Free BLINDFOLD by Lyndon Stacey

to Giles.'
    `She's not mine to lose,' he responded. `I only met her last night. Her car had broken down and she needed a place to stay.' `Ever the Good Samaritan,' Pippa teased.
    `Well, I couldn't just leave her there.'
    `I'm surprised she felt safe staying overnight with a strange man - I'm sure I wouldn't!'
    `She's just an extremely good judge of character,' Gideon said, tongue in cheek. `And I have this trustworthy, avuncular air about me.
    Pippa spluttered. `Says who?' Gideon affected deep hurt.
    An invitation to lunch was issued and accepted, after which Pippa took Rachel out to see the horses.
    `Well!' Giles breathed as the two girls went out. `If I ever stop to help anyone they always turn out to be a toothless granny or a lump of a girl with pigtails and braces on her teeth. Trust you to pick up a stunner.'
    Gideon laughed. `She didn't look so stunning last night, I can assure you. She looked like a half-drowned kitten. And what's more, she fell asleep on my bed so I had to sleep on the couch. I don't think my neck will ever be the same.' He rubbed it, grimacing.
    Giles laughed. `A white knight with saddle sores,' he observed. `It doesn't happen in the fairy stories.'
    `So, how did it go with the ostriches yesterday?' `Ah. Pippa told you about that, did she?'
    `Mm. She's not too keen.'
    `Well, I've gone off the idea myself, a little,' Giles admitted. `They have this way of looking at you ... I
    'They can be very dangerous, I believe.'
    Giles looked crestfallen. `The guy I spoke to didn't say that. In fact, he said they were very easy to keep.'
    `He wasn't trying to sell you some, by any chance?' Gideon asked, eyebrows raised.
    `Okay. Point taken. It was just an idea.'
    `If you want to do something, why don't you build Pippa a decent cross-country course to school the horses over,' Gideon suggested. `You could even hold a one-day-event yourselves. You've got room.'
    `Does she want one?' Giles asked doubtfully. `She's never said.'
    `She'd be tickled pink,' Gideon assured him. For all his lively mind and abundant generosity, Giles often missed what was right under his nose.
    `Yeah, maybe. Anyway, what's the news on your front? Confronted any more desperate criminals?'
    `Not for a day or two,' Gideon said. `No. No news. I should think that's probably the end of it.'
    `Well, I call that downright poor-spirited!' Giles exclaimed. `Where's your sense of adventure, man? Don't you want to know what it was all about?'
    `Not enough to get beaten up for it. Or worse,' he added darkly. `Besides, I wouldn't even know where to start looking.' Giles wasn't about to give up. `Well, what about the barn they took you to? Couldn't you look for that?'
    `I did.' Gideon told him about his search.
    `Ah, so you do have some red blood in your veins, after all.' `Yes,' he agreed dryly. `And I'd like it to stay there, if it's all the same to you.'
    `I like your friends,' Rachel told Gideon as they walked back to the Gatehouse.
    `So do I,' he responded flippantly.
    She ignored him. `Pippa has offered to take me riding if I stay long enough.'
    `Well, I should take her up on it,' Gideon advised. `If you want to, that is. The garage may very likely take several days, I should think. Do you ride?'
    `I have done, but I'm not very good. I'd love to try again. Would you come too?' She watched his face for his response.
    `I might. It depends when you go.' Rachel looked pleased.
    Gideon's resolve to spend the best part of the next day working on his much-neglected exhibition pieces, was tested first by the allure of the cold, bright, frosty morning and secondly by a telephone call from Naomi, shortly after breakfast.
    Rachel, in spite of his slightly embarrassed protests, had taken him up on his joke about decorating the spare room, which she
    temporarily occupied, and had begun to plot its transformation. Gideon gave in, seeing in her a need to justify her presence, if not pay her way. And the room was sorely in need of attention, it had to be said. Giles