Page 45 of Unwilling Wolf

She watched him walk away with those long, powerful strides. “I wish I could stay in the hands’ cabin with you,” she admitted to Lenny.

“He won’t be rude anymore tonight. He smells sad.”

Eliza ghosted her friend a glance, but Lenny was frowning at Garret’s back.

In the barn, Buck enjoyed the careful attention she paid him as she took her time brushing him out. While she braided the buckskin’s mane, she hummed softly. Buck seemed to sense her mood and gave her long looks. That, or he felt violated at having his hair done up like a show pony. Either way, the time she spent with him settled her down and gave her a chance to sort things out in her mind. She hadn’t always been the fastest processor.

Lenny finished putting her horse in a stall, and inspected Eliza’s work on Buck’s mane.

“He was mean?” Lenny asked softly.

Eliza shrugged. “I don’t know if he knows what mean is. I think it’s just a part of him.”

“He’s tough.”

“He’s incorrigible.”

“I don’t know that word.”

Eliza offered a tired look. “He’s an asshole.”

“I do know that word,” Lenny said through a grin. “All men are assholes.”

“Do you have a man?” she asked.

“Sometimes.” Lenny flashed her a grin. “When I feel like it.”

“Scandalous,” she teased, petting Buck’s neck.

“He’s confused,” Lenny said.

“That makes two of us.”

“No…that makes two of them.” Lenny looked at her like she wanted to say more, but her lips stayed closed.

“The man and the animal?” Eliza guessed.

Lenny nodded. “Take it from me…it is very hard. If he didn’t care, he wouldn’t ask me to go be your friend.”

Eliza frowned. “What do you mean?”

“He came back upset. Ordered me to go take care of you. I thought he would…”

“He would what?” Eliza asked, baffled.

“I thought the animal would come out of him without him asking it to.” Lenny shrugged. “That happens when a man is very upset.”

“At me?”

Lenny shook her head. “At himself.” She took Buck’s reins and led him to his stall without another word.

Eliza didn’t know what to say. She just stared at Lenny’s back as the woman disappeared into the stall. When she returned, Eliza told her, “He wants me to go back to Boston.”

Lenny huffed a laugh. “All men do that when they are scared.”

“I don’t think Garret is scared of anything.”

Lenny cocked one dark, delicately-arched eyebrow. “I’ve never seen Garret afraid before now, but every man is scared of one thing in his life. At least one thing.”

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