Chapter 13
The Art of Contradicting a Queen
For Adam, Sunday started with a sore ear. Joe had wisely resigned from sitting next to Juliet at the church and had relinquished the seat to his oldest brother. Adam had been pleased with sharing sardonic comments on the sermon with Juliet but shocked at her inability to carry a single tune. Giving her a strained smile he had tried to unobtrusively lean away from her caterwauling as far as possible, but Juliet, with a mocking smirk, had looked at him and sung right in his direction. Adam had been sure she knew what she was doing, and that she had immensely enjoyed torturing him. Had it been some kind of vengeance for the retraction she had obediently composed and published in the weekend issue of the Enterprise?
After the service Juliet had excused herself rather quickly. She had to prepare for the horse’s training and her riding lecture, she’d said. She and Adam had agreed to meet in about an hour and Adam had bridged the time gap by joining his family for a second breakfast at the International House.
When he arrived at Mrs. Hawkins’ stable at the appointed time, Juliet was already waiting for him and greeted him heartily. Her riding costume was as black as Adam’s own clothes and set off her honey-gold hair. Like the other day, a few strands had escaped her untidy bun and curled around her expectant face. She looked like a little girl on Christmas morning, Adam thought, a dignified little girl by all means, but also a fairly eager one. Obviously she considered their disagreement on the offending leprechaun article as over and done with and wanted to turn their battleground back to Elysian Fields.
Well, he could be as forgiving as she was. “I’d like to thank you for the retraction you wrote. I meant to tell you earlier, you did an excellent job with that.” He couldn’t resist, though, adding, “I’m glad you eventually gave in.”
The eager anticipation dissolved from Juliet’s face. Her jaw set and she fixed him with a stare through narrowed eyes. Then she closed her lids for exact two seconds taking a deep breath, and while her eyes ever so slowly opened again her face melted back into a relaxed mask. “Oh, but I didn’t give in, Adam.” Juliet shook her head with a smug smile and lifted an eyebrow. “I merely changed my mind.” She gazed at him, slowly tilting her head, and Adam watched in fascination the little dance her smile performed. It started at one corner of her mouth, crumbled into pursed lips that developed into a near pout, tugged at the other corner of her lips, somersaulted to her eyes, toyed with her eyebrows and went back to where it started. She closed her eyes again and averted her head. When she turned back to look at Adam her face was as composed as ever.
“I see,” Adam stretched out. He couldn’t help but grin. “Now that’s one way to look at it.”
“Oh, it most definitely is.” She could smile with one corner of her mouth while raising the opposite eyebrow. Interesting. Adam confined himself to an acknowledging nod. Juliet received this with a double-cornered smile and another graceful tilt of her head.
“Shall we start now with the horse’s training?” she suggested.
Adam bit back a burst of laughter over her display of sarcastic puppy eyes. He never knew there was a thing like sarcastic puppy eyes, but Juliet had just taught him better. Everything Juliet did seemed to hold a certain amount of sarcasm, even being flirtatious. Was she even being flirtatious? Adam wasn’t sure he would ever be able to tell the true nature of Juliet’s antics. But this wasn’t the time or the place to ponder that. He had a job to do.
“Yes, certainly. That’s why I’m here after all,” he said. “Where is Niobe?”
“She’s in the stable. The saddle is right next to her box.”
“She’s not saddled yet?”
“Well, no.” Juliet sounded irritated. She looked rather puzzled. “You didn’t expect me to saddle the horse, did you?”
“Of course I did. You want to ride a horse, you groom and saddle it!”
Juliet snorted. “Honestly, Adam! I don’t groom horses. I…I don’t groom horses. I don’t even know how.” She held a defensive hand out. “And I have no desire to learn it, Adam, so don’t even try.”
“If you want to ride your horse, someone has to saddle it—that is unless you want to ride bareback.”
“Don’t be ridiculous!” she scolded. “Just go and saddle the horse—you will be riding her first anyway.”
“No, I won’t ride her at all. You’ll do that.”
“Adam,” she spoke to him with as much patience as she would use speaking to a little child. “The horse is not fully trained. I don’t ride a horse that is not ready to be ridden. I’m not a bronco buster”—she enunciated this like a foreign word—“That’s your job.”
“Juliet,” he replied with the same forced calm. “This horse is not wild or anything. It doesn’t have to be ‘busted’; I already did that. It’s a tame horse that only needs some refining. And since you will be riding this horse it’s the best you’ll teach her these refinements.”
“But I can’t do that. Adam, I never trained a horse. I don’t know how to do that. That’s why I paid you!”
“You can do that, Juliet. You just do what I tell you to do and it’ll be fine.”
Juliet put her hands on her hips and teased, “Oh, yes, indeed. Now wouldn’t you like that, Adam Cartwright!” She shook her head and huffed. “I’ll do what you tell me to do. If this doesn’t beat it all!”
“Ah, come on, you know how I meant it.”
“Oh, I know exactly how you meant it, Mr. I-Demand-A-Retraction.”
Adam felt the sudden urge to strangle her. He knew Juliet was mocking him. He saw her raised chin, her set back shoulders, her provocative stare. Battle stance, again. He knew it, but still….
Well, no. No, it was no good. If he strangled her now, it would be quite relieving at first but he’d probably be sorry later. He would not only heist the Territorial Enterprise of an exceptional writer but also rob himself of a very entertaining and inspiring interlocutor. And honestly, he had no idea where to deposit her corpse. So he decided to let her go with this. He silently counted to ten. I’m doing this a lot lately, he noted.
“You will find this modus operandi will lead to a better relationship with you and your horse, Mylady, and it will ultimately result in a higher riding proficiency,” Adam told her with deliberate calm.
If she was surprised about his backing away from another battle of wills, she didn’t let it on. But she gave way a bit, too. “I understand. If you think this is the best, we will do it. You’re the expert after all.” Her smile was lovely. “Now saddle the horse, so we can start.”
He would have done it. He really would have done it. For that smile alone he would have done it. If only her tone hadn’t been so commanding.
“I told you, I don’t saddle the horse. You do it. It’s part of the training. To get you acquainted with the horse.”
Her smile was no longer present. “And I tell you, you do it. This is getting sour, Adam. We’ve wasted enough time over this.” There wasn’t a trace of sarcasm left in her voice. Her brows for once were furrowed, her mouth set in a straight line and her tone was pungent. She obviously was used to commanding people and to having them obey. “I don’t do groom work, I pay people. And I hired you. So do your work.”
Adam glared at her. There was no amount of counting inwardly that would calm him down this time. He spoke very low and very pronounced. Anyone who knew him would realize that this was a crucial warning signal. Anyone who didn’t know him would sense that anyway. “You hired me as a riding instructor, not as a stable boy. And I highly recommend you reconsider your choice of words and tone with me.”
Juliet stared back, breathing heavily. She worked her jaws, then squeezed her eyes shut for a brief moment. When she opened them they had gone a shade darker. “I apologize for adopting the wrong tone and locution,” she finally gave him, albeit rather imperially. “Of course, you aren’t a stable boy. But you can do your job as a riding instructor only if we have a saddled horse. So I kindly ask you to please saddle my horse for me.”
Adam sighed. That would have done the trick earlier. But it was far too late for niceties. “No, you do it or we quit today’s lesson.”
Juliet stared at him unbelieving. She could just restrain herself from letting her mouth gape, and only her good upbringing prevented her from stamping her foot. “You can’t quit this lesson. That would be a violation of our contract!”
Her eyes were doing that thunder storm spark shooting again. Avoid her eyes, Adam thought, avoid her eyes or you’re lost.
“Oh, I won’t break our precious contract, Mylady, I merely postpone the date of compliance.” This time Adam let an ironic smile dance in his face.
Juliet balled her hands into tight fists, held her head high and glared at him, drawing deep deliberate breaths. Adam didn’t have to be a mind reader to know she was riled. Sweet revenge, he thought. The storm that was raging in her eyes was a telltale sign even if her voice was composed when she told him, “Very well. Now we have settled that I will adjourn to the house. There are some articles waiting to be written. Good day, Adam.”
If he had ever heard a dismissal it was now. But he was quite content with that. The run of events today hadn’t been what he had planned at all. He heaved a deep breath. “Good day to you, too, Juliet. I will see you next Sunday.”
She was already on her way to the house when she turned and constrained herself to a “Next Sunday then. Fine.”
“Fine.”
Adam shook his head. While he was heading to where he had left Sport he was musing on how this was supposed to be going fine, ever.
I just love so much that you developed a friendship between Adam and Juliet in this series before developing a romance (though of course there were sparks from the start). ? I just always feel like friendship is so important for a couple …
Enjoyable, as your writing always is. So glad there’s more to go. Thx for writing! (And hope all is well w you …)
Oh, oh, I’m so happy you are starting to read the series!
I agree, friendship is important for a couple. And I really wanted to explore why they would fall for each other rather than making it love at first sight. Even though I suspect ghat at the end of the day it was love at first sight, only they did not recognise it for what it was.
I hope you’ll enjoy the otherbstories, too.
(And yes, all is well. Just keep my fingers crossed it stays so.)
I would pay to give Adam a bath!!!? Like the way this is headed.
Well, yes, who wouldn’t? 🙂
Thanks a lot, Neano, for reading this and for letting me know you liked it. It’s very much appreciated!