Free Minx by Julia Quinn Page A

suffer.
    Torture was probably too trite, he decided, and he didn't have the stomach to use it on a female. Although... He looked over at the person in the baggy breeches. She appeared to be smiling as she lugged the stones. She was no ordinary female.
    He shook his head. There were other ways to make her miserable. A snake in her bed perhaps? No, the blasted woman probably liked snakes. A spider? Didn't everyone hate spiders?
    He leaned on his shovel, well aware he was acting childishly and not caring in the least.
    He had tried everything to get out of this disgusting job, and not just because the work was difficult and the smell was...well, the smell was revolting, there was no way around that. Mostly he just didn't want her to feel she had bested him.
    And she had bested him, the hellish little chit. She had him, a lord of the realm (albeit a rather new one), shoveling slop and manure and God himself probably didn't want to know what else. And he was neatly cornered, because to get out of it meant to admit he was a sissified London dandy.
    He had pointed out that all of the slop would get in her way as she built the wall. She had merely instructed him to put it in the center. "You can smooth it out later," she had said.
    "But some might get on your shoes."
    She had laughed. "Oh, I'm used to that." Her tone had implied she was far tougher than he.
    He ground his teeth and slapped some slop down into a pile. The stench was beyond overwhelming. "I thought you said pigs are clean."
    "Cleaner than people usually think, but not as clean as you and I." She looked at his messy boots, amusement dancing in her gray eyes. "Well, usually."
    He muttered something rather unsavory before shooting back, "I thought they didn't like...you know."
    "They don't."
    "Well?" he demanded, planting his shovel into the ground and putting his other hand on his hip.
    Henry walked over and sniffed the air above the pile he was making. "Oh, dear. Well, I guess some got mixed in by accident. Happens often, actually. So sorry." She smiled at him and went back to work.
    He let out a discreet growl, mostly just to make himself feel better, and marched over to the slop pile. He thought he could control his temper. He usually thought of himself as an easygoing man. But when he heard one of the men say, "Work's going so much faster now that you're helping, Henry," it was all he could do not to strangle her. He didn't know why she had been so smelly the day he arrived, but it was now apparent it wasn't because she'd been knee-deep in muck, helping to build the pigpen. A red haze of fury blinded him as he wondered what other disgusting tasks she was planning to take on just to convince him they were daily chores for the lord of the manor.
    His teeth clenched together as he stuck his shovel into the smelly mush, scooped some up, and made to carry it to the center of the pigpen. On the way over, however, it slid off the shovel and onto Henry's shoes.
    Pity, that.
    She whirled around. He waited for her to burst out with, "You did that on purpose!" but she kept silent, motionless except for a slight narrowing of her eyes. Then, with a flick of her ankle, the slop spattered onto his trousers.
    She smirked, waiting for him to say, "You did that on purpose!" but he also remained silent. Then he smiled at her, and she knew she was in trouble. Before she had time to react, he'd lifted his leg and planted the sole of his boot against her breeches, leaving a muddy footprint on the front of her thigh.
    He cocked his head, waiting for her to retaliate.
    She briefly considered picking up some of the slop and smearing it on his face but decided he'd have too much time to react; besides, she wasn't wearing gloves. She glanced quickly to the left to confuse him, then slammed her foot down on his.
    Dunford let out a howl of pain. "That is enough!''
    "You started it!"
    "You started it before I even arrived, you conniving, unruly..."
    She waited for him to call her a bitch, but he