorry for herself, but Mrs Brown gave her a herbal remedy to help her to sleep and assures me it will cure anything. I am inclined to believe her. Bessie pulled a sour face when she drank it.’ She paused. ‘I am sorry to be so much trouble to you...’ She almost added ‘my lord’, but remembered in time, they were supposed to be on more familiar terms.
‘It cannot be helped, Sophie. It means we will be a day or two later reaching Hadlea, that’s all.’ He evidently did remember. Hearing him say her name gave her a warm glow of pleasure. What a fool she was to be uplifted by such a little thing.
Chapter Eleven
Cooped up in the farmhouse with nothing to do and everyone itching to be gone did not help frayed nerves. Sophie looked after Bessie and did her best to help Mrs Brown. Joe used the time to check over every inch of the coach: the wheels and axles, though he knew they were sound, replacing leather that was even partially worn and cleaning it inside and out. By the time he had finished it looked as good as new. He groomed the horses until their coats were gleaming and combed and plaited their manes and tails, tying them with ribbons.
‘Good enough for the showground,’ Adam told him. ‘Well done.’
Adam himself was at a loose end. He went round the fields with the farmer. ‘It’s going to be a poor winter,’ Mr Brown muttered, looking at the wet, blackened wheat crop. ‘I’ll have to plough that in.’
‘You harvested the barley and oats before the storm?’
‘Aye, but they were only a few acres. They had a poor start on account o’ the cold weather in spring, but June and July made up for it and in the end I got it in early, but it don’ make up for the loss of the wheat. It were all but ready. I was goin’ into town to hire some extra help this next week.’ He sighed. ‘I don’ know what we’re a-goin’ to do. We’ll have to rely on the livestock. Thank God, tha’s healthy.’
Adam made a mental note to make sure the man was more than adequately paid for their board and lodging when they left.
* * *
On the third day, now without his eyepatch, he rode into Newmarket on Swift to obtain more provisions for Mrs Brown, to mail a letter to Mark explaining the situation and to find out if there were any strangers in the town. That turned out to be a vain exercise; the place was full of strangers come for the racing and he had no idea what the man looked like. Of course he and Alfred might have imagined the galloping horse, or it could have been a local man in a hurry to be home out of the rain.
He went back to the farm to find Sophie in the barn talking to Joe and Alfred. She was smiling. ‘Bessie has recovered,’ she told him. ‘We are ready to go on.’
‘Are you sure?’ he asked, studying her. After three days of caring for her maid, she was looking tired, but she had washed her hair and put on a fresh gingham dress taken from her trunk. ‘Your maid may have recovered, but what about you?’
‘I am perfectly well. You must be anxious to be on your way, and I am sure Mrs Brown will be glad to see us gone. I fear we have been a sore trial to her.’
‘Then we will leave tomorrow morning. Alfred, you ride on ahead and arrange for fresh horses. We will meet you at Downham Market. Give Swift a drink and her oats now and let her rest.’
‘Yes, my lord.’
‘Sophie, can you be ready?’
‘Easily.’
They walked up to the farmhouse together. ‘It has been a strange few days,’ she said. ‘I have learned something of what it is to be a farmer’s wife. I knew it was a hard life, but I never realised before just how hard. It has made me so much more sympathetic to those not so fortunate as I am.’
‘I am sure you have always been sympathetic,’ he murmured. ‘Mark has told me how helpful you are with his orphans.’
‘They have had a dreadful life and I like to do what I can to help make their lives a little easier. I find it rewarding.’ She looked up at him. His eye still bore a faint bruise. ‘I believe that is how you feel towards your workers. I read the report of your speech in the newspaper.’
