Page 30 of Reckoning

“What are you talking about?”

“You wrote down my name on a hundred silent auction items last night. I thought I crossed them all out. Guess not.”

I started to run toward the stable, but he grabbed my arm and yanked me back.

“I don’t want to deal with a broken foot. Go back inside and get some proper shoes.”

“I don’t have any proper shoes.”

“Your sneakers are on the shelf in my closet.”

I didn’t stop to ask, just ran back inside and pulled on my running shoes as quickly as I could manage. When I got back outside, he was already almost to the stable. I sprinted to catch up with him.

“You really got this for me?”

“I didn’t get you anything. You spent my money like it was nothing.”

“You spend your money like it’s nothing.”

He shoved his hands in his pockets. “It’s my money.”

I ignored him, trotting down the long hallway to the stall that now held the horse. Men in cowboy boots were unloading tack and saddlery items, along with food and straw, and setting them on the wall next to it. I stepped into the stall where an older gentleman with a wiry white beard was brushing down the horse.

“Be careful,” Meyer called, but I had already closed the stall door behind me.

The man turned and smiled at us. “Are you Her Majesty’s new owners?”

“I am,” Meyer and I both said at the same time. He glared at me, but I ignored him. “Is that her name?”

“Sure is, young lady. Of course you can choose something else if you’d like. I doubt she’d mind.”

I approached the beast slowly, holding out my hands for her to smell. She pushed her nose against my palms. Her muzzle was like silk.

“She’s a feisty one, so be careful when you saddle her up. You’ll want to give her a few days to acclimate first.”

I nodded, having no intention of ever making her carry me. She lifted her head and looked behind me at Meyer. I turned to face him as well, not caring about the stupid grin he was surely going to mock.

He smiled back at me, just for a second.

“Have you ever cared for a horse before?”

I turned back to the man beside me and tried to pay attention as he walked me through the basic care functions I would now have to undertake. Meyer interjected, saying he’d hire someone, but I ignored him. I wanted to know everything. I’d been obsessed with horses as a child, like many young girls, playing with secondhand dolls and toy horses in lieu of doing homework or watching TV. And now I had a real-life horse, thanks to the man who had promised over and over to destroy me.

What could have possessed someone who didn’t show any emotion other than disdain or aggression to do this for me?

When the movers finally packed up and left, I spent some time in the stall with Her Majesty until she settled down in a pile of hay to take a nap. I guessed that moving house was pretty exhausting even for horses. When I left the stall, Meyer was standing against the opposite wall.

“Don’t you want to meet her?”

He snorted in derision. “Not even a little. Can we go back inside?”

“You can do whatever you want. You don’t have to babysit me.”

He threw his hands in the air. “You do need babysitting, though. I let you run free last night, and you bought a fucking horse.”

Something tugged at my memory. “No, I didn’t.”

He gestured back toward the mare. “Is that not a horse back there?”

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