"Has he always been Jane's?" Brat asked.
"No," Bee said, "he was bought for Simon's fourteenth birthday. But Simon grew so fast that in a year or so he had outgrown him, and Jane at four was already clamouring to ride a 'real' horse instead of a Shetland. So she fell heir to him. If he ever had any manners he has forgotten them, but he and Jane seem to understand each other."
Gregg came back to say that it was Miss Ashby that Gates wanted to see. It was about the fencing.
"All right, I'll come," Bee said. And as Gregg went away: "What he really wants to see is Brat, but he'll just wait till to-morrow like the rest of the countryside. It's so like Gates to try to steal a march. Opportunism is his middle name. If you two go trying out any of the horses, do be back for tea. I want to go round the paddocks with Brat before it gets dark."
"Do you remember Gates?" Simon asked, opening the door of another box.
"No, I don't think so."
"He's the tenant of Wigsell."
"What became of Vidler, then?"
"He died. This man was married to his daughter and had a small farm the other side of Bures."
Well, Simon had dealt him the cards he needed that time. He looked at Simon to see how he had taken it, but Simon's whole interest seemed to be in the horse he was leading out of the box.