A beautiful animal, well-bred and, because she had taught him with love, he responded to her every wish.
At the sight of her, he whinnied and moved forward away from Ben so that he was waiting for her as she opened the door.
She stroked his nose and patted his neck before she said,
“I want to talk to you, Ben, and it is very important!”
He did not seem surprised, he merely ran his hand over Swallow’s silky coat.
Then he followed Valencia from the stall out into the passage.
Quickly, in as few words as possible, she told him what she had overheard in the Earl’s Private Chapel.
Ben listened without interruption and then commented in his slow voice,
“If you asks me, Miss Valencia, that be real wicked to be sure!”
“That is what I thought you would think, Ben,” Valencia said. “What we
