Encounter with Bay cast aside, he grinned widely. ‘Now you’re going to be right up my street.’

Trotting up the stud’s driveway, he moved the horses aside as Ronnie rattled towards him in her sports car, buzzing down the window. ‘I’m off to see Lester. What do you think of that young one? Make a nice sort for Pax, I thought?’

He smiled, saying nothing, heart twisting. He’d train any horse on the yard to be well-mannered for Pax if asked, even Coll the Shetland.

Ronnie put the car in gear. ‘Back after lunch!’

Nodding, he set off again, the youngster pogoing alongside him once more as the sports car snarled away.

Pax was back in the main house, seated at her grandfather’s desk which looked out over the driveway and front paddocks. He saw her framed in the big-paned window as he passed, pretending not to notice him, the awkwardness of the day not yet waning. They had to shake it off before tonight, which was going to be tough enough for Pax without this overhanging it. He raised his arm and waved, smiling when she looked up. The same moment, his phone buzzed in his pocket before ringing its way noisily into action, making him jump, now dreading each Unknown call. Sensing his disquiet, both horses spooked in opposite directions, leaving Luca somewhere in between, balancing on one stirrup like a Cossack, somehow grappling them back, but not before a considerable loss of dignity.

When he turned to smile it off, Pax was at the window, muffled call asking if he was all right, Knott appearing beside her, paws up on the sill. The movement just made the horses shy again, banging together now and kicking out, the old point-to-pointer spinning away beneath him. Not concentrating, eyes still on Pax, Luca fell right off this time, landing on his feet, somehow holding onto both.

He quickly turned to the window to bow with exaggerated chivalry.

Eyes brimming with amusement, Pax returned to her paperwork.

It was a start.

*

When Ronnie came back in a blaze of headlights, supermarket pizzas and biscuit treats for Kes sliding off the back seat, it was far later than she’d intended, a long call to Blair having diverted her in Aldi’s car park, then again halfway home. The affair was at fever pitch again. Although she’d always suspected that time apart might create extra frisson between them when they reunited, she’d underestimated how much. She was missing him a ridiculous amount when they were apart.

Pax was about to set off to fetch Kes, that deep soothing voice surprising Ronnie with, ‘If they aren’t back, I am going to eviscerate Muir with his skean dhu.’

She drove off looking murderous.

‘Oh dear.’

Ronnie collared Luca. ‘Please make sure Pax has some fun tonight.’

‘It’s not really that sort of gig, y’know?’

She gave him a wise look. ‘May I suggest something very straightforward which I think will cheer her up enormously?’

When Luca heard what she had in mind, his face lit up with that amazing smile. ‘I’ve been meaning to do that since I got here.’