Free The Royal Scamp by Joan Smith

it warrants rebuilding. The roof is shot.”
    “But the walls are still quite stout,”she said, and went to examine them more thoroughly.
    She had the impression Mr. Meecham wanted to stop her investigation. He didn’t try to do it by force, but when she headed for the west corner of the barn where he had been hiding, he distracted her a few times by pointing out spots in the wall where light came through, and mentioned the lack of a hayloft.
    “I don’t intend to keep a commercial stable, Mr. Meecham. A pair of carriage horses and a mount for myself is all I would require,”she said, and walked briskly to the far west corner.
    In the loose earth there were fresh horseshoe marks, traces of oats, and the lingering aroma of animal. “It seems the poachers use this isolated spot,”he said. “I’ve noticed small game is plentiful. There’s a wine bottle with the dregs still wet, in the corner here.”
    Esther had already spotted the gleam of glass and picked the bottle up to read the label. “This comes from my inn!”she exclaimed. “It’s our most expensive brand.”
    “Really!”Mr. Meecham said, and took it from her. There was an air of excitement about him that she couldn’t account for. “Are you sure?”
    “Of course I’m sure. My manager buys this from a London firm. None of the locals use it, so far as I know. And poachers certainly couldn’t afford it.”
    “Perhaps someone had a picnic here.”
    “It’s hardly suitable for a pleasure walk,”she pointed out.
    He smiled warily. “For some pleasures, men prefer seclusion.”She frowned in perplexity. “I am speaking of petticoat dealings,”he added bluntly. “A footman or groom might be aware of this private oasis.”
    “My footmen and grooms don’t have mounts. There’s been a horse or two here as well. I don’t like this, Mr. Meecham.”
    “What is it you suspect?”
    “I—I don’t know,’she said, and was suddenly taken with an anxiety to leave. What she suspected was that Captain Johnnie had hidden his mount here. The bottle of wine told her Captain Johnnie was a guest at her hotel, and common sense pointed to Mr. Meecham as the culprit. Common sense also whispered that if he realized the direction of her thoughts, he might detain her—permanently.
    She hastened to the doorway, afraid he’d stop her, but he only followed quickly at her heels. He didn’t realize she suspected him, then, and she must be cautious not to alert him. Once back in the sunlight, her fears faded somewhat, and she tried to behave normally.
    “What you have is two sets of trespassers,”Mr. Meecham explained. “Poachers using horses, and errant footmen meeting their light-o’-loves for trysts.”
    “That would explain it,”she agreed quickly.
    “What will you do?”he asked.
    Her mind raced to find the most clever answer. “Probably nothing but put a lock on my wine cupboard,”she said airily. “I don’t mind the poachers thinning out the rabbits. The place is overrun with them, and as to the footmen—why, I suppose they will meet their girls somewhere, and they bother no one at the barn.”
    She looked closely at her companion as she mouthed this lie and didn’t think she was imagining the relief she saw there. She’d alert the constable to keep an eye on the barn, and with luck, Captain Johnnie would be in irons after his next holdup.
    “Generous as well as beautiful,”he said approvingly.
    Meecham accompanied Esther back along the path to the dower house. Newly leafed bushes in blossom scented the air, the sky was an azure arch above them, and birds warbled their mating calls, but this spring beauty went unnoticed by Esther. It was all she could do to keep from breaking into a run in her eagerness to get away from Captain Johnnie. When they encountered an overgrown tangle of bush and weeds, he stepped in front of her.
    “Let me go first and break a way through the bush for you,”he offered.
    Once they were past this barrier, the more