LadySmith

by Rhavensfyre

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  “She’s thirteen, Belinda, let her be. There isn’t much else for her to do on the farm during the summer. Let her ride. Her grandmother is enjoying having her around and school is going to start in a couple of months.”

  “I don’t like it. Her gallivanting about the countryside day after day. How is she supposed to learn responsibility?”

  “She’s fine, and I can’t think of any better way for her to learn how much there is to do on the farm than by riding through it. She found that old section of fence down just last week, remember? We could have lost a couple of colts through that fence, not to mention the neighbor would have been mighty upset to find our horses munching on his fields.”

  Rohanna plastered herself against the hallway wall, a small backpack and her boots clutched against her chest, and waited. She guessed she should be grateful. This wasn’t the first conversation they’ve had about her summer…but it was one of the more civil ones.

  Hidden from sight but not sound, she continued eavesdropping until the subject changed, then she tiptoed back through the kitchen and out the door.

  The back porch was relatively safe. She plopped down on the bottom step and stomped her feet into her riding boots. Belinda had removed most of the thick runner carpets in the house and had the floors redone. The exposed hardwood was newly glossed and dangerously slick to run about in her socks, but wearing her boots in the house was the same as rapping out her location with a stick.

  The path to the barn, on the other hand, was soft and grassy and easy to bolt across as silently as a deer. She checked the straps on her backpack one more time and she was gone. Perseus would be waiting for her, and as soon as she tacked up, she would be back where she belonged…riding the trails in the woods.

  “Hey, Boy’o…how are you doing today, huh?” she whispered, then clipped the lead line on his halter and led him out of his stall. “You ready to ride, huh?”

  Perseus nickered at her then pushed his head against her thigh, almost knocking her over. Rohanna chuckled. “Ah, you smell that, huh? I’ve got a treat for you today.”

  She dug around in her pocket for a couple of sugar cubes, but before she could pull them out, Perseus nudged her again. “Impatient?” she asked, cocking an eyebrow at him.

  Something tumbled free from her pocket on the second try and Perseus lipped at her palm eagerly. Distracted by the noise, she let him steal both cubes, her eyes were on the ground beneath them.

  “Crap.” Rohanna bent down and snatched up the small stone cross she’d been religiously carrying around with her for the last month before Perseus could stomp it into nothingness beneath his feat. Perseus stretched his neck to snuffle at her hand. Ro clamped her fist around the small stone and elbowed him away before he could taste test it. “This isn’t for you, Pers’. You’d crack your teeth on this one.”

  This wasn’t the first time she had almost lost the Fairie stone. If she didn’t do something, she would lose it and that would be a shame. Rohanna tightened Perseus’s cinch and patted his shoulder. “You know what, it’s early enough for a long ride. How do you feel about visiting Grandma?”

  Perseus tossed his head and pawed at the ground. Ro swore if he could’ve smiled at her he would have. She grinned at the silly horse, then mounted up quickly. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

  Her other foot found the stirrup, and they were off. She had been hoping to use the second hole she had cut into the heavy leather a few months ago, but it seemed that after that initial growth spurt this spring, Mother Nature had given up on her. She hadn’t sprouted much past five feet, and from the look of things, it didn’t look like she was going to get much taller. It’s just as well, she thought. Perseus was basically an oversized pony and it would look funny if her feet were hanging down near his knees.

  Before she clicked Perseus into a gallop, she checked her pocket again. The small lump was right where it belonged, but she still stood up in her stirrups so she could stuff it as far down as it would go. What was the hairstylist’s name? Geoffrey? He said something about getting it mounted. That made a lot of sense to Ro. She ran her fingers along her neckline where a slim silver chain hung—her father’s official birthday present to her. It would work perfectly for the small stone pendant.

  Pleased about coming up with a good solution, Ro let the rest of her concerns temporarily slip away. The next hour was spent concentrating on the ground, the trees and the wind whipping past her head. Perseus’s hoof beats marked both time and distance, but she really didn’t feel either until she pulled up outside her grandmother’s cabin.

  The sun was bright out in the open, but she swore she saw a shadow where one shouldn’t be. She twisted her head to look closer, but something flashed in her eye, blinding her for a moment and leaving small motes of color dancing across her field of vision.

  “Ro! I didn’t expect you today!”

  Ro peeked out of one eye to find her grandmother standing on the porch, a dishtowel in her hands and a smile on her face.

  “Hey, Grandma,” Ro said, sliding down off of Perseus’s back and leaving him ground tied. Like always, she felt filled with happiness whenever she came here, and a big part of it was the hug she couldn’t say no to and never wanted to. “Do you have company?”

  “No, child. Why do you say that?” Rohanna’s grandmother, asked.

  “I just thought I saw someone, something moving near the back porch when I rode in.” Rohanna blushed, feeling silly about bringing it up all of a sudden. “It was probably nothing, the sun in my eyes is all.”

  “Don’t be embarrassed. Why don’t we put Perseus away in the barn and we’ll check it out. There are critters about…who knows? Maybe I’ve got a family of raccoons casing the place for a midnight heist, hmm?” Maeve took Rohanna’s free arm and headed for the barn with Perseus in tow. “Now, why don’t you tell me how you’re doing?”

  Rohanna balked. She didn’t want to talk about Belinda and her father today, and she couldn’t talk about her mother. One always led to the other, because in her mind, they were part of the same horrible story. Sometimes, in her deepest, darkest thoughts…her anger would turn on her mother and she wanted to yell and scream at her and demand to know why she had to leave them. Belinda wouldn’t be here if her mother hadn’t died, if she hadn’t left her and her father all alone in the world. It wasn’t right, to be punished twice for her loss.

  Ever since her birthday, her mother was in her thoughts…more so than normal. She had hidden Erin’s cowboy hat in the space behind her closet, as safe a spot as she could think of from Belinda’s prying eyes, but took it out as often as possible just to run her fingers along the lettering. She often wondered where the crawlspace led past the closet light, but any time she thought about slinking past the cobwebs and entering the darkness her heart would skip a beat or two then fall into a wild gallop that made it hard for her to breathe. Rohanna squeezed her eyes shut against the intense emotions the past churned up, pummeling her like a maelstrom. As it always did, thinking about her mother made her misty eyed, her throat tightening into a tight band of pain.

  “I’m fine,” she rasped, roughly scrubbing her eyes with her shirt sleeves. She didn’t want to break down and cry in front of her grandmother again, sobbing like a little girl while she rocked her to sleep.

  Maeve stopped and touched Rohanna’s arm. Her smile was sad and the look she gave her almost made Rohanna break down anyway. It was as if the older woman knew everything she had been thinking and understood how miserable she felt.

  “Caring isn’t a weakness, Ro,” Maeve spoke sagely. “Feeling things intensely is one of the things that makes you human. Don’t ever close yourself off from your emotions, Sweetheart. You might think it’s easier, being hard all the time, but all it does is make you cold inside.” She knew from experience. It hurt to feel. The temptation was so great at times to pull away from life and embrace revenge, but she couldn’t do it. She would lose something in the process, somethin
g so precious to her she would never risk it. And if you lost her, would you risk it then? Maeve shuddered at the thought. “Pray that never happens.”

  “What was that, Grandma?”

  “Nothing, little one. Just an old woman talking to herself.” Maeve gathered her shawl tighter around her shoulders despite the summer heat. “Would you like something to eat? I was just making a bit of lunch.”

  Rohanna grinned and Maeve rolled her eyes, chuckling at herself because the answer was so obvious. Ro was as skinny as a rail and had grown six inches since last year. “Of course. That was a stupid question. Come on, little one, let’s feed you. Growing bones and all that, right?”

  ***

  “Is that the Fairie stone Geoffrey told you about?”

  Maeve looked up from the kitchen table at the woman standing in the doorway.

  “Come out of the shadows, Shyann. It’s uncanny how quiet you can be,” Maeve grumbled, “and yes, it is.”

  Such a small, modest looking thing to hold so much power, Maeve thought, returning her attention back to the small stone cross.

  Rohanna had ridden off on Perseus barely five minutes ago. “Did you make sure she didn’t see you?”

  “I always do. I still don’t understand why I have to hide from her.” Shyann joined her at the table. Bright red hair the color of autumn leaves rustled around a smallish face and wide, almond shaped eyes that looked a lot more innocent than they were.

  “Because you are you, and one day I might need her “cousin” to show up,” Maeve said, tired of repeating herself. “And no, you don’t always ‘do’ because she saw you leaving when she rode up.”

  “What? How did she manage that?” Shyann’s eyes widened in surprise. Very few could spot her if she didn’t want to be seen.

  “Calm down. She only saw a shadow.”

  Shyann leaned back in her chair and pulled at her lower lip. Pale green eyes looked up at Maeve, serious beneath ginger eyebrows not used to sharing a frown. “I’ll be more careful.”

  “See to it that you do.” Maeve stood up and rapped the heavy wood table with her knuckles. “Come now, we have a lot to do between now and moonrise. Rohanna wants the stone set for a necklace, and I must find my silver. We weave tonight.”

  “So soon?”

  “Yes. I understand why Geoffrey made his suggestion. The girl’s almost lost the thing a dozen times over already. The necklace will keep her from losing it again, but that doesn’t mean I like it gone from her any longer than necessary.”

  “Yes, my lady.” Shyann pressed her fingers to her forehead and bowed. Her eyes danced with humor and her old grin was back, resetting her smooth face into more familiar lines. Maeve pulled at her braid, a sure sign of irritation that only made Shyann’s grin widen even more.

  “None of that, now. Not here, and not now.” Maeve grimaced at Shyann’s antics, then shooed her from the kitchen. “Go, you know what I need you to do.”

  Once alone, Maeve looked down at the stone again, then plucked it up between her thumb and forefinger. When Rohanna had put the Fairie stone in her palm and asked if she could make it into a necklace, Maeve was surprised by how light the thing was. It barely carried any weight to it at all, as if part of its substance resided elsewhere. Dull green and black, there was no outward sign of how much light was hidden inside of it, or how much power resonated within its rough lines.

  She closed her fist around it and listened to the rhythm of the earth. Held inside her hand, it should have been the merest echo, yet it thumped against her hand like a war drum, warming her blood and inviting her heart to join the bass rhythm.

  “After tonight, you’ll be even stronger,” Maeve crooned. “You’ll protect her and keep her safe until it’s time.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  John patted his breast pocket and smiled. Rohanna was going to be so thrilled. Not as thrilled as she was going to be when she met her new filly but thrilled, nonetheless. Ro loved her Perseus, but she needed something a bit more elegant and a little taller…if she was going to really shine at the horse shows this year, and the three year old filly he’d been training for the last thirty days was showing a lot of promise. It was going to be difficult, keeping the new filly a surprise until winter break, but hiding her out at his mother’s homestead helped a lot—not that Maeve didn’t have to keep reminding him to control his exuberance. If she didn’t, he’d have given in and told Ro about her Christmas present a dozen times already. Half the problem was finding time to sneak off and train her in secret, what with Ro riding about the farm every day.

  He had to make sure she wasn’t on her way to visit her grandmother before heading that way himself. A quick trip into town for supplies usually hid the missing time, then it was back home to work on the farm. Today took longer because he had to speak to their hay guy about placing a winter order for square and round bales. The old guy, replete with overalls and a toothpick at the corner of his mouth, was a chatter. After two glasses of lemonade and an enthusiastic tour of his cow barn, John finally escaped with a handshake and a decent price for an additional 200 bales of high quality hay for the winter. He also got an invite to go deer hunting if he wanted…and a white waxed paper packet of sausage from last season that the wife had ground up. Friendly folk, he mused. Too bad they don’t have any kid’s Ro’s age.

  He stopped at the only four way stoplight outside of town and peered up at the sky through the windshield. There were some heavy clouds coming in over the mountains that were starting to worry him. So far, they seemed content to stay put but there was a feeling in the air that worried him. Heavy and humid, he could practically taste the potential for one doozy of a thunderstorm.

  John yawned behind his hand, then jumped when a horn blasted behind him. A young woman in an SUV waved at him, obviously irritated that he missed the light change.

  “Sorry,” he muttered under his breath, shaking his head at the impatience of youth.

  The rest of the drive was uneventful, up to the moment he pulled into his driveway and drove past the barn. Ro was outside, leading Perseus behind her. He was tacked up and saddled and she was headed for the trailhead.

  He slammed the truck into park and jumped out of the truck. “Ro! Rohanna!” he bellowed.

  Rohanna whipped her head around. Even as far away as she was, John could tell she saw him. He raised his hand to wave her in, but she ignored him and mounted up. The wind was starting to pick up, and it grabbed her voice and sent it whooshing past his ears. Rohanna kicked Perseus’ flanks and urged him forward with a western inspired whoop. Unused to Ro being so aggressive with him, Perseus jumped and took off like a streak, great chunks of sod flying up behind him.

  “What’s gotten into that girl?” John muttered, casting a worried eye up at the sky. She knew better than to go riding when the weather was turning, but from the look on her face, he would say she was angrier than the dark, ominous clouds gathering to the west.

  “Belinda?!” John raised his voice inside his house for the first time in many years. He walked into the living room to find a mess. He bent over and picked up a lamp, then tossed a pillow back onto the couch. It looked like a small tornado had whipped through the house and left a path of destruction leading straight towards Rohanna’s bedroom.

  “What the hell is going on in here?”

  “John?” Belinda’s tremulous voice greeted him a second before the woman entered the room. “Oh, thank God you are here. Ro…she just went crazy. Yelling at me and tearing the place apart, just because I told her she couldn’t go out riding today.”

  John stared at her in disbelief. He walked around the room, slowly, taking in all of the damage. He doubted one small girl could do so much…especially one that didn’t break ninety pounds soaking wet. He ran his fingers across the coffee table and came back with something wet…and red. It spread, thick and sticky, between his thumb and forefinger. “This is blood, Belinda! Why is there blood here?”

  “I have no idea! The child must ha
ve harmed herself.” Belinda managed to sound affronted at the tone of his voice. She didn’t expect John to grab her arm and hold it up in the air. Her wedding ring, the one he had spent so much money on…was marred with a streak of red…turning the large diamond into a ruby.

  “This doesn’t look like she harmed herself, Belinda.” Johns face turned as hard and cold as stone, but that was nothing compared to his voice when he spoke again. The way he ground out every word reminded her of an ancient grist mill.

  John started pacing the room, mainly because if he took a step towards Belinda he didn’t know if he could contain himself. His arms shook from the effort of not fisting his hands and taking his rage out on anything solid.

  Through a haze of red hot anger, he glared at the woman he thought he loved and forced his jaw to unlock. His tongue felt strange against his teeth but he managed to make himself understood. “It took me a long time to see it, but I see everything so very clearly now. How miserable Rohanna is, how much she hates you…and now I see it has been for good reason. I made a terrible mistake after Erin’s death. I thought Rohanna needed a mother, but what she really needs is to be happy and to have the childhood she deserves. We will talk when I return, and after that the next time I see you will be at the lawyer’s discussing the terms of our divorce. That is, if I don’t call the police first since you saw fit to strike my daughter.”

  The threat hung there for a moment, heavy between the two of them. Belinda stared at him, for the first time since he met her, she actually looked out of sorts. Speechless in that way someone looks at a beloved pet that suddenly decided to bite the hand that fed them.

  “I am going to leave now, Belinda. I need to find my daughter and make sure she’s okay.”

  He turned on his heels and headed back out the door.

  “Stop! John. Come back and have dinner with me. Rohanna is fine. She’s just out on one of her rides and will be back soon.” Belinda’s voice had taken on an odd quality. Oily and falsely sweet at the same time, it poured over his skin and made the hairs on the back of his neck rise. He turned slowly, the urge to listen to Belinda, to believe what she was saying, was almost overwhelming. A bright light flashed across the front window, followed by a deafening crash that broke the spell. He shook himself like a dog, then grabbed for the wall. He felt dizzy for a moment, but it passed and his head cleared.