“Thought so.” Sydney laughed and stroked her pal’s neck again. “Would you do me a favor, then?”

“Of course.” As long as it’s nothing to do with getting up on a horse.

“Could I ride him?”

“We’d both be delighted.”

“Just a tick, I’ll get my saddle.” She was in and out of the stable with a horse blanket and a handsome, blood-red leather saddle, which she slid over the blanket. In another few moments, she was up and in the saddle.

“You look as if you belonged there. Aggrieved looks intensely pleased.”

Sydney laughed. “No he doesn’t. He’s just putting up with it. Come on.”

Melrose walked beside them as she led the horse to the ring. She took him from a trot to a canter and then was off on a gallop that astonished his owner. She rode Aggrieved around the ring twice and then drew him up to where Melrose was standing beside the fence.

“This horse is the wind! He’s the fastest I’ve ever ridden. Of course, I’m not a jockey; I’m not that fast, but … haven’t you ever raced him?”

“He was retired when I got him from Ryder’s. It didn’t occur to me …”

“How old is he? I’d say four or five, looking at his teeth.”

“Isn’t that old to be racing?”

“Of course not. And he loves it; I can tell. Don’t you have a ring? You really should let him run.”

Oh, dear. Was he going to have to shovel out a circle? “That takes a lot of space, doesn’t it?”

“Only about a hundred twenty feet, maybe a little more. With good drainage. But you have a lot of land, don’t you?”

Did he?

They led Aggrieved back to the Cooke stable and to the horse trailer. Melrose said, “Aggrieved doesn’t want to go. He even looks as if he’s crying.”

“Crying?” She looked concerned and went around to study the horse’s face. There was what looked like a tear running down it. “Oh, dear.”

“You can see he’s sad.”

“Nothing to do with sadness. He might have an eye infection. Have you seen this before?”

“No, not at all.”

“Well, keep an eye on it, will you? Better to call in a vet, I think, though it may be nothing at all.”

“But it might be something. And you’re as good as any vet. Look, I wonder if you’d like to come to Ardry End—that’s my place—and have dinner tomorrow night?” Melrose was inspired by Aggrieved’s possible minor illness.

She was far more surprised. “Me? Dinner?”

“You’d be doing me a great favor, as you could check up on Aggrieved. There are just a few friends coming. I’m no more than fifteen kilometers away. I’d be glad to send a car for you.”

“Well …”