"I suppose," he said. "I prefer not to be too closely associated with the honorable deed, myself. Perhaps we could just turn him loose, to be found."

She considered this, shaking her head slowly. "I don't like to turn him loose. There are these sharpers lurking about. And there's no saying who might find him first, or that he might get tangled with some fence, or chased by dogs, or a fast carriage might come upon him suddenly in a narrow lane. Hunting gentlemen come into the country this season and drive as if they're mad. He might be hurt."

"True." Trev privately spared a moment's sympathy for any fast driver who happened to collide with Hubert.

"Besides, I think he would just come home again." A slight frown crossed her brow. "And if he were discovered at Shelford—dyed like this—" Her eyes widened. "Someone might think I stole him!"

He snorted. "You? No one would suppose that."

"With the Hereford show next week—" She stood straight. "Everyone knows we're going to it. Everyone knows I hoped to win. There's a great deal of rivalry within the county Agricultural Society."

"It's cutthroat, I've no doubt," he said. "But I hardly think anyone would accuse you—"

"They would," she said strongly. "Best Bull not over Four Years of Age—it's for the silver cup, you know! And there was a horrid scandal last year; I heard all about it from Colonel Davenport, though I couldn't attend myself. Mr. Painter was disqualified from ever showing at the exhibition again, because he had glued false hair over a sore on his bull's back."

"Shocking," Trev said with a grave look.

"It was! Very! No one would ever have suspected it of Mr. Painter. We supposed him to be a perfectly honorable gentleman. Now he doesn't dare show his face among honest graziers. No, I don't want to risk anything like that. I've seven heifers, four steers, a bull calf, and a pair of oxen entered, even without Hubert. And I'm not certain, now that I think of it, that it would look very well at all even if I took Hubert directly back to Colonel Davenport now. Not in this state, and so close to the exhibition. It might appear that I only pretended to find him and bring him back, while meaning to keep him out of the competition altogether. He can't be shown like this."

Trev pressed his fist inside the stiff curve of his bandaged hand. "So… we can't take him back, and we can't turn him loose, and we can't keep him at Shelford."

She shook her head. "I don't see how we can—at least until he grows out of this dye."

"How long will that take?"

"Oh my—his winter coat will be coming on, but— some months I should think, before there is no trace of it."

"Splendid," he said dryly. "We'll have to conceal him, then."