‘Do you speak to my mother like she’s some half-witted pony-clubber?’

He looked back at her in surprise. ‘I speak to her like she knows what she’s doing.’

‘I know what I’m doing.’

‘So you’ll have seen that mare looks a bit footsore.’

‘Of course I saw.’ She hadn’t noticed. Think happy thoughts. Think happy thoughts. At least you’re not in Scotland with Mack.

‘Must have been tough going back home, so it must,’ he said out of nowhere.

Pax hesitated, furious that he was being so personal. Watching somebody throw up, slither around a bath in their underwear and sleep in your clothes might give you a right to ask after their mental health, but not now and not here.

‘Yes, mustn’t it,’ she replied eventually. He didn’t interrogate her further, which was good because she’d have waterboarded him with the hose.

*

At the end of a mixed ward full of oxygen-masked geriatrics, Lester was pale and composed, horrified that Ronnie hadn’t thought to bring him a supply of Fray Bentos pies or this week’s Horse & Hound, and the pyjama tops were striped, the bottoms checked. ‘I always fold them in matched pairs in the drawer. It’s a system. It makes no sense to muddle them.’

‘I’ll bring the right ones tomorrow,’ she promised, deciding not to remind him that he’d in all likelihood remain bottomless in a hospital gown until his op. At least the sight of Stubbs smuggled in a Bag for Life soothed him – although he was snobbishly irked it was an Aldi one.

‘Operation’s on Thursday. I’ll be up again in no time,’ he assured her, white with fear. ‘Didn’t even fall off.’

‘I know, Lester. You owe nothing to the Tumblers Club.’

He looked relieved to be believed, giving her a wily look. ‘The Australian gone home, has he?’

‘Hours ago,’ she sighed. Blair was another wrinkle that needed smoothing.

‘That’s a shame. Useful to have someone around the place who knows what they’re doing while I’m laid up.’

‘We have Luca now.’

‘Never hurts to have experience on side. Not a lot that Robertson fellow doesn’t know about horses.’

‘Lester, are you encouraging me to see more of Blair?’

He stared her out beadily.

‘I’ll give him a call, shall I?’

‘If you say so.’

Ronnie wondered if they’d overdone the opiates. She tested the theory. ‘Lester, I hope it’s all right, but while you’re in here I’ve found you a house-sitter.’

‘Very good.’ He sagged back against the pillows, frail and pale.

‘It’s easier to look after Stubbs and Laurence that way.’

He had his eyes closed now. ‘I won’t tolerate curried food, pipe smoke or lavender bags. Your mother was a devil for slipping a pomander on a doorknob when I wasn’t looking.’

‘I think you’re safe with Pax.’

His eyes snapped open. ‘Please don’t tell me you put her in my cottage?’

‘I thought you’d be pleased. She’s coming back to live at the stud.’

A hand gripped hers tightly. ‘Get rid of the letters.’