Page 34 of The Thorn and the Rose

Pip just laughed. “Come on. I want you to meet Satanas.”

“Oh, now you’re just winding me up,” Thorn grumbled irritably, for what idiot would ever saddle a horse with a name like that and expect it to be sweet-natured?

Still, he followed Pip to the paddock, finding himself unsurprised to discover the horse was a large, black stallion. The beast’s head came up at once, ears pricking as he heard them approach and Thorn knew he was being scrutinised just as he was doing to the horse.

“Did you ever see such a magnificent creature?” Pip asked wistfully.

“He’s very fine,” Thorn admitted. “Beautiful lines.”

“Just wait until you see him move,” Pip added and, as if on command, the horse tossed his magnificent head and took off, cantering across the paddock to get as far from them as possible.

Thorn whistled in approval and then turned to look at his brother.

“You need something to take your mind off that bloody girl,” Pip said frankly. “I thought this might do the trick.”

“What girl?” Thorn asked, striving to sound bewildered.

“Oh, don’t try to con me, you silly bastard. I know you like I know myself. Ever since your mysterious Marie failed to turn up that night, you’ve vacillated between worrying yourself sick and being furious with yourself for getting taken in.”

“How the devil do you know that?” Thorn demanded.

“Because that’s how I’d feel,” his brother shot back. Pip sighed. “I don’t deny there is a chance—a very slim chance—the girl really is in trouble, but if she doesn’t show up, there’s nothing you can do. Seriously, Thorn. Are you going to scour the countryside for her when you’ve nothing to go on past the fact she’s called Marie, and she has a deranged brother who wants our blood?”

“But that’s just it!” Thorn cried in frustration. “We must know him, or else how could we have done him such harm he wants vengeance on us?”

“But none of us can figure out who he is. I know you’ve tried talking to the people he hires, but when he works through so many middlemen and he covers his tracks so well, there’s no hope of finding him. If the trouble has stopped, perhaps he’s made peace with whatever wrong he feels we did him, and perhaps Marie is safe to carry on her life. Or perhaps she has moved on to another vendetta, one that pays better.”

“She didn’t rob me,” Thorn said stubbornly, not understanding why he was defending her now. Just as Pip said, the night he’d waited for her, for hours in the freezing bloody cold, he’d been torn between terror for her and humiliation at having been played for a fool… which Leo and Ash clearly believed he had been.

“Then perhaps she’ll get in touch, or perhaps you’ll never hear from her again, and you ought to be thankful that you’ve had a damned lucky escape.”

Thorn grunted, unable to argue with that. He stuck his hand in his pocket and found something hard and lumpy. Drawing it out, he remembered what it was. He held it out to Pip.

“I made it for Tilly,” he said. “Thought she might like it.”

“She’ll adore it,” Pip said, taking the little carved rabbit in his hand and regarding it with admiration. “Clever devil, aren’t you?” he said with a laugh.

Thorn snorted at that. “Not clever enough to forget about a woman who is clearly up to no good.”

“Well, we’re none of us perfect,” Pip replied with a grin, tossing the rabbit back to him. “Give it to Tilly yourself. She’ll love it.”

Thorn caught the rabbit and sighed.

“Work with the horse, Thorn. Stay here and help me with the estate, get to know Tilly, and get your mind settled before you return to town. You’re burning yourself out in an attempt to forget her, and it’s clearly not working. Try another tack.”

“Yes, big brother,” Thorn said, rolling his eyes. Pip had always enjoyed telling him what he ought to do, but his intentions were always good, his heart in the right place, so Thorn had never minded too much, and perhaps this time, he’d best just do as his brother suggested.

Thorn spent a full month with his brother.

It took him a week of sitting in the paddock with his back to the horse, before Satanas gave in to his natural curiosity and came to see what Thorn was doing.

Aware of the enormous animal looming over him, Thorn ignored him and carried on carving the small wooden pig he was making for Tilly. She had adored the rabbit, and so every evening she would put in a request for the animal she wanted, and Thorn would spend the next day carving it.

It was peaceful in the paddock, the sun warm on his back, and it gave him time to think. Inevitably, his mind drifted back to Marie. Why the woman had got under his skin so badly, he didn’t know. Yes, she was beautiful. Exceedingly beautiful, he amended with an inward sigh. But she was clearly trouble… or in trouble, whispered his conscience. Well, whether she was or not, there was nothing he could do about it. Not if she didn’t come to him. So, he’d do well to take everyone's advice and forget about her.

He was concentrating on the pig’s snout when a velvety nose snuffled over his sleeve. Thorn looked up.

“Afternoon,” he said softly. “Decided to give me the benefit of the doubt, have you?”