If Wishes Were Horses. Carolyn McSparren

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      “Okay, let’s get started,” Liz said. “Lunch boxes in the fridge. I’ll show you around and give you the ground rules first. Then we can start to sort out who gets which horse.”

      As she turned away, Mike Whitten’s Volvo pulled into the driveway. Oh, damn and blast, Liz thought. That’s all I need.

      Pat opened the car door and stepped out. The other kids wore ratty jeans and T-shirts. She wore new jodhpurs and shiny brown paddock boots. She carried an equally new black velvet hard hat under her arm.

      Two steps from the car Pat clearly realized what the other kids had on, and stopped dead. Liz felt sorry for her. She remembered how important it had been at that age not to be different, not to stand out from her peers.

      One of the boys snickered. Pat kept her eyes straight front, but her face flamed.

      “Morning, Pat,” Liz said casually. “You’re late.”

      Mike Whitten climbed out of the car and answered for his daughter. “I had to take a transatlantic call.” No apology, merely a statement of priorities.

      “It might be easier for Pat to be on time if she rode in the van with the others,” Liz said, trying to keep the edge out of her voice.

      “Unnecessary,” he snapped. “In future we won’t be late.”

      “Whatever. Come on, kiddo, join the group. We’re about to take the nickel tour.” She turned to the rest of the group. “Are you with me?”

      “When do we get to ride?” the same boy who had snickered at Pat asked. He was a compact towhead who looked younger than the girls.

      “You start out on the lunge line.”

      “What’s that?” a redheaded girl asked.

      “That’s when somebody holds one end of a long rope in the middle of a circle and the horse goes around the outside of the circle attached to the other end of the rope with you on top of it,” a cheerful brunette girl answered. “On top of the horse, that is, not the rope.” She giggled.

      “That’s right, uh...?”

      “Janey.” The girl smiled smugly. “I know how to ride already. I have a pony at my gram’s in Missouri.”

      “Fine. Then you can go first and show the others how it’s done.”

      “Oh, no,” Janey groaned. “Not first.”

      “First. Okay. Aunt Vic will show you around.”

      “What do we call her?” Janey asked. “We can’t call her Aunt Vic.”

      “Why not?” Vic said. “Everybody else does. You’ll get used to it.” As she started in the door, she turned to Pat, opened her arm in a gesture of inclusion and smiled at her, “Well, come on, child. Don’t just stand there.”

      Pat took a deep breath and followed, keeping a good five feet between her and the rest of the group. She didn’t even glance at Mike.

      Mike’s eyes followed her.

      “I’m sure you have things to do, Mr. Whitten,” Liz said. No way did she want him hanging around.

      “I’ll stay through her riding lesson,” Mike replied.

      “That’s not necessary.”

      The eyes he turned toward her were icy. “Yes, it is.”

      Liz took a deep breath, but it didn’t do an ounce of good. This man hit every hot button she owned. “Mr. Whitten,” she said, trying to keep her voice level, “Edenvale signed a contract with ValleyCresL We’ll fulfill our part, but we can’t do it with you or anybody else breathing down our necks. For heaven’s sake, do you plan to go to college with her?”

      “She won’t fall off college and break her neck.”

      “She won’t fall off horses either if she’s listening to me and not watching you. There’s really no nice way to put this, Mr. Whitten. You can go alone or take your daughter with you, but you absolutely cannot lurk.”

      “Pat is my child, not yours. And my responsibility.”

      “Fine. Then take her home with you.” Liz turned to walk into the barn.

      He followed, caught her arm and spun her to face him. “Listen, there are special circumstances. Pat’s not like the other kids.”

      “In what way?”

      He took a deep breath. “I can’t explain, but she isn’t.”

      “Fragile bones? Fragile psyche?”

      “She’s been ill. She’s fine now, but I...oh, hell.”

      “Tell me. If there’s anything I should know...”

      “I’ve said too much already. I promised her I wouldn’t tell you or anyone else.”

      “The kids don’t know?”

      Mike shook his head. “Not even her teachers at school know.”

      “What can’t she do? Surely you can see I have to know her limitations.”

      “The doctors say she’s perfectly well, completely healthy, but I’m her father. I worry.”

      Liz looked into those cold eyes. Didn’t seem so cold when he spoke about his child. “She doesn’t have the stamina to keep up with the other children? Is that it?”

      He snorted. “At the moment she has enough stamina to run me ragged. That could change if she got sick. This is not exactly a sterile environment.” He waved a hand at a pair of cats snoozing in a patch of sunlight.

      “The rest of the world isn’t sterile either,” she said. “Mr. Whitten, I have several clients who are asthmatics and one who is actually allergic to horses. With medication they manage fine. Is Pat on medication?”

      “No. Listen, I shouldn’t have opened my mouth. If Pat finds out I’ve talked to you she’ll kill me. Think of me as being here to worry about her so that you won’t have to.”

      “What a truly comforting thought.”

      Mike’s heavy jaw tightened. Those eyes of his had gone glacial again.

      Liz continued before she lost her nerve. “I have to establish my authority with these kids if I’m going to get anywhere with them. That goes for Pat as well. Oh, hell, let the child have some space, why don’t you? You saw how the other kids treat her. Is that what you want for her? Total isolation?”

      “Of course not.”

      “Then please go to work, Mr. Whitten. And try not to worry. You can pick her up this afternoon.” He made a sound deep in his throat that sounded to Liz like a pit bull about to attack, then seemed to think better of it.

      He СКАЧАТЬ