Free A Gown of Thorns: A Gripping Novel of Romance, Intrigue and the Secrets of a Vintage Parisian Dress by Natalie Meg Evans

newcomer called Roger Federer.
    ‘That’s a Grand Slam tournament. I lost in the poxy junior league.’
    ‘And so did they, once.’
    ‘How do you know?’
    ‘I don’t,’ she admitted, ‘but everyone loses sometimes. I of all people should know.’
    Curiosity flickered in Nico’s eyes. ‘What did you lose?’
    ‘In April, I applied for a post in the research department of a big corporation in the Midlands, about seventy miles south of where I grew up. I’d have been working alongside a Nobel-prize-winning scientist, studying the potential of plant acids to destroy cancer cells. My dream job, with a proper salary for the first time in my life. It would have shoved me several rungs up the career ladder.’
    ‘But you didn’t get it.’
    ‘Worse than that. I got it. They said I was the outstanding candidate. I finished my master’s degree, gave up my flat, began packing to move. Then a week before I left Uni, I got an email saying that my application had been re-evaluated and the offer withdrawn.’
    ‘Why?’
    She blew out a painful breath. ‘Money. Politics. Just believe me when I say that I have also had to start all over again and it’s not the first time it’s happened. Tell you what – lob me one thing you would like to do today that is in my power to grant, and I’ll do my best.’
    He shrugged, looked mutinous, then mumbled, ‘Go riding with Laurent.’
    ‘Right. On a horse?’
    ‘Obviously, not on an elephant.’
    ‘Are you sure he’ll agree? It’s hot out there for riding.’
    ‘He’ll say yes if you ask him. He likes you.’
    ‘Really? I mean, no he doesn’t. He doesn’t know me.’ When Nico shrugged, Shauna couldn’t help nudging. ‘What makes you think…?’
    ‘When Olive and I took you to the chai , he was cross with us for leaving you to find your own way. Then he made us repeat your name three times so he got it right.’ Nico reached for his baseball cap and headed for the kitchen door. ‘It’s obvious he fancies you. And anyway, you’ve got the same tattoo.’
    Grabbing her straw hat, Shauna dashed after Nico. ‘How d’you know about that?’
    ‘Olive and I saw you getting out of the swimming pool in your bikini. If you don’t want people to see it, swim in a wetsuit.’

    N o sign of Laurent in the stable yard. Shauna followed Nico into the closest of the steel barns. Strolling down its central walkway, she thought, at least I now know where he keeps his horses! Indoors, in ventilated comfort. Stalls each side of the corridor were occupied by the same breed of white pony that had pulled the trap. Grey-pink noses poked through U-shaped grilles. Hay nets had obviously just been filled, because the predominant noise was of molars chomping. The horses were bedded on some kind of fibre that smelled sweetly of eucalyptus. Presumably, the addition of the volatile oils was to deter flies.
    The second barn housed animals of greater stature and she thought she recognised the one Laurent had called Héron. They were all greys, with short, muscular necks and a bluish marbling to their coats. ‘Are they Percherons?’ Shauna asked as they emerged, still without finding Laurent.
    ‘No…’ Nico threw out a breed name she didn’t catch, then shouted, ‘Rachel! Where’s my cousin?’
    Rachel was sprawled on a plastic chair outside a wooden building that had a sign on the door stating it was the stable yard office. In a cropped top, shorts and knee-length suede riding boots, a genuine-looking Stetson shading her face, she was enough to make a ten-year-old boy’s eyes ping out on stalks and Nico’s duly did. Shauna, less impressed, eyed the cigarette lighter dangling from Rachel’s neck on a leather thong. The girl surely didn’t smoke near the stables?
    ‘Last time I saw Laurent,’ Rachel drawled, ‘he was in the south parcelle , communing with his Cab Sauve.’ Rachel returned Shauna’s look. A long stare that mirrored that of the tabby cat curled by her