title: The Stabbing In The Stables (Fethering Mysteries)
author:  Simon Brett 
description: Simon Brett is the author of the Fethering mystery series and the Mrs. Pargeter mystery series, and is the creator of the Charles Paris mysteries. A former president of Britain's Crime Writers' Association and chair of the Society of Authors, he lives in the south of England with his family.
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  [Prologue](index_split_000.html#fm_02)
  
  O n his eleventh birthday, Ian kissed Leitis MacRae.
  
  She retaliated by slapping him. Hard.
  
  He rubbed his cheek while glancing around quickly to see if anyone had
  witnessed either act. The courtyard of Gilmuir was blessedly empty. No groom
  stood with a horse on the glittering white stone that covered the ground. Not
  one of the wagons that made its way daily across the land bridge from the glen
  was standing in the corner waiting to be unloaded. There wasn’t a maid, cook,
  or blacksmith waiting patiently to see the laird. The massive iron-banded oak
  door remained fully closed, no amused face peering around it.
  
  Ian sighed in relief, even as he prudently stepped away from Leitis.
  
  “Don’t ever do that again!” she shouted, glaring at him and scrubbing her hand
  over her mouth.
  
  “It was only a kiss,” Ian said, even as he realized it might well have been a
  mistake to act on impulse. But he had been thinking about kissing her for days
  no