Ghost Horse

by Patricia Rosemoor

  “Need a leg up?” Alex asked from too close behind me.

  He’d startled me—I tried not to let on as I turned to face him. “I’m sure I’ll be able to manage.”

  “I wasn’t questioning your skills.” He smiled slyly and winked a hazel eye at me. “What I meant…would you like a leg up?”

  Emphasis on like….

  Alex drew close enough that I got a whiff of his subtle aftershave, a fact that made me a little nervous. As did the way he was looking at me, like an after-lunch treat he wanted to savor.

  In other circumstances the attention might be flattering, but as it was…I was glad to see Damian coming toward us, his expression set in an ever-familiar scowl.

  “Alex, you know Jimmy had to take the day off. The stalls are waiting.”

  “Clifford can muck them.”

  “Clifford is exercising one of the mares.”

  “Theo, then.”

  “Theo is busy in the tack room.”

  Alex looked as if he wanted to argue with Damian, but in the end, he clenched his jaw and backed off. If he remembered I was there, I couldn’t tell. He stormed toward the barn, throwing a resentful glance over his shoulder at his brother.

  Nissa was just coming out of the barn, a chestnut in tow.

  “Ready to ride?” Damian asked me.

  “As I’ll ever be,” I said.

  Threading my fingers through Sweetie’s mane—I’d decided to call her that for short—I slid a booted foot into the stirrup and hiked myself up and onto the mare’s back. Then I lifted my left leg and checked the girth one last time—Sweetie had let out the air she’d sucked in and I was able to tighten it another notch.

  A clatter of hooves against the earth brought Nissa, already mounted on Wild Cherry, her gear English rather than Western, even with me and Sweetie.

  Then Damian mounted in one smooth movement, his body in motion a thing of beauty to admire. His horse was already moving before he even had his right leg over the saddle.

  “Follow me.”

  Anywhere, I thought, acknowledging the quickened pace of my pulse.

  I always felt this way when I rode, but something told me there was more to my excitement than being on the back of a horse.

  Nissa followed her father, and I followed her, glancing over my shoulder briefly as I moved off.

  Alex was standing outside the barn, staring after us. I couldn’t quite catch his expression, but I didn’t think he was smiling.

  So what was going on between the two brothers? Somehow I felt caught in the middle…and wondered if the same thing might have happened to Dawn….

  Chapter Five

  No matter that Centaur had died in that area, Damian led the way out to the palisades. There the view would be magnificent, stretching across the Mississippi River seemingly forever. Odd how something could be so beautiful and yet so ugly at the same time. The memories were ugly…thankfully they didn’t touch Nissa. She knew what had happened here, but she hadn’t seen anything. Nothing to give her more nightmares.

  Priscilla had given her enough of those.

  Collecting Sarge, he held the stallion back and turned him in a circle so that Nissa could take the lead, while he would bring up the rear.

  “Is something wrong?” Chloe asked as he approached.

  “Just giving my daughter a nudge in the right direction.” He wanted Nissa to remain as fearless as she had been on the day she’d been born.

  “She seems at home on a horse.”

  “As well she should.”

  And as did Chloe herself, Damian realized after riding behind her for a few minutes. Unusual for a city girl. Then again, Dawn Reed had been a city girl and nearly as comfortable on a horse as Chloe. Perhaps the horses were the very thing that had drawn both women from the city.

  “Dad?” Nissa called, glancing back at him.

  He gave her the signal to go ahead and she urged Cherry into a faster gait. His attention was immediately drawn to Chloe’s saddle that cradled her nicely rounded derriere. No bouncing at all—she sat the saddle easily.

  Damian waited to see how she would do when Nissa slowed to take them down to the river via a series of switchback curves and a few areas where the slope was excessive. Chloe seemed a bit nervous but didn’t make one wrong move.

  When they reached the riverbank and the horses sloshed in the shallows, he drew up alongside her. “I’m impressed.”

  She laughed. “That I haven’t fallen off? Wait…the ride isn’t over yet.”

  “That a city girl is so comfortable on a horse.”

  A becoming flush filled her cheeks and she looked away, mumbling, “I guess I was born to ride or something,” then signaled Sweet Innocence to move ahead.

  Odd that she would avoid talking about her riding skills. Why? It was obvious that she’d been trained and had spent a lot of time on a horse’s back. Her reluctance to discuss her proficiency put him on alert. He wanted to know what else she was keeping to herself.

  A horn blasted from the paddleboat on the other side of the river, the haunting sound jarring Damian because it reminded him of Centaur’s death. He could hear those foghorns all the way to the house. They weren’t far from where the stallion had crashed against the rocks.

  For a moment, he saw again the chainsaw-armed crew that had come to retrieve the dead horse.

  Nissa’s shriek of laughter as she raced Cherry along the water’s edge startled Damian back to the present.

  “Your daughter is certainly enjoying herself,” Chloe said, her voice warm with approval. “When did she learn to ride?”

  “From the time she could sit a horse in front of me.” Damian couldn’t hide his pride. “She’s a natural.”

  “She wants to be just like her father.”

  Damian shifted uneasily in the saddle. “Nissa is her own person.”

  “But she wants to work with horses, to train them. Obviously, she gets that ambition from you.”

  To change the subject he said, “And here I was hoping she would go for something more sensible.”

  “What would be more sensible to you?”

  “An astrophysicist?”

  Chloe laughed. “I think Nissa is as far from that particular occupation as she can get.”

  Thinking about the mounting bills he couldn’t pay, wanting his daughter to inherit something better than a lifetime of worry, Damian sighed. “I know. It’s just that this business is so uncertain, even when you have top horses and the best clients.”

  Chloe’s sympathetic gaze caught him for a moment. Damian was mesmerized. Every time he was around the tutor, he felt inexplicably drawn to her. He hadn’t felt that way about any woman before. Not even about Priscilla.

  And then Nissa shouted, “Dad, let’s take the north trail back up!” jerking him out of the trance.

  He waved her on and picked up the pace a bit to catch up. No matter how good a rider Nissa was, she was still a kid and he didn’t want to let her out of his sight. Chloe stayed right with him.

  “How many horses do you have on the property?” she asked.

  “Have on the property or own?”

  “You don’t own them all?”

  “Nope. At the moment, three studs belong to the farm. And seven of the broodmares. Another ten mares were brought here to be covered by the studs. Impregnated,” he explained, guiding Sarge onto the trail that would take them up. “They’ll stay at least for a while after they deliver a live foal. Some will be here longer because the owners want us to start training their colts and fillies. We have a couple of yearlings and a juvenile who’ll be boarded here until they’re sold. And then we have our personal horses,” he said, indicating Sarge and Cherry. “And a few retirees.”

  “So that makes…”

  Halfway back to the top of the bluff, Damian said, “Presently, thirty-one of various ages.”

  “Wow, that’s a lot of work taking care of so many horses.”

  “Especially since most of them are used to b
eing exercised on a track every day. Or, for the young ones—they need to get used to doing so.”

  “Surely you don’t ride every one of those horses every day?”

  He shook his head. “Impossible. They get pastured and are lucky if they get worked out once a week.”

  Damian wondered if he should read more than simple interest in Chloe’s curiosity.

  When they were on solid ground, high above the river, she asked, “So has this always been Graylord Pastures?”

  “Only for the last hundred and twenty years or so. Most of it, anyway. My dad picked up one small property when the owner retired and his kids didn’t want to work the place. And when I took over the business, I picked up another farm that was going bankrupt.” Irony of ironies, considering his own current circumstances. “Actually, Bosch Barns was a riding outfit, customers being mostly tourists from Galena. The high price of insurance killed the business.”

  “Bosch? As in Theo?”

  “Right. The place belonged to Theo’s father. He got himself a small place in Savanna and a part-time job working in a local shop. Theo came to work for me.”

  As he might soon have to work for someone else if his luck didn’t change.

  Despite his reassurances to Nissa earlier today, Damian really didn’t know that the farm would be all right. If things kept going sour as they had been, he could be forced out. Then what? Horses were all he knew. He would have to go to work for someone else, which could mean dragging Nissa around the country. No life for a kid.

  As if the weather were affected by his quickly changing mood, dark clouds began to roll across the sky. More rain was predicted to be on its way, but it wasn’t due until late that night.

  Nissa was scooting through the stand of trees ahead. Chloe suddenly stopped her mare and stared.

  “Is something wrong?” Damian asked, stopping and circling Sarge to come alongside her.

  “That’s where it happened.”

  His gut tightened as Damian turned his gaze to the trees and Nissa. “What happened?”

  “Last night,” Chloe said. “I was heading through the stand toward the house when I heard noises. I turned to see that gray horse ride out of the mists along the bluff straight for me.”

  All that was left of Damian’s good humor evaporated in a heartbeat.

  TENSION WIRED OFF DAMIAN like a tangible thing. His mercurial mood swept through me, leaving me with little breath. I wanted to demand a reason for the mood swing, but I feared it was my fault for bringing up the horse.

  Nissa had gone ahead of us. The only thing that kept me from speeding to catch up to her was that the house and barns came into view. The horses needed to be walked out before being reinstated in their stalls. Thanking the fact that I could see the house and barns ahead, I told myself to remain calm and pretend nothing was wrong.

  I’d meant to talk to Damian about Nissa’s sleepwalking, but I’d missed my opportunity, and obviously this wasn’t the right time. The conversation could wait until he was in a better mood.

  Nissa was leading her horse into the barn by the time we caught up to her. She waved and kept going.

  Dismounting, I said, “Well, that was a wonderful treat,” as if the afternoon hadn’t soured. The sun hid behind a bank of clouds, and the wind was picking up.

  Suddenly beside me, Damian demanded, “What were you thinking, bringing up the damn horse again?”

  “I don’t see the harm—”

  “The harm would be in upsetting Nissa with talk of death and ghosts. You know how fragile she’s been emotionally. The last thing she needs to hear is some drivel that would set her off again!”

  Somewhere in that diatribe I gasped and my mouth gaped, but that hadn’t stopped Damian from continuing his rant. I didn’t even think before responding in kind.

  “I merely told you that I saw a horse and it nearly ran me over. You’re the one who labeled it a ghost!”

  As I spoke up for myself, his eyes widened. Uh-oh. Now I’d gone and done it, let my temper best me.

  “And I told you there is no horse fitting your description on the property, nor in the immediate vicinity.”

  “Then perhaps it got loose somewhere farther down the road and made its way here!”

  “There is no bloody horse!” His visage dark, he held out his horse’s reins and said, “Take him.”

  I almost did until I realized Damian wasn’t talking to me. Theo had come up behind me. He took Sarge’s reins, and Damian stalked off.

  “I’ll take your horse, as well, miss.”

  “Are you sure—?”

  “Damian will want you to get back to the girl.”

  Realizing he hadn’t put the “Mr.” before Damian, as had the other servants, I figured the barn manager was on a different footing with him. Well, of course Theo must be, considering the circumstance. He’d been another landowner until the family business had gone sour.

  “Yes, of course,” I said, handing Sweetie’s reins to Theo.

  “A word of advice, miss?”

  “About?”

  “Thwarting Damian. Don’t.”

  My heart skipped a beat at the warning. “You make it sound like he’s dangerous to cross.”

  “You could say that,” he muttered, checking the horses as if to make sure they were cool enough before turning them toward the nearby water trough.

  I stood there stunned for a moment. And felt chilled through by the wind that swept across the open area. What had Theo meant by that? Was he simply referring to Damian’s quick temper or something darker?

  Had Dawn crossed Damian?

  I went after the barn manager, figuring this was an opportune moment to learn something more about my employer. “Theo, wait a minute.”

  He stopped and turned toward me, not appearing in the least surprised. “Yes, miss?”

  “What did you mean by that? Damian’s being dangerous to cross? He’s not a violent man…is he?”

  “Not that anyone’s proved.”

  My mouth went dry. “Please…?”

  “You’ll hear it from someone, sooner or later, so it might as well be me. His wife disappeared under mysterious circumstances.”

  “I thought they were divorced,” I choked out.

  “That’s his story. But no one here has seen Priscilla since the night she mysteriously disappeared.”

  I would have tried to get more out of him, but just then Nissa left the barn. Frustrated, I nodded at Theo. He moved the horses to the nearby water trough.

  “So how did you like the ride?” the girl asked as she jogged over to me.

  “It was great. You’re such an accomplished rider.”

  Nissa grinned. “Dad taught me. Who taught you?”

  “I took lessons this last year.”

  Her grin faded. “Like Dawn. She said the same thing.”

  I clenched my jaw hard. Now why had I told her a truth that could come back to bite me? I should have fudged a bit, made it sound as if I’d been riding for ages.

  Hoping to distract her from thinking about the coincidence, I said, “When we get back in the house, you’ll have enough time to clean up and to write in your journal before dinner.”

  I glanced back and noticed that Theo was watching us. Had he heard, as well?

  “I know just what I’m going to write about,” Nissa announced.

  With that she skipped ahead, leaving me to my thoughts as I approached the house alone.

  Dark thoughts about Damian.

  About Priscilla’s disappearance…

  …which sounded too similar to Dawn’s disappearance to be discounted.

  I never had believed my friend would have eloped without telling me—at least she would have let me know after the fact if not before.

  Damian had said she’d written the note on the computer in the library. I wondered if the file had been erased or if it was still accessible. I also wondered how I could access it without arousing anyone’s suspicions. Everyone knew I had my laptop with m
e, and the Internet connection was wireless, so there was no reason I would need to use the library computer.

  I would find a way….

  But what about Priscilla? a little voice whispered. If no one had seen her since the night in question, maybe she really was dead as Nissa had claimed.

  I didn’t know what to believe, not about Dawn, not about Damian’s ex-wife.

  Not even about the ghost horse or why Damian had been nearly apoplectic about my mentioning it.

  How did they all connect together? I wondered. Would I ever find out?

  I THOUGHT DINNER MIGHT BE a laborious affair, but Damian was mellow. For him. He raptly listened to his daughter go on and on about horse training until I thought it was a pose.

  “It sounds like you had a good day,” he said, sounding completely sincere.

  “A great day, Dad.”

  “So how will you follow it up tomorrow?” This was addressed to me.

  “I thought Nissa could research the types of horses and do a report on the difference between breeds.”

  “And you’re qualified to know whether or not the report is accurate?”

  I heard the challenge in his words. “This isn’t a test. It’s an exploration. I’m sure I’ll learn a lot from Nissa’s report. The idea is for her to learn how to access information she needs and to give her options on how to use that information.”

  “So you want to teach her to think for herself?”

  “Exactly.”

  “She has an excellent example for that, doesn’t she?”

  For a moment I thought he meant himself, then I realized he was referring to me. To my standing up for myself. The flush that filled my cheeks irritated me. I didn’t want to be susceptible to the man.

  But there it was.

  Alex sat at the table taking it all in. Even now he was watching us through hooded eyes. But whatever he was thinking, he was playing it close to the vest, so to speak. Tonight he was watching…waiting…but for what?

  My growing discomfort became unbearable. I needed to get away from everyone in this house and have some time to myself to think.