She stood where she was a moment longer, unsure. But something was wrong. A man like Michael Fury didn’t run in a panic for nothing. He was a tenant of Templeton House, she reminded herself. And she was a Templeton.

Self-preservation could never hold out against duty. Laura ran across the lawn with the moonlight chasing her.

There were lights on inside the stable now. Laura shielded her eyes against the glare, but she didn’t see him. She hesitated again, wondering if she should leave. Then she heard his voice, the words low and unintelligible. But the concern in them was clear. She walked down the wide brick aisle and looked into the open foaling stall.

He was kneeling beside a horse, his hair falling forward like a black wing to curtain his face. His dark T-shirt was rumpled and revealed arms toughly muscled and the faint shine of a thin scar above his left elbow. She saw his hands, wide, tanned, gently stroking the bulge of the mare’s heaving sides.

She had a moment to think that no woman on the brink of childbirth could ever want for more loving comfort, then she was inside, kneeling with him.

“She’s going to foal. There, sweetheart.” Instinctively, she went to the mare’s head. “It’s all right.”

“Always in the middle of the night.” Michael blew his hair out of his eyes. “I heard her upstairs. Guess I’ve been listening for her.”

“Have you called the vet?”

“Shouldn’t need him. Last time he checked her out, he said it should go smooth.” In an impatient move, he tugged a bandanna out of his back pocket. “What are you doing here?”

“I was in the garden. It’s all right, baby,” she murmured, shifting the mare’s head onto her lap. “I saw your lights go on, and then you ran down here. I was afraid something was wrong.”

“She’ll be fine.” But it was Darling’s first, and he was as nervous as an expectant daddy pacing a waiting room. “Go on to bed. This sort of thing isn’t usually complicated, but it’s plenty messy.”

She lifted both brows, and the amusement in the eyes under them was clear and bright. “Really? I wouldn’t know anything about that, as I’ve only been through childbirth twice myself. And when the stork arrived, he was very neat and polite.”

Her attention shot back to the mare as a new contraction began. “All right now, all right. We’ll get through this, honey. He doesn’t know anything, does he?” she murmured, as the mare rolled pain-filled eyes toward Laura’s. “He’s just a man. Let him try it, yeah, let him try it once, then we’ll see what he has to say.”

“Guess I’ve been told.” Torn between worry and laughter, Michael rubbed his chin. “Should I go outside and pace? Boil water, buy cigars?”