The Primrose Path by Bárbara Metzger

reminded him.
    “What, do you think I am going to send Pug off to the coal mines to detect poison gases?”
    “I think that Lady Sophie entrusted me with her dogs’ welfare. I shall not shirk that responsibility.”
    “Unlike some others you could mention if you weren’t such a lady? I wrote to my man in London yesterday, about hiring a schoolteacher.”
    “And a doctor, my lord?” Angelina was shooing most of the dogs out of the room or onto cushions placed in various corners. She stopped to rub an ear here, scratch a chin there.
    Corin was watching her, appreciating her graceful movements, when her words sank in. “What, never tell me we don’t have a doctor, either?”
    “We have a physician, my lord, but he won’t come out from Ashford to tend the farm laborers or the poor. Knowlton Heights should have a medical practitioner of its own.” Angelina thought it would be nice to have a doctor who was familiar with veterinary medicine, too, but she believed she’d gone far enough in prodding the prickly peer.
    Corin nodded curtly, thinking she’d stuck her busybody’s nose far enough into his business. “About the dogs, Miss Armstead. What’s to keep you from rescuing another reject? Another runt? Another mistreated mongrel?” He brushed at the dog hairs on his sleeve. “You could make sure your position lasts indefinitely, and your salary, of course.”
    Angelina crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the viscount. How could she have thought him attractive? His eyes were a common gray and his hair an undistinguished blond. Why, his broad shoulders might be stuffed with sawdust or buckram wadding for all Angelina knew. And how could she have feared being affected by his practiced charm? The man had none. He was a boor and a cad and a popinjay more concerned with his clothes than with the plight of Lady Sophie’s pets. She would not allow her feelings to be hurt that he still thought her a grasping, greedy female.
    “My honor, Lord Knowle, will keep me from abusing your aunt’s generosity, just as your honor will keep you from abusing my hospitality,” she stated, reminding the viscount of his gaucherie and her possession of the cottage in one breath. “I will not, could not, sit back and let an animal suffer, but any new arrivals will go to the charity home in the village as soon as it is finished. At that time you may check the dogs remaining here against the list that shall be in your hands at the castle by tomorrow morning.”
    He noted that the list was to be delivered, not held for his next visit. Being cordially hinted away by the finicky female did not sit well with him for some reason. “I did not mean to disparage your honor. Miss Armstead. I have seen your gentle heart and tender sensibilities.” Always directed toward the dogs, he recalled with a tad of jealousy. “I do not want you to be overwhelmed, is all.”
    Her icy glare of disbelief could have cooled the Sahara. Corin scrambled for a change of topic. “And what about babies? I mean puppies, of course. You’ll be overrun soon if you keep all of these animals together like this.” Corin prayed she wasn’t such an uninformed virgin that he’d have to explain why one shouldn’t keep the dogs and the bitches in the same room. He needn’t have worried.
    “Lady Sophie was very careful about not adding to the numbers of unwanted pets, my lord. Females in season are kept secluded, of course. As for the males, the butcher comes.”
    He sat up straighter. “The butcher? You slaughter them for being males?”
    “Don’t be absurd. The butcher comes and ... and ...” She made a snipping motion with her first two fingers.
    “You have them gelded?” Corin crossed his legs, then tried not to look under Ajax, the poor wretch. No wonder that other dog hated men.
    “Stallions and steers are, ah, gelded, all the time. Why not dogs if it keeps them from quarreling or straying or propagating litter upon litter?”
    “That’s very