Free Lord Suitor by Raven McAllan Page A

lived on or around the Fenniston and Birch estates.
    Ah well, I can do nothing until I
get there. Nat
finished off his ale and made his way upstairs.
    Cubby
was tucked into the truckle bed in the corner of the room, and suspicious, non-snore-like
snores emitted from his small person. Nat grinned to himself and made ready for
bed. It had been a long day, and what with hoping Tessa would see reason and
let him court her, and wondering what smuggling troubles awaited him, he fell
into an uneasy sleep.
    ****
    Why
was he shaking? He wasn't deep inside a woman? Those whispered words were not
the cooing of a woman in the throes of arousal. They were...
    "Cubby?"
He opened his eyes to see Cubby's worried expression a few inches from his
face. He blinked and tried to get his mind into the present, not the past or
the future.
    "Blimey,
guv, I thought you were three sheets or sommat. I was right. They's after Thunderer.
Come on quick." He shook Nat again. "I reckons we've only got a
minute. Ole Thunderer wasn't being cooperative like."
    Nat
could well believe that. Thunderer was ornery at the best of times with
everyone except himself, and now it seemed, Cubby.
    Nat
threw back the covers and thrust his feet into his boots. "Come on."
He left the room at a run with Cubby close behind.
    "Guv,
you're arse naked." Cubby said. He breathed heavily as they ran. "As
the day you were born."
    A
door opened, and a feminine scream echoed along the corridor. Nat glanced
downward at his staff, which was bobbing along in time to his steps.
    "No, I have my boots
on."
    "But
your bits are bobbing."
    "True.
But, boots apart, we all were all arse naked at one point in our lives," Nat
said as they took the stairs two at a time. His words were choppy as he panted
with the exertion. "They'll have to deal with it."
    Cubby
had pulled the door to the stable yard to. Nat opened it with a kick of one
booted foot and erupted into the yard. There was no point in silence. He'd
heard the swearing and the ring of horseshoes on cobbles even before he'd got
to the door.
    Thunderer
sensed him and whinnied. The man holding his bridle and leading him out of the
yard jumped as the horse tried to tug himself loose. He'd probably expected a
carriage horse, not one who also loved to be ridden, fast and furiously, and
obeyed so few people.
    Nat
whistled. The horse reared and unseated the man who perched precariously on his
back. The other man let go of the bridle, sprinted across the cobbles to where
the unseated rider sat rubbing his head, and dragged him to his feet, before
they ran off out of the yard and into the village street.
    "Attend
to the horse." Nat shouted the words as he sprinted after the men. "Get
Judd and have him bring me some breeches." The air was colder than he
expected, and he shivered. Well, at least his cock wouldn't be so proud of
itself on his return, and any ladies present not so shocked.
    Maybe it will be a
disappointment?
    He
turned out of the arch that led to the street and looked both ways. The street
was deserted except for a fox slinking between two houses. Nat swore and spun
around to bump into Stomburn. The landlord carried a blanket and handed it to
Nat.
    "M'Lord,
it's the best I could come up with in a hurry."
    "Thank
you." Nat wrapped the coarse wool around him, Grecian style. "Has Cubby
settled my horse?"
    "Oh
yes, a natural, that one. And Mr. Judd says he's on his way." They turned
back into the stable yard, where Cubby was walking Thunderer and crooning to
him in a low voice.
    Judd
hurried up with a pair of breeches and a shirt, and helped Nat out of his boots
to facilitate his dressing.
    "Thunderer?"
Nat couldn't keep the anxiety out of his voice. He'd been there at his birth
and nurtured him as foal and adult.
    "He's
all good. Nuffin wrong, 'cept the bu...blighters ascared him, I reckon."
Cubby had lost all his learned politeness. "They should 'ang."
    Nat
couldn't but agree with him. However. "Bloodthirsty young blighter." He
put his