Chapter 1Coming from the farm with a basket of eggs on her arm Khushi was humming a little tune at the same time as she was telling herself a story.
Because she was so much alone she invariably enlivened her daily tasks by pretending she was the wife of an Eastern Potentate, or daughter of an explorer seeking treasures hidden by the Aztecs, or a pearl diver.
Just as she reached the end of the narrow lane which led to Honeysuckle Farm, and was about to join the road which would take her to the village , she heard a man's voice exclaim in a tone of exasperation: "Damn!"
Khushi started because she had seldom heard a man swear.The country people were God-fearing and soft spoken.
Curious, she hurried down the last few yards of the lane to have her first sight of an extremely well-bred horse.
She appreciated its appearance and saw that its rider was bending down to pick up its off-side hind leg.
She realised that he was looking at the horse's hoof and guessed that it had lost a shoe.
It was something that frequently happened in the neighbourhood because the roads were so rough, and Khushi suspected that the local Blacksmith was not as skilled his predecessor.
It Flashed through her mind however that she did not recognize the horse or its owner, who at the moment had his back to her.
She, however, walked forward to ask in her soft voice:
" Can I Help you?"
The Gentleman bending over the horse's hoof didn't turn his head.
"Not unless you have something with which to lever a shoe from a hoof!" he replied.
He spoke in an obviously irritated manner, but with the drawl which her brother had told Khushi was fashionable amongst the Bucks in London , and was affected by the aristocratic visitors who stayed with her Uncle, the Earl of Millbrooke, at the Hall.
She guessed this was where the Gentleman whose face she could not see had come from.
Moving closer she realised that what was upsetting him was that the shoe on his horse's hoof had come loose, but was still attached by one nail which he could not dislodge.
This was an accident which had often happened to the horses her brother NK rode when he was at home.
Without saying anything she put down her basket and looked at the rough surface of the road. A second later she saw what she sought.
It was a large flat stone and picking it up she moved to the side of the Gentleman who was still struggling to wrench the shoe loose and said:
"Let me try."
He didn't glance up at her but merely held his horse's foreleg as he was doing already, and waited while she bent down, slipped the flat stone under the shoe and levered it free from the hoof.
It took amount of strength, but because she was doing it the right way and with a deft movement of her wrist, the shoe was detached from the hoof and clattered onto the road, talking the nail with it .
The Gentleman beside her put the horse's leg down straightening himself and said:
"I'm extremely graceful to you and now kindly tell me where I can find a Blacksmith."
He picked the shoe up from the ground as he spoke.
Then for the first time he looked to see who had been skilful enough to help him.
Edited by AbhiyaMaaneet - 11 years ago
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