novelxo Chapter 188
Chapter 188
A few hours later, I’m leading Heathcliff back into the stables from our ride. We didn’t go in the ring today, but instead spent most of the early afternoon trotting around the property, admiring the scenery. It’s a beautiful landscape with beautiful vistas and as I rose I resented, a little, that I hadn’t been allowed to ride freely out
here before.
But then again, I’m not as interested in what I’m allowed to do as I
used to be.
The day is growing hot, and both Heathcliff and I have a light sheen of sweat on us as we walk into the stables. I wipe it from my forehead with the back of my arm, looking forward to wetting Heathcliff down with the hose and taking a nice long drink from it
myself, when I see him.
Just standing there, in the middle of the aisle that runs between
the line of stable stalls. His arms crossed, his feet spread wide
apart.
Glaring at me.
Heathcliff surprises me by checking his step a bit, apparently intimidated by the raw animal fury that we can both sense coming off of the predator standing there. But I click my tongue at the horse, tugging his lead rope and asking him to come a long with
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- me. I don’t check my stride at all, barely glancing at Kent as I make
for Heathcliff’s stall.
After a moment, Heathcliff follows.
If Kent wants to talk to me, he can damn well wait until I’ve taken
care of my horse.
I take a minute to settle Heathcliff in his stall, tying his rope to a metal ring on the wall and reaching for his hoof pick when suddenly one of the stable hands shows up at the stall door.
“Um,” he says, awkward, glancing over his shoulder. “I’ll do that for you, ma’am…”
“What?” I ask, standing up straight. “Why?”
He hesitates again, even more awkward, glancing again at Kent, who I’m sure gave him the order. I just give him a little laugh and wave my hand.
“Thanks,” I say, dismissal strong in my voice as I turn away and lean down to pick up one of Heathcliff’s feet so I can clean it. “But I can take care of my own horse.”
“Your horse, Fay?” I hear Kent ask. I drop Heathcliff’s hoof and straighten up again, turning to see Kent standing at the stall door now, furious at having been ignored several times this morning. “Last time I checked, I paid for that horse, and its care.”
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“Really, Kent?” I ask, folding my arms over my chest and glaring at
him. “You’re going to take your present back, just because you’re
mad at me?”
Kent narrows his eyes. “I can take back more than the horse, Fay,” he warns, his body seeming to fill the entire doorway.
“Is that what you want, Kent?” I ask, turning fully to him now, feeling my defiance slip a bit as I think about what he’s saying. Because, as much as I like to defy him, in this moment I just…need to know. “Is that all I am to you? A contract? I defy you, and you take things away from me? I do as you say, and I get rewards?”
I see Kent tense at this change in direction. I think that he, too, was expecting a fight. Maybe looking forward to it. “Do you have a problem with that, Fay?” he asks, his voice low and resonant. “That seems to have been our deal, all along.”
“So that’s it, then,” I push, taking a step closer and looking up into his face. “I really am just…your little doll. That you dress up and move around your play house, sending me where you want me to go, doing what you want me to do.”
I take another step towards him, looking up into his face, truly curious to see how he reacts. Kent works hard to hold my gaze, to keep his emotions tucked away and not let me see anything at all besides that which he wants me to see.
“This is a job, Fay,” Kent tells me, his voice stern. “You understood that. Services in exchange for pay, for…privileges. And if you don’t
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perform those services…well, like any other job…”
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