“Nor I. I’ll take the first watch. Try to get some rest.”
“I’ll check everybody else, then I’ll keep you company .”
The mare continued to be restless and recalcitrant for another thirty minutes until the Banamine began to take effect, but both Jamey and Vic knew that although the medicine would make her more comfortable until it wore off in a few hours, she could on no account be left on her own until the pressure in her intestines lessened. That could take all night, possibly longer.
“It’s like walking a colicky baby that weighs fifteen hundred pounds,” Vic said. “I hope Angie’s baby isn’t colicky.”
“Did you have to walk Liz?”
“She was eleven when she came to stay with Frank and me permanently. Her mother died young, and her father, my brother, went off the deep end. She’d always spent the summers with us. Frank, I think, saw her as a replacement for me.” She saw Jamey’s horrified face and shook her head. “As a rider, dummy. Anyway, my brother was quite relieved when we took her in.”
“You’re not close?”
“We were never a close family. He couldn’t handle my grandmother’s controlling ways. Maybe if I’d been able to have children...”
“You have your Liz. And believe me, large families are not an unalloyed blessing.”
“You only had the one brother, didn’t you?”
“Ah, but I have six uncles—seven counting Uncle Hamish. And two aunts, and so many cousins I’ve lost count.”
“They’re all Gypsies?”
“That’s not a term we use, except to gaja—that’s you. We call ourselves Rom. All Rom except Hamish, his wife, Maeve, and their two. But nobody lives on the road any longer. The old ways have largely died out. Some of the old prejudice still exists of course, but it’s much more difficult to look down on somebody like Tony, the vet, in his fancy Edinburgh town house, than on a bunch of people in funny clothes driving around in motor caravans.”
“So they’ve all made good?”
“Some more than others. My aunts run the most exclusive psychic network in Scotland. Perfectly legal, and they’ve made pots of money. We’ve got everything from surgeons to garage mechanics to teachers. My cousin Horvath, who owns an elegant antique shop in Glasgow, swears he’s the only one maintaining the honor of the family. He thanks his Rom ancestors every time he convinces some dowager to spend too much for a piece of Georgian silver that was actually cast in Queen Victoria’s day.”
Vic laughed. “How many of them are into horses?”
Jamey caught his step so suddenly that the mare bumped into him and grunted. “Sorry, old girl,” he said, and continued walking. He’d done it again. He’d promised himself he’d stick to the truth where possible—much easier than telling lies and getting caught—but as usual he was revealing too much. He wanted Vic to know everything about him except his plan for Roman.
With Whitten coming to town tomorrow, he’d have to find out quickly from Hamish if he could make a decent offer for the stallion. Then, perhaps, he could come clean, admit everything and sweep both horse and woman off to Scotland with him.
And woman? When had that become an option? He glanced over at Vic, who lay curled on top of one of the tack trunks with her head propped on her hand. Despite her down jacket, boots, gloves and the long johns he knew she wore under her jeans, he visualized her naked, stretched in front of the fire. Drowsy with fulfilled desire. Desire he had fulfilled.
“I’ll take over for a while,” she said, unfolding from the trunk. “You must be worn-out”
“I won’t say no.” He handed over the lead line and bent to listen to the horse’s sides. “Sounds better.”
“Give her some more Banamine.” She began the endless trek up and down the barn aisle. The mare seemed to tread more easily now, but her eyes still had that inward look that mothers always recognize in their sick children. “Funny way to spend a life,” Vic said as she passed Jamey. “Worrying about the internal processes of large furry animals.”
“There are worse,” Jamey answered. “I suppose keepers who look after elephants and rhinos feel the same way.”
“Some people feel that way about alligators and snakes. I never have. Do you have snakes in Scotland?”
“Nasty poisonous little vipers. But they’re shy. We seldom see them.”
“We have a couple of king snakes about seven feet long that hunt rats and mice around the bam,” Vic said. “I see them occasionally. We speak pleasantly and go our separate ways.” She shivered. “They are good guardians, but they still scare me. Tell me some more about Scotland. At least it will keep me awake.”
He launched into a detailed description of springtime, with the otters playing in the streams, the new lambs, the foals, yearlings and two-year-old colts and fillies racing across the pastures with the wind.
“Sounds lovely.”
“Come with me,” he said suddenly.
“What?” She stopped walking.
“I mean it,” he said, not daring to make a move toward her. “Come home with me to Oban.”
“I thought you planned to see the world.”
“I’d rather see the wind blow your hair.”
“How would I get there? I don’t fly.”
“Take a ship.”
“Too expensive. Besides, I’m not overly fond of ships, either. And there’s no way I could drive on the wrong side of the road. I’d kill myself and probably some other poor bastard.”
“I’ll do the driving until you’re comfortable.” This time he did go to her. “I’m serious. Come with me.”
“When?”
“Tonight, tomorrow.”
“For how long?”
“A lifetime might possibly be long enough, but I doubt it.”
She laughed and moved around him. “You’re crazy. I have responsibilities to other people, to the animals.”
“You have a life of your own.” He fell into step beside her.
She touched his cheek. “As much as I’d love to see Scotland, I know I’ll never get there. This is home, where I feel safe. This is where I belong. I’ve never lived anywhere else.” She sounded wistful, then she looked away and whispered, “You could stay.”
Could he? A part of him longed to. Longed to become the saddle burn he’d pretended to be, to leave the yard to Hamish and Vlado and the others. To breed Jock’s stallion here. Maybe it was possible.
He took a deep breath.
“Wait a minute,” Vic said. She turned to look at the mare, who heaved a great sigh of relief and dislodged a massive amount of steaming manure along with enough gas to fill the Hindenberg.
“Yes!” Vic said, and clapped the mare on the neck. “What a beautiful glorious mess!”
Jamey hooted with triumph and went to find the manure fork.
Twenty minutes later they stood at the mare’s stall and watched her contentedly nibbling hay. Vic leaned her head against Jamey’s shoulder and he put his arm around her. “A classic romantic evening down on the farm.”
He glanced at his watch. “It’s nearly five-thirty in the morning.”
“Doesn’t seem worth dragging back up the hill, does it?”
“Come on, we’ll bed down in the lounge.” He picked up a folded horse blanket from the nearest tack trunk, took her hand and led her. Her face was gray with exhaustion now that the exhilaration was past. In the lounge he tossed the pillows from the back of the sofa onto the floor. “We can both fit on the sofa if we work at it,” he said. “We’ll have to be up before Albert arrives.”
“With the roads iced over again, he probably won’t make it before ten.” She took off her jacket and laid it over one of the side chairs, then reached to take Jamey’s and add it to the pile. “Anyway, I’d wake up if I heard his truck roll in.”
They snuggled together spoon fashion on the sofa and pulled the horse blanket over them.
“Vic?” he said sleepily.
“Mm?”
“I’m serious.” She did not r
espond. Perhaps she was already asleep. He held her and wondered what it would be like to live the rest of his life here.
JAMEY OPENED HIS EYES when the door to the lounge swung open. He raised his head and stared straight into Albert’s scandalized face. So much for waking up when his truck drove in. Vic still lay in his arms, her breathing regular and shallow.
Without a word Albert carefully closed the door. Jamey couldn’t even hear his retreating footsteps. He dropped his head back onto the couch.
Well, that had torn it. Carefully he eased his arm from under Vic and slid off the sofa. He picked up his paddock boots and jacket and slipped out of the room. Vic turned over but did not awake.
He slipped his feet into his boots and his arms into his jacket and went to find Albert.
He was already pushing the feed cart down the aisle to the far end. He neither turned nor spoke when he heard Jamey’s footsteps.
“Morning,” Jamey said pleasantly.
Silence.
“Silver Cloud colicked last night. Vic and I walked her until—” Jamey glanced at the watch on his wrist “—a couple of hours ago.”
“She okay?”
“Fine. But she probably shouldn’t get any grain this morning—just a flake of hay.”
“Wasn’t talking about the horse.”
“Ah. Yes.”
Jamey saw the blur of movement as a fist the size of an anvil came at him. He jerked his head sideways.
Albert missed his jaw, but caught the top of his ear. A glancing blow, but it still flung Jamey back two steps.
His ear felt as though someone had set a match to it.
Albert grunted, lowered his head and charged.
“Wait a minute!” Jamey said. The last thing he wanted to do was fight Albert.
“I warned you, boy!” Albert said. But he stopped. Breath soughed in his chest. He flexed the fingers of his right hand. “Damn, that hurts.”
Jamey held up his hands. “We’re both too old for this. There’s no way I can take you. You’ve got size and reach on me. All I’ve got on you is speed, which I am not above using to outrun you.”
“Maybe you better do just that. Get on that motorcycle and ride on out of here while you got legs to ride with.”
“Ah, that I cannot do.”
Albert growled.
“Have you two lost your minds?” Vic ran down the aisle toward them.
Albert swung his heavy head in her direction. “You look like hell.”
“So would you if you’d been up all night walking a colicky horse.”
“That’s not all you been up to.” He gave Jamey a malevolent glance.
He heard Vic’s quick intake of breath. For a moment nobody spoke, then she slipped her arm through Jamey’s.
“Not by a long shot. I—we—have been doing the wild thing every chance we’ve had for the past two days. And I, for one, have no intention of stopping now.”
“Victoria Jamerson, are you crazy?”
“Actually I think I’ve rediscovered a part of my mind that’s been buried deeper than the dinosaurs.”
“You had to rediscover it with this...this...foreigner?”
Vic laughed. Even Jamey grinned. One day, if he got the chance, he’d ask Albert what word he had originally intended to use.
Vic ran to Albert and threw her arms around him. “I am happy, Albert. Happy and fulfilled and sated, and unchaste and uncelibate and downright randy. Be happy for me.”
He hugged her. “I don’t trust him. I have never trusted him. I knew this would happen the minute he walked in here. Vic, think of who you are, woman.”
She turned to Jamey. “I’ll show you who I am now,
Albert. I hadn’t planned to. Not until I was sure. But I think you need to see.”
Jamey nodded. Only the horses at the far end had been fed. He went to the other end, pulled the chestnut gelding out of his stall and led him to the wash rack. “You sure about this?” he asked.
She nodded. “Whatever happens.”
“It’s cold. He hasn’t been exercised for two days.”
“Do it.”
Jamey shrugged, then saddled and bridled the gelding. He began to hum softly under his breath. The gelding relaxed under his touch.
“What’s this all about?” Albert asked.
“You’ll see,” Vic said grimly. She followed Jamey and the gelding out to the mounting block, gave Albert a glance over her shoulder, then climbed up and reached for the gelding’s reins.
“Victoria! What are you doing, woman?” Albert yelped.
Without a word she wheeled the horse into the ring. Albert stood rooted to the ground, his mouth open.
With much less warm-up than she normally would have used, she moved the gelding into a trot.
“My sweet Lord,” Albert whispered. “It’s a miracle.”
“No,” Vic said. “It’s Jamey.” She clicked the gelding into a canter, made a single circuit of the ring and turned down the center line to bounce over the eighteen-inch jump. Then she pulled down to a walk, stopped, kicked out of her stirrups and slid off the horse. “Thanks to Jamey, this is who I am now, Albert. I am Victoria Jamerson. I ride horses.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
VIC LEFT JAMEY to finish the chores, dragged Albert into the office and shoved him into a chair. “Don’t have a heart attack because you saw me ride a horse,” she said. She dropped a kiss on the top of his head and collapsed into her desk chair.
“You on drugs?” Albert asked.
“No, but I’m high as a kite all the same.”
“Liz couldn’t get you on a horse. I couldn’t. Frank couldn’t. Psychiatrists and psychologists and hypnotists couldn’t. You telling me all you were missing was sex?”
“I honestly don’t know how Jamey did it. The point is, he did. And for your information, the sex is relatively new, although the physical attraction isn’t.”
“I knew it.”
Vic sobered instantly. “Don’t you think I understand that this is not a lasting relationship? That he’s going to walk out the door and out of my life?”
“He ask you to marry him?”
“Of course not.”
“And if he does?”
“I’ll say no.”
Albert raised his eyebrows.
“I’m not in a position to give him children. He may not realize he wants them now, but sooner or later he will. Every man does. You do, Mike does, even Kevin does.”
“He may want ValleyCrest and American citizenship a hell of a lot more than he wants children.”
Vic laughed. “Now that hadn’t occurred to me. The citizenship thing, I mean. No, I think he’s happy being a Scot. As for ValleyCrest, he’s seen enough to know I’m no rich widow, and I don’t even own ValleyCrest by myself. You and Liz together outvote me.”
“He knows that?”
“I’m sure he does.” She laid her hand on Albert’s knee. “Why can’t you be happy for me?”
“’Cause he’s gonna cause you pain in the long run.” She nodded slowly. “Probably more pain than I’ve ever endured, even after the accident. When he walks out of here, my heart will go with him. I made a choice, dear friend. Did I want to live the rest of my life in a cocoon, not feeling anything at all, or did I want to feel as much joy and happiness as I could even if it meant I’d feel pain afterward? I chose joy. You may not agree, but you have to acknowledge the choice is valid.”
“Is it?”
“Albert, I see the way you and Linette look at each other. I see Kevin and Angie and Mike and Liz. I used to think, oh, well, maybe in my next lifetime I’ll find somebody like that. It’s just not in the cards this time around.”
“And now it is?”
“Yes. Now it is.” She stood and pulled him to his feet. “Promise me you won’t tell Liz about the riding.”
“Or about him?”
“Yes.”
He hugged her fiercely. “I promise. I still think you’re crazy, and I still think he’s a
con artist, but I’ll keep my mouth shut.”
“And pick up the pieces of my heart afterward without saying I told you so?”
“Yeah. If I have to. Come on, we got work to do before Mike arrives.”
ALL MORNING Albert watched Jamey covertly, but said nothing to him. About eleven, Vic said she was going to the grocery store while the roads were clear.
“Liz didn’t say what time Mike’s plane arrives,” she said to Albert. “I’m sure he’ll rent a car and go first to his apartment. If any of those no-account contractors show up in the meantime, don’t warn them he’s in town. Serve them right.”
Jamey expected Albert to descend on him the moment Vic disappeared down the driveway. Instead Albert waited until Jamey had brought in the stallion from the exercise paddock, then loomed up in front of him.
“We got to talk,” he said.
Jamey nodded and followed him to the office, where Albert worked his bulk into Vic’s chair.
“How’s your ear?” Albert asked.
“Sore, but I’ve had worse.”
“Been in a lot of fights?”
“A few.” Jamey grinned. “Not often so far out of my weight class.”
“Sorry about that.”
“No, you’re not.”
“You’re right.”
“I assume,” Jamey continued, “you want to ask me about my intentions.”
“First, I got to thank you for getting her back on a horse. I don’t know how you did it, but I hope it’ll stick.” Albert shook his head and sighed. “Nobody but me knows how hard it’s been on her all these years. I don’t even think Liz has any idea. But sometimes when she was watching Liz jump a course, I’d catch that look in her eyes. It was like a part of her was missing, like she’d lost her memory and was trying to get it back.”
“She’s a long way from over it,” Jamey said. “Today was pure bravado. She made me promise not to tell anyone for fear that she’d blow it when the time came. I think if you hadn’t tried to deck me, she’d never have shown you, either. One slip, one bad experience, one fall and she could lose it again.”
Mr. Miracle (Harlequin Super Romance) Page 19