Hanging back, Pax watched Luca and Ronnie lean companionably over the gate to monitor the get-together, Kes rammed low between them, face pressed against the rails, demanding, ‘When can I ride him, Gronny? What’s his name?’

‘Oh rats, I forget. A Scottish island, I think. Rum? Mull?’

‘Bute?’ Pax suggested, and Luca glanced back over his shoulder, humouring the bad joke with a familiar show of teeth. Bute was also a common anti-inflammatory used for horses. She raised an apologetic eyebrow.

‘Muck?’ he suggested.

‘Coll,’ she countered, guessing he wouldn’t get it.

‘Beck and Coll.’ He got it straight away, green eyes amused.

‘Just how I like my men!’ Ronnie ruffled Kes’s hair, hooking him closer as he gazed adoringly up at her. ‘And you’ll ride Coll at the weekend, little man, although dear old Lester isn’t home to teach you yet, so you’ll have to put up with Gronny towing you around while Mummy holds you on. I wonder where the hunt’s meeting on Saturday?’

‘Absolutely not!’ Pax stepped forward to cover Kes’s ears, her mock-furious face to her mother met with a defiant cheer.

‘If he’s as like his grandfather as I think, he’ll hunt.’

‘He’s nothing like Daddy.’ She gathered her son up into a protective hug at her hip.

‘Your grandfather was the best horseman and huntsman this county ever saw,’ Ronnie told Kes.

Hiding her annoyance, Pax said nothing, watching Beck and the Shetland, at opposite ends of the paddock, one gazing in bewilderment as the other munched into the hedge. It wasn’t the first time her mother had acknowledged Johnny Ledwell’s talents that week, making a big point of giving her late husband a positive PR spin. It was doubtless her way of trying to compensate for a permanently busy landline and clandestine after-dark visits. Not content with seducing married sporting heroes and making five-year-old boys love her, Ronnie was flirting with the memory of the husband she had abandoned, dusting off Pax’s father’s tarnished, Scotch-sodden memory and putting it on the Percy trophy shelf. She’d been especially zealous since visiting the hospital earlier that day.

‘Lester in good spirits?’ Pax asked cautiously. According to Alice, the stud’s old retainer had his finger surprisingly on the pulse, making it more than likely he’d heard the fresh Blair rumours.

‘Exceedingly.’ Ronnie gave nothing away. ‘He was eager to know if we’ve got your foot in the stirrup again yet.’ Her sharp blue eyes offered no mercy, looking to Luca for backup.

‘I could certainly use the extra help when you do,’ he obliged. ‘I hear you’re an incredible horsewoman. I bet you’d back the babies far better than I could.’

‘Hardly,’ she scoffed.

But Ronnie was on a roll. ‘Now that Kes is on the Compton Magna riding squad, I told Lester you’re raring to go, which perked him up no end. He might even forgive you not visiting him if he sees you back on a horse.’

Pax had forgotten how manipulative she could be. Dreading Lester’s reaction to her marriage ending, certain of his disapproval, she’d still not visited.