A Dangerous Nativity

Chapter 1, Scene 2

"Enough!" Catherine shouted. "Quiet." The dog at least obeyed. Her youngest brother, Randy, skidded to a halt and glanced at her sheepishly while he shouted, "Behind you, Freddy. There's one behind you!"

"Frederick, stop this instant and look at me."

The older of her two siblings stopped his gleeful pursuit reluctantly and turned to look at his sister.

"But the pigs, Cath, I—gore!" Freddy exclaimed. His eyes widened, fixated on a sight past Catherine's shoulder. "That's a fine beast."

Catherine spun on her heels and gasped. A man—and a fine specimen indeed—stood not ten feet away. Tall and broad shouldered, the man exuded the unmistakable confidence of the upper classes. Sunshine did interesting things with the lights in his soft brown hair and his eyes... She found herself momentarily at a loss.

"This animal belongs to you, I presume?" the man asked. His deep rich voice rumbled through Catherine's bemused distraction. She looked up at the huge bay stallion following the man as meekly as a lamb, opened her mouth to deny it, but caught sight of the ragged rope in his hands. He had dragged her irritable goat home.

"Yes. Rosalinda. Thank you." Catherine stumbled over the words.

Randy rushed forward to take the rope.

"Thank you ever so much, sir. So frightened she was, I might have had to chase her clear to the road. If she went onto His Grace's land again, the steward said he'd roast her for dinner." The boy chattered while he tied the animal to the broken gate of the pigsty. "As it is, the mother hog is probably halfway to Wheatton by now."

Warm brown eyes held Catherine's. She found herself unable to speak.

"I say, sir. That horse is a beauty, Mr.—" Freddy began.

"Chadbourn. At your service."

Chadbourn? The earl? Catherine looked in chagrin at her third-best work dress with its patched hem and faded colors. The one time someone from that family appeared on their doorstep, and he found her looking bedraggled.

"Chadbourn?" Freddy echoed. "You can't be. They never come here."

The earl looked confused.

"Frederick!" Catherine snapped, coming sharply to attention. "Mind your manners."

Freddy remained unrepentant as always. "Sorry, Cath, but they don't." He looked at the earl. "May I pet him?" He didn't wait for permission, and the horse seemed willing enough.

"Gently, now," Chadbourn told him.

The sound of the geese faded as the birds ran through the barn. It reminded her that the earl also found Songbird Cottage in confusion. He ought at least to know they possessed manners. She looked to her own manners and began introductions.

"Thank you for your assistance, my lord. I—"

"Your vegetables!" the earl exclaimed.

Vegetables?

He strode past Catherine. She turned around to see that the piglets had settled down to root happily among the last of the unharvested potatoes and turnips, just beyond the kitchen door.

Freddy started to run toward them. The earl put out a hand.

"Steady on. Let them think they've outwitted us, and we'll take them by surprise."

Freddy grinned up at the man and mimicked his stealthy moves until they were almost upon the little beasties. In short order, the boys, the earl, and Catherine held seven piglets by their rear legs and deposited them back in their sty, Randy holding the gate so Freddy could tie it shut.

"Th-thank you for your help, my lord," Catherine stammered, wiping her hands on her skirt and to avoid looking at him. Must he watch me so intently? "We would have managed, but thank you, all the same."

"That pen will require mending."

She nodded. "Our man-of-all-work will see to it. Frederick and Randolph, you two may spend the rest of the day restoring the hay to the loft. You've undone two days' work."

"But, Cath! We needed a safe landing place," Freddy insisted.

"Nonsense! Get on with it," she said.

"Safe landing place?" the earl asked.

Randy launched into a breathless description of plans he and Frederick had made for a nativity reenactment involving only animals. Rosalinda, it seems, was intended for the part of archangel.

"She's all white, you see. But we had to test lowering her from the loft. Christmas is six weeks away, and we can't leave it all for the end."

"That explains the broken rope," the earl said in a queer voice. "What happened to the gate of the pen?"

"Kicked on the way down. Swung the wrong way," Freddy answered. "Flew out and landed in the pen. Mother sow took offense and whacked right through the gate on a run. Maybe I should fetch her?" He looked around hopefully.

"An all-animal reenactment?" Chadbourn asked in a strangled voice.

"Yes, well, Freddy thought the runt pig would make a good baby, and Bertha," Randy pointed to the dog, "is ever so good a mother, so we thought it might work." He scratched his head. "But we don't have sheep, and I can't see who might be a king."

"Perhaps it wasn't one of our better ideas," Freddy mumbled. "Needs work."

"Apparently it does," the earl said, looking like he was holding his breath.

"Both of you, hayloft now. That sow is too lazy to go far." Catherine cut in. To their credit, they both obeyed.

She stared after them. What on earth could she say to this man after that recital? She looked around to see him biting his lip to keep from laughing. Amusement or mockery? She had no way to tell. When he sobered, his question surprised her.

"Did your crew bring in sufficient silage for winter?" he asked, looking at the animals. He sounded genuinely interested.

"Of course. We had a good harvest across the board. Why do you ask?"

"Did most of the county enjoy a good harvest?"

Catherine launched into an overview of yields for the year, crop by crop, compared to the past three harvests for the farms thereabouts. She caught herself in her peculiarly unfeminine enthusiasms and colored. "That's more than you asked," she said. "Do you have an interest in farming?"

He smiled and looked as if he were about to say something, but changed his mind. Silence became uncomfortable.

"Thank you again," she began.

"Tell your husband I admire the condition of your orchard. Your fences are first-rate," he said.

"I-I'm not married," she stammered. "The farm is my father's." Damn the man. At twenty-six, Catherine knew well enough that the age when women married had passed. She also knew that option had never been available to her. She didn't need some prancing nobleman to rub it in.

The earl looked disconcerted. "My apologies, ma'am. To your father, then, Miss—"

"Catherine," she replied, with a belated curtsey to his title.

He waited a moment, but when she didn't add a surname, he mounted and rode off.