“If there is a problem, you would not hesitate to share it with me, would you? We are, I would hope, bonded by more than just our skin,” Sineta said softly.
Mildred shook her head. “No, there’s no problem,” she said slowly, hoping that her lie wouldn’t show through. “It’s just that the end is near for Barras, and I’ve kind of grown to like him,” she continued. “It’s going to be tough for you when he goes.”
“It is good of you to consider me in this manner,” Sineta said softly, “but it is something for which I have been prepared for some while.”
Mildred sighed inwardly with relief. In truth, it hadn’t been a complete lie. She did feel concern for the baron’s daughter and was truly worried about how Sineta would react when her father bought the farm. She had merely used this to divert Sineta’s attention from the true cause of her apprehension.
With mixed feelings, Mildred made her way across the short distance to where the livestock was housed and farmed. She was relieved to be away from Sineta’s questioning presence, but tense about the possibility of fulfilling her promise to the baron.
She arrived at the livestock pens to find chaos. Markos and the giant Elias—whom she recognized from his tree-felling detail with the companions—were chasing a goat that had escaped its pen and was running riot among the pigs. The livestock farmers, meanwhile, were concerned with preventing the spooked pigs from breaking the walls of their pens and trampling the crates that lay empty and looked all too fragile at the side of the goat enclosure.
“Damn this creature, why does it not respond our directions?” Markos yelled as he and Elias tried to form a pincer movement that would direct the creature back toward its own pen. To the sec boss’s intense annoyance, the goat failed to yield to his direction. With a bleat of fear mixed with triumph, it slipped under his outstretched arms and ran free once more.
“It is a free spirit, and not one of your lackeys that you can direct like a machine,” returned Elias with a throaty laugh as he watched the creature circle the pigpen, scattering squealing pigs in his wake.
“Then if it is like you, think like the goat and give me a suggestion that has more practicality,” Markos snarled in frustration.
“Things not going so well?” Mildred announced her arrival with a comment that failed to keep the amusement from her voice.
“I’m glad that you find it a source of pleasure that we struggle to prepare for our travels,” Markos snapped with a petulance and pomposity that showed how hard he was struggling to keep his dignity.
“Lighten up.” Elias laughed. “Man versus beast and beast is winning…there’s a lesson in there somewhere, I’m sure.”
The goat came hurtling out of the pen, yelping after a bite on its hind quarters from an enraged pig had left it floundering. Sensing their chance to drive it out, the pigs had united into a driving force that had, like a sentient battering ram, forced it toward the gate of the pen.
The terrified creature, skirting around Markos and Elias, too startled and surprised to react in time, headed for the open woods beyond the pens. It was also heading straight toward Mildred.
In the fraction of a second she had, Mildred dropped to her haunches and looked the goat in the eye. Its wild, glassy eyes showed nothing except terror. It wasn’t seeing anything in front, merely running blind. Unfortunately, it also gave her little idea of which direction it would take to get past her.
She would have to guess. The goat was upon her, and on some instinctive level she saw it begin to sway toward the left as it shifted balance to swerve around the obstruction in its path. As it passed, she threw herself to the right and grabbed it around the neck. She had only the one chance and she had to make it count. She grasped the tensed muscles of the creature’s neck, feeling the hardness of its tendons and flesh beneath the greasy coat. It resisted her attempt to dig in for a firm hold, and she found her fingers slipping on the heavy oil of the goat’s hair.