But it didn’t occur to her until she was resting in her room that Dominic’s coming home with a new horse could mean only one thing. He either already had a mistress, or he’d found one that quickly today, or maybe even last night after dinner. Either way, she guessed the horse was for her to seal their bargain. She ought to go have a look at it. If she could stop crying, maybe she would. “It’s that bad, is it?” “Freda!” Brooke leaped off the bed with a laugh. “You’re early.” “I made sure of that. Gabriel didn’t like taking turns driving that big coach, but I was persuasive.” “With a clobbering or . . . ?” “ ‘Or’ worked.” The maid grinned. They had a lot to catch up on . . . well, Brooke did. Alfreda’s trip to London was apparently quite uneventful and summed up in just a few words about the unpleasantness of trying to sleep in a moving coach. Brooke’s trip was too eventful, but she glossed over most of it and couldn’t manage to mention the early wedding night she’d had before arriving in London.
