Page 91 of Iron Unicorn

“Good. I trust your judgment. Rachel’s getting an Akhla-Teke from Pat, but the reality? Those horses arepets.”

The emphasis amused me. “She does realize we’re going to have to work breeding them, right?”

“Oh, yes. But that is their sole job, Terry. If the mares have to be mothers, we must pamper them through motherhood. The fathers clearly can’t be worked much, either. They are beloved pets. Our children.”

“Do you want me to try to talk sense into her?”

“Honestly, no. She’s excited about the horses, and it’ll give me a good excuse to buy land and set up a ranch in the country. Ah. That reminds me. It’s time for your update on Jane.”

“I assumed she made it through the operation, as no one had called me to tell me otherwise,” I admitted.

“She survived. Recovery isn’t going as smoothly as any of us would like, but she should make it. She had a lot of underlying health problems they ultimately addressed all at once. She’ll be keeping her service pony, as there are concerns she will have trouble with her speech moving forward. Melody would like you to acquire her a ridable pony. The girl will need to stay in Maine for the next year, and she wants to use horseback riding as part of her recovery.”

Well, I was in the perfect place to find a pony. “And her parents?”

“They were at her side when she woke up from the operation, and Melody helped explain how they had put her up for adoption to help her get a new heart. It was a good move; Jane is overjoyed, and it’s critical she be in a good mood during her recovery. Depression might slow her recovery. I’ve already offered to help her family pay for living in Maine for the next year. Her parents want to meet you.”

I could handle a meeting with Jane’s parents. “We can do that during our next trip to Maine. Rachel’s due sooner than later.”

Ethan grunted, papers rustled, and he said, “We’re due in a month and a half, so I’ll make sure it’s penned in. That leads me to my next piece of business.”

“Sir?”

“Ethan,” Ethan ordered.

For fuck’s sake. I swallowed my sigh and replied, “What do you need, Ethan?”

“Huh. You really can be trained to use our names. I did not think that would work. Damn it, I owe Pat a twenty now.”

Damned royals. “I have Pat’s boy, and I’m not afraid to corrupt him,” I reminded the monarch.

Ethan snickered. “Terry, from the looks of it, he’s corrupting you. But if you want to try to corrupt Pat’s boy, I wish you the best of luck. Just text me with how many horses we need to transport into New York, send me their paperwork, and I’ll get their clearances done so they can be put in quarantine if needed. I don’t think we need to quarantine Texan horses, but I’ll double check.”

“If the stable only has Texan horses, we can quarantine them at the palace,” I reminded him.

“I’ll make sure the stable is ready for the incoming horses so we can do that. I’m already working at hiring stablehands and caretakers, and we’re going to keep a vet on staff to spare us some bills.”

Joe returned leading a black Standardbred who exaggerated her every step, and I understood the problem: the animal had been sored.

I’d seen trained Standardbreds, who did a fabulous job at high stepping, but the animal went beyond the norm.

Right. His behavior made a great deal of sense when viewed through the lens of dealing with an abused horse.

“I’m going to let you go, Ethan. Your parade horse is here, and I’ll be bringing this beauty home to you.”

“Sounds good. Thanks.”

Once the king hung up, I asked, “Who sored that horse?”

“Good eye, Agent Pattens. Good eye. The culprit has been apprehended, charges have been pressed, and we’ve started the process of making sure those folks never abuse a horse on our turf again. We have not informed the king yet, and we’re not going to until the trial is done. All he’s going to see is that the horse was rescued, appropriately placed, and that his laws are working as intended.”

“Is she the only one sored?”

“I’ve got two others. There was one other, but the horse was euthanized.”

I twitched. “What happened?”

“It was a stretch of bad luck. The soring went poorly, the horse became tangled in a fence post procedure, and went down from colic. The vet had gone to the farm to treat the colic and had spotted the soring. The vet euthanized the horse, offered a check of the other horses on his dime, and reported the abuse. The farm was shut down a few hours later. Fortunately, only four horses had been sored. They were planning on using talents to hide the damage once the drugs were out of their system. They would have been busted at show. We require all horses being shown in shows where soring might be beneficial to be blood tested. They were unaware of that from my understanding of the situation.”

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