The Forgotten Duchess

Chapter Nine | Noir

JAMES WAS RETURNING from the village when he saw Noir passing by him in a flash. His own horse neighed in response, raising its front hooves suddenly, almost causing James to fall off. He ground his heels, urging the horse to settle down, "easy boy," he whispered.

Once the horse settled back down and was under this control, James urged his horse to gallop full speed ahead to the stable. Something must have gone extremely wrong to have his racehorse running away without a rider on its back. When he reached the building, a stable boy quickly approached him. James leapt off quickly, handing him the reigns to his horse.

"Where is the stable master?"

"I shan't know, Your Grace."

James gritted his teeth, "There better be a good reason for his disappearance because I just witnessed Noir galloping across the land—unaccompanied."

The stable boy's eyes widened.

"Sound the alarm," James instructed him.

The boy nodded, binding the horse to one of the pegs quickly and then pulled the ancient alarm bell. James did not bother waiting around, he rushed towards Noir's stall—as expected it was left open.

What he did not expect to see though was the lady knocked out cold and a small orange coloured kitten meowing loudly beside her. James had not experience fear like this in a long time. He quickly disregarded his hat before stepping into the hay beside her. Pressing two fingers to her throat, he was relieved to find a pulse.

"What in the devil happened?"

James spun around to see his stable master looking at the scene before him in horror. That made the two of them. He glared at the servant, "Isn't that your responsibility to know?"

The stable master paled. "I stepped out for a couple of minutes; I didn't know that this was going to happen."

"I don't need excuses, what I need is results," James snapped, his voice rising by the second. "Send three of your fastest riders after Noir, he couldn't have gone far."

The stable master nodded and called a few names. Seconds later, two men and a lanky boy appeared. "Take the fastest horses, Noir has escaped and must be captured," the stable master instructed.

There was a flurry of activity in the stables as the groomsmen began saddling and gathering equipment to capture the racehorse. James shook his head; this could have all been avoided if only he'd taken Noir for a run like he initially planned to in the morning. Instead, he had decided to give the horse a break for a day and look where that decision had gotten them all.

"Your Grace, shall I saddle a horse for you to join the hunt as well?"

James shook his head, normally, he would have gone to capture the wild beast but right now he had more pressing matters to attend to. Carefully, as if he was picking up one of his great-aunt Esme's antiques, James gathered Vivienne in his arms.

"Call for a doctor to meet me back in the manor," he ordered.

"Is she still alive?"

"I would be calling for a priest instead of a physician if she wasn't."

Ignoring the gaping look on his stable master's face, James made slow steps towards the manor. He had only taken a few steps when he heard the mumbling, "the kitten."

Bloody hell. Vivienne would be the only one worrying about the kitten when she herself was in such a dire state. She mumbled the words a few times until he whispered back to her, "The kitten's safe, rest now."