Chapter SeventeenI was always aware that Mr Howard was constantly watching me. He had been doing so since the first day that he had arrived. His eyes were friendly, musing, sometimes even amused, yet still quite disturbing as they followed my every movement around the tap-room and in the stables.
I wondered if he knew that I had seen him in Limestone Manor. If so, he kept very quiet about it, as did I.
Every morning Mr Howard would leave the inn on horseback and most nights he would return late. When I tended to Chocolate I often noticed his legs spattered with mud. They were particularly filthy the day following my engagement to Captain Chadwick.
'You are riding Chocolate hard, sir' I said, rubbing her fetlocks.
'I can do that when it is needed,' he said.
'Mr Howard,' I tried to forg
