Legends Lake

by JoAnn Ross

  “Zoe!” Brigid cried with open glee, wiggling so that Alec slid her off his back. She was dashing out of the room, her shoes clattering on the wooden stairs the moment her feet touched the floor.

  “Your daughter appears to have made a fan.”

  “If the purple nails are any indication, Brigid’s doing a helluva lot better job of getting through to her than I have.”

  “The child could wear down a stone. If her soul had only inhabited an Irish lass in the seventeenth century, our entire sad history would have been altered, for I have not a doubt at all that she could have melted even Cromwell’s black heart.”

  “You won’t get any argument from me about that.”

  “I suppose I should have asked you first, but I mentioned to Zoe that I could be using her help with the horses. Only after she finishes her lessons, that is.”

  “What did she say?”

  “That she was afraid you wouldn’t let her.”

  “Christ, she has such a positive view of me,” he muttered.

  “You needn’t worry. I assured her that I’d handle you.”

  “And how, precisely, did you plan to go about ‘handling’ me?”

  “I thought I’d try logic. Then, if that didn’t work, appeal to your American Protestant work ethic.”

  “And if I still proved difficult?”

  “Oh, I was planning to, as you Yanks say, pull out all the stops.”

  “Were you, indeed?” The faintly wicked gleam in his dark eyes suggested each and every one of the things she’d spent last night dreaming of. And more.

  “Aye.” She gave him a bland look. “I suggested casting a spell on you.”

  “I thought you didn’t cast spells.”

  “And isn’t that what Zoe said, herself?” Kate smiled. “And as I told her, there’s always a first time.”

  “Thank you.” His smile was easy and warm. “It’s generous of you to help.”

  “It’s she who will be helping me,” Kate corrected. “And if working with the horses gives her a bit of pleasure, as well, isn’t that lovely for everyone.”

  “Lovely,” he murmured as his gaze drifted over her face in a way that had her thinking that he might not be referring to her clever plan to ease the rebellious teen’s troubled heart.

  “I’d better go upstairs and see if anything happened to make her come home from the Gallaghers’ before I could get over there to pick her up. Then I want to tell you what I learned about Legends Lake.”

  “I’ll be wanting to hear it.” She glanced over at Jamie, who was pouring himself a glass of milk. “Darling, would you please go amuse your sister so Mr. MacKenna can be having a private chat with his daughter?”

  “Sure, Ma,” he said around a mouthful of chocolate biscuit. He gulped down the milk, then left the kitchen.

  Once they were alone, another thicker, decidedly awkward silence settled over them. Kate searched her mind for something—anything—to say, but found it difficult to think when he was looking at her mouth in a way that suggested he was thinking neither of his daughter nor the horse, but of those two brief, but oh so devastating kisses they’d shared on the beach.

  “I’ll be out in the brood barn with Nora. Her time is getting near.”

  Alec didn’t respond. Just nodded and, seeming as torn as she, left the kitchen.

  When she heard his boots on the stairs, Kate let out a long shuddering breath she’d been unaware of holding. Then, dragging her mind back to the one thing she had been able to count on all of her life—the stud—she went out to check on her pregnant mare.

  17

  ZOE WAS SPRAWLED ON THE BED, her nose stuck in a book. Not a textbook, Alec noted, but a worn, leather-bound book entitled The History of the Irish Horse.

  “Finding out anything interesting?” he asked casually, raising his voice a little to be heard over the sound of sugary male harmony coming from the boombox she’d insisted on bringing to Ireland with her.

  She slammed the pages closed. Her face closed up. “I finished today’s assignment.”

  “Good for you.” Her eyes were puffy, a sign she’d been crying. Alec decided to take a roundabout approach. “Have you gotten to the Connemara pony?”

  “Yeah. The very first chapter calls it Ireland’s native horse.”

  “So it is, and a great one. They’re small, but muscular with strong bones. They’ve managed to retain their iron constitution along with foraging ability. Partly, I’d imagine, because the stallions are often turned out to survive on their own each fall, then rounded up again for breeding in the spring. The amazing thing is, despite maintaining so much of their wild ways, of all the horse breeds, they seem to bond the best with humans.”

  “They sound kinda cool.”

  “They are way cool.” Inspiration struck. “You know, the Connemara’s only a few miles north of here. If you’d like, we could take a drive up there and you can see some for yourself.”

  “I figured you’d be busy.”

  “I am busy. But it’d be a shame to come all this way and not get in some sightseeing. I’ll bet Kate even knows people who own some ponies she’d enjoy introducing you to.”

  “Kate says that I can help her around here with the horses.”

  “So she told me. What do you think about that?”

  She shrugged. Her mouth pulled into a tight line, but there was a yearning in her tear-reddened eyes, come and gone in such a quick flash that if he hadn’t been watching her so closely, Alec might have missed it.

  Her answer was a while in coming. “I might as well, I guess. There’s nothing else to do around here.” She paused and began picking at her fingernail polish. Sensing that she had something else on her mind besides Irish horses and teenage boredom, Alec waited her out.

  “Why didn’t you adopt me?” Her face had crumbled as she’d finally asked the question Alec had been half-expecting for the past six months. She could have been six years old. It broke his heart.

  “It’s complicated.”

  “Didn’t you want me?”

  “Bunches. But there were legal considerations in the beginning.” Alec didn’t reveal that Liz had been holding out in hopes of Zoe inheriting big wine bucks from her father’s French wine fortune. Something his family, who’d never approved of his flashy American wife in the first place, had not allowed to happen. “I figured, since we were already a family, and the paperwork was just a formality, there’d be time to take care of it.”

  “But Mother left before you could.”

  She was looking out the window, toward the lake. Alec figured it was more a case of her not wanting him to see her hurting than any avid interest in the Irish scenery.

  “Yeah. She left.”

  “With Philippe.”

  “Yeah.” Surprisingly, he’d forgotten the guy’s name. “And you.”

  Oddly, by the time Liz had left, that was the loss he’d mourned the most. Alec had never given any thought to becoming a father; Lord knows John MacKenna certainly hadn’t been anything resembling a role model. But during his brief marriage, he’d discovered that not only was fatherhood far more fulfilling than he ever could have imagined, he’d actually been fairly good at it.

  “Philippe was an asshole.”

  “Was he?” Alec responded mildly, deciding that this was not the time to work on cleaning up her language.

  “Yeah. Just like all those other guys she ran around with after she dumped me in the Alps with those Nazi nuns.”

  “They were Swiss.”

  “Close enough.” She glanced back over at him. “Mother was always falling in love with bastard creeps. I hated every one of them. But you were okay.”

  Okay wasn’t much, but at least he ranked higher than the no-account duke and all the European playboys who’d come after him. “Thanks. So,” he asked, almost afraid to push his luck, “how were things at the Gallaghers’?”

  “They’re nice. And they’ve got a cool media room. Nora Gallagher’s sister, Mary, is abou
t my age. She likes ’N Snyc, too. Her favorite guy is Lance.”

  “He’s the youngest, right?”

  “How did you know that?” She couldn’t conceal her surprise.

  “Hey, you’re not the only one who’s done her homework.”

  She smiled, just a little, at learning he’d gone to the trouble to learn something about her favorite pop group.

  “I’ll let you get back to your reading,” he said, deciding to quit while he was, if not ahead, at least not lagging as far behind as he had been. “I want to talk to Kate about Legends Lake.” Unable to leave without some physical contact, he touched a hand to her hair. “Want to come with us when we breeze him again tomorrow?”

  Her shoulders lifted and fell in that teenage shrug he was getting used to. But she couldn’t quite hide the expectation lighting up her eyes. “Okay.”

  Alec decided that they’d made enough progress for one day. “Great.” He touched his fingers to his lips, then to hers.

  They don’t hear the words you long to say, ’N Sync was crooning.

  Even as he thought the swoon-inducing kids sure as hell had that right, as he went out to the barn, Alec considered that no matter what happened with Legends Lake, perhaps Ireland would prove to be good for both him and Zoe.

  He found Kate in Nora’s stall. “How’s she doing?”

  “It won’t be long now,” she said, as she rubbed her hands over the heavily pregnant mare’s sides. She took an apple from her pocket, along with a pocketknife she used to quarter it and fed one of the red-skinned segments to the horse. “As many times as I’ve done this, I always worry.”

  “She’ll be fine.”

  “And here you’d accused me of having a crystal ball.”

  “I wasn’t making light of your concern. Merely trying to remind you that you’re damn good at your work and there’s no point in borrowing trouble.”

  “Aren’t you right about that?” The horse nipped another piece of apple from her outstretched palm. “Since I’ve already got enough in my life to deal with.”

  “Like having a crazy horse, a temperamental teenager and a rude Yank all showing up on your doorstep.”

  “The horse is a challenge. The teen, a sweet girl beneath that prickly armor she’s taken to wearing. As for the Yank …” She absently caressed the mare’s wide back. “I can’t deny that he’s livened things up a bit around here.”

  He caught her hand and linked their fingers together. “You don’t sound real happy about that.”

  “My life was …” She paused, searching for the right word. “Difficult,” she decided upon, “for several years. Calm and quiet days were an appealing change.”

  Alec was tempted to suggest that she might think about livening up her nights, at least, then reminded himself that she wasn’t the kind of woman to indulge in a short, passionate affair. Which meant that she was pretty much off limits.

  “Makes sense to me.” Not quite ready to relinquish possession of her hand, he lifted it to his mouth and nipped lightly at her knuckles. “Though, since we’re being entirely honest here, I’ll have to admit that under any other circumstances, I’d seriously be considering seductive ploys to entice you up into that hayloft.”

  He waggled his brows in a mock seductive way that won a light laugh. “Under any other circumstances, MacKenna, you wouldn’t be needing any ploys.”

  He shook his head. Untangled their fingers. It was his turn to sigh. “I think I’ve figured out your plan.”

  “And what plan would that be?”

  “You’re out to save money on your electric bills by forcing me to take cold showers.”

  “Sure, you’ve found me out.” She returned his smile and the mood lightened again. For now. “So, why don’t you be telling me about what you found out about your horse?”

  “You were right about there having been a fire.”

  “Ah.” She did not appear the least bit surprised by that revelation.

  “However,” he continued, “it wasn’t that big a deal, according to the guy who was at the track at the time. A short in the electrical system started a small fire in the washroom. There was a lot of smoke, but very little flame and all the horses were gotten out safely.”

  “Still, I imagine they were terrified.”

  “Probably. But that still doesn’t explain why he should be having a problem on the track. So I dug a little deeper, talked to more people who were there that day and discovered that the fire occurred shortly after Legends Lake was returned to his stall after a disappointing morning breezing.”

  “Was he treated poorly for not running to expectations?”

  “According to a groom I spoke with, Jenkins was nursing the mother of all hangovers. After the breezing, he whipped Legends Lake with the exercise rider’s crop. The guy said the lashes hadn’t been hard enough to leave physical scars but—”

  “Surely such mistreatment could cause mental scars.” The roar of out of control flames thundered inside her head. When the screams of terrified Thoroughbreds nearly shattered her eardrums, she went light in the head.

  When she swayed, Alec pried her fingers off the top of the stall door and half-dragged, half-carried her outside, where a cool mist had begun to fall. “Sit down.”

  “I’m fine.”

  “Sure you are. But there’s no way I’m going to risk a repeat of the other day.” He shoved her onto a bale of hay beneath the wide eaves. “Sit. And put your head between your knees.”

  “Really, I’m—”

  “Shut up. You’re white as bone. If you don’t get some blood into your head you’ll pass out.” When she hesitated, he put his hand on the top of her head and pushed.

  She muttered something in Irish he took as a curse, but when she lifted her head again, the color was back in her cheeks. “I’m all right now. Truly,” she insisted at his skeptical look. “It was only a flash of a vision. Come and gone in seconds.”

  “Are you saying you saw the fire?”

  “And heard it as well. Was it sparked shortly after Legends Lake was whipped?”

  “Yeah. About thirty minutes.”

  She granted him a faint smile. “Isn’t that clever detective work on your part.”

  “You’re the one who suggested the fire in the first place.”

  “It wasn’t I who suggested it.”

  “Yeah, that’s right. Legends Lake told you.”

  “Aye.”

  She thrust out her chin a bit as she continued to look up at him, silently daring him to argue. Something he was no longer prepared to do. Because, while the idea of some sort of equine/human mind-meld between this self-proclaimed Celtic druid and his glitchy horse didn’t make a lick of sense, there was also no logical reason for her to have known about the San Diego fire.

  “Okay, I’ll reluctantly accept you knowing about that time I was tied up and locked in the closet when I was a kid, along with being aware of Legends Lake’s experience with a fire, points to some sort of telepathic connection. But if your head starts spinning around, all bets are off.”

  “It’s those who are possessed who have such difficulty, I believe,” she said matter-of-factly.

  Alec stared at her. “Whatever. The thing is, it’s a very large mental leap from extrasensory perception to believing in witches and goblins and things that go bump in the night.”

  Overhead, thunder rumbled across the darkening sky, as if mocking his words.

  “You’ve already come a long way since our meeting on the cliff. I’ll not be pushing you beyond your limits.”

  “I appreciate that.”

  She smiled serenely. “No problem.”

  Since there wasn’t any rational answer for what seemed to be her preternatural powers, Alec stuck to what he did know rather than what he couldn’t understand. “The first time he jumped in a race was the day after the fire.”

  “Was he whipped that day, as well?”

  “It took a while to track down the jockey, but he insists that he wa
sn’t.”

  She was silent for another long moment. Alec waited.

  “What about the other horses? Was the crop used on them, perhaps?”

  “Yeah. The guy I talked with said Legends Lake broke like a rocket, the same way he usually does, but in the final stretch he was running nose to nose with the favorite, when the other jockey gave his horse a push in the stretch.”

  “With his crop.”

  “Got it on the first try.”

  “So it’s possible that Legends Lake has linked those two things together—the crop and the fire—together in his mind.”

  “That’d be my guess.”

  “Which means that he’ll run as free as the wind without any problem so long as some other jockey within his visual field doesn’t pull out a crop during the race.”

  Which was highly unlikely since such a tactic wasn’t necessarily cruelty, as some might think. Many horses benefited from a light touch of the leather crop as a signal that it was time to go into their final stretch run.

  “I’d guess that’s pretty much the case. Though I suspect it’s more complicated, because the first time I saw him at Tarlington Farms, he was wearing full cup blinkers, and they sure as hell didn’t work that day.”

  “His hearing must be acute enough that he can hear the sound. Or, perhaps he just senses it.”

  “That’s what I was thinking.”

  “Well then, there’s no choice.” She decided what he’d already considered. “Since there’ll be no curing his problems until we can trigger them, we’ll have to be racing him again. Under controlled circumstances.”

  It was the only option he’d been able to come up with. An option that, while a long shot, could possibly work. Unfortunately, it was also rife with the potential for disaster.

  18

  LATE THAT NIGHT, Alec slipped upstairs to check on Zoe, who, though she’d finally joined the rest of them for supper, had remained, for the most part, silent all evening. It was more than obvious she’d been deep in thought. About what, Alec had no clue.

  As restless in sleep as she was when she was awake, the teenager had kicked off all her covers. One slender white arm was hanging off the mattress, the other flung above her magenta head, which was no longer lying on her pillow, since sometime after falling asleep, she’d knocked it onto the floor.