Hazel bit her lip again, but nodded. She would have to believe that, for now. After a moment, she turned back to the main house. She had to arrange a few more things for the breeding season, and she needed to finish the arrangements to visit the other ranch to see what animals she could take in. It would be a good distraction, for the moment.

Brit spent the next few days keeping track of everything going on for breeding season. In a few weeks she'd know how many new arrivals they were expecting so she could tell Hazel, and Hazel could figure out how many to keep and how many to sell.

She paused by Seamus, passing him a note. Hazel and I are going over to the other ranch today. It should only take a few hours. Need anything before I go?

Seamus nodded.

"Alright," he said. "I think we're all set here." He gave her his signature little grin, rather than his shit-eating one. "Although I wouldn't mind kissing you for a few minutes." Because yes, sometimes being that blunt worked.

Brit blinked at that. Well. At least he'd given her some time to get used to the idea. So she smiled a little and kissed him briefly.

Seamus smiled back and gave her a kiss of his own. It was brief and mostly chaste, but with promises of more to come.

Brit shivered briefly at that but decided it was probably time to stop, and kissed his cheek once before smiling at him and heading over to the house. Time to get going.

Seamus grinned at her and let her go. That was good enough for now. He could always pull her aside later and keep kissing her.

Still blushing a little, Brit headed back to the house to let Hazel know she was ready to go.

Hazel was ready for her, dressed again in one of her day gowns rather than her ranch clothes. The driver was ready to go, and she was just waiting for Brit.

Brit nodded and herded her into the carriage first before following her in and settling down for the ride.

It didn't take very long to get there, and Brit got out first. This ranch was much more densely populated than Hazel's, with animals clearly visible even from in front of the house. Brit had the feeling they'd be getting at least some of them.

Hazel was briefly surprised at how large the other ranch was. Clearly, they had been successful before deciding to shut down. She looked for a moment, and then headed in to find the owner.

Brit trailed after her, looking at all the animals. She could see some she was definitely interested in bringing back. But she would ultimately leave the decision up to Hazel.

Hazel finally reached the main building, after stepping around quite a few pet-creatures, and knocked. Friend of the family or not, it wasn't polite to just walk in.

The door opened, revealing a mid-20's woman with a youngster on her hip. She smiled a little.

"Miss Hazel, right? Come on in." She stepped aside to let her in.

Hazel smiled and nodded, going inside. There were a few pets inside as well, and she carefully stepped around them.

The woman led the way inside to the office. "Mark! Miss Hazel is here!"

"One second!" The man, apparently her husband, stumbled over a nekomata and swore before righting himself. "Well, it's a pleasure to see you, miss Hazel. I'm glad you took the time to come visit."

"Thank you for taking the time to have me," Hazel replied with a polite smile. "My grandfather spoke highly of you."

"He was a wonderful man," Mark said with a little smile. "Now, I don't want to take too much of your time. Were there any animals in particular you were interested in seeing?"

"I was actually curious about the pygmy sheep," Hazel replied. "I had never heard of such a thing before your letter, and neither had any of my ranch hands."

Mark grinned. "That's because we're the only ones that have them. We've bred them ourselves." He shrugged. "My wife loves them, anyway. We can see those first, and then whatever else you'd like."

"Perhaps we should start there, then," Hazel agreed. She gestured to Brit. "I hope it's alright I brought my senior ranch hand with me," she said. "She oversees most of the menagerie for me, and helps manage the other hands."

"That's not a problem," Mark said with a grin. "I'm glad you brought her along. Shows me you're serious." He motioned for them to follow, leading the way out back and over to a corral. There was the herd of pygmy sheep, little white and gray and black fluff balls that all crowded over by the fence to investigate them. There were maybe two dozen, but they hardly took up any room, and they clearly didn't have personal space issues.

Brit cooed silently. They were darling! And apparently very friendly.

"They're adorable," Hazel said, smiling when she saw the sheep. She looked back at Mark. "Were you able to breed any other colors at all, or just greyscale?" Legitimate question, to her; all she could picture were little bitty sheep colored like spun sugar.

"We have a couple... there's one." Mark nodded to a little lavender sheep that pranced up. "There's a blue one around here somewhere, and I think I saw a pink one... Oh, wait, no, my daughter has it. Meri! I told you to stop letting the sheep out!"

A little girl pouted and went to go put the pink sheep back, sneaking out a light gray one when her father wasn't looking.

Hazel couldn't help laughing slightly at that.

"I likely would have done the same thing, at her age," she admitted. "At least, if I had been allowed around the menagerie. I was only allowed a pet when I came of age and could buy her myself."