Page 94 of Iron Unicorn

“There’s a fireplace in the lounge, and Carl had someone bring a selection of your books over. Let’s read before dinner.”

If Olivia wanted to read, I wouldn’t argue with her. “Reading sounds like an excellent plan.”

* * *

I meant to read,but Olivia created a nest for us on one of the sofas near the fireplace, and while I lasted for a few minutes, warmth and comfort conspired against me, and I caught a nap. That Olivia had likewise lost the war with general consciousness, I decided against having any shame about the situation. Had I been given my way, I would have napped right through dinner, but Eddie got us up and herded us to the dining hall, where we got to dish out tacos at the buffet style table.

After three tacos, I put some serious thought into sleeping at the table.

“Our talent evaluator will be here tomorrow, and all three of us are being put through our paces. Carl says it’s so Terry doesn’t feel singled out. In reality, it’s the RPS getting revenge that we gave them the slip and created a logistics nightmare.”

I gave Carl a great deal of credit; he’d provided a sensible way for Eddie to think himself right into a corner. I thought about illuminating him, but I decided against it. The young man needed to learn, and the only way he’d learn would be through handling the ropes himself—and learning he would one day walk in his dad’s shoes while the rest of his fathers pitched a fit about it.

I needed to give Geoff a call sooner than later for a chat about the young man and how to better prepare him for the reality of his future life.

Olivia got up, stole my plate, and headed for the tacos.

I understood my fate: I would be eating more tacos, and she’d stare me into submission.

“You have the look of a defeated man. I’ll do you a favor and fall on the talent evaluation sword first. I’ll make sure they know you’re exerted, could use the extra sleep, and that you get grouchy if your princess wanders out of your sight. That way, she gets a little extra sleep, too. She’s absolutely slamming your empathy talent.”

“Is it really defeat if I go out trying to fit more tacos in?”

“Not particularly, but we’re going to need a crane to get you to bed. They’re putting you in the suite for dignitaries, as Olivia definitely counts, so you won’t have too terribly far to go after she’s fed you to her satisfaction. Don’t even worry about your herd tonight. I think we can handle even your demoness. I’m going to take a video of her for dad; he loves when the mares get spunky and she’s got quite the attitude. She probably wants to run out some energy, but that isn’t happening until the infection is fully healed. At least we won’t have to worry about the break. I don’t know if my blood pressure could handle worrying about a horse with a break right now.”

“I’m just glad medical sciences for horses has progressed enough that a break isn’t an instant death sentence.” When I’d been a child, that had mostly been the case. The survivability rates of horses with broken legs had dramatically increased over the past few decades.

Texans held a great deal of responsibility for that progression.

“Same. Black Sand is getting up there now, but when I’d gotten him, the tech had improved just enough to save him. He’d suffered through a nasty spiral fracture to go along with a hefty case of neglect. Nowadays? It’s a matter of money more than anything else. The treatments are still expensive, but there are more bone menders out there working as vets than in human hospitals! I mean, I can’t blame them. People are a lot harder to work with.”

“People do tend to talk back and hold a certain level of entitlement.”

“Precisely. Can we agree that most horses are superior to most people?”

I thought about it and shrugged. “For the most part, I would prefer to spend time with most horses versus most people. When a horse has a temper tantrum, it tends to be endearing as long as nobody gets hurt.”

“Exactly. I particularly like when they flop onto the ground and want to take a nap and make me late. Black Sand did that to me the other week. He makes these hilarious grunting sounds when he would rather not go to work.”

In Montana, the RPS had exceptions in the rules for if an agent was delayed due to the antics of their horses. My requirement to be on time was part of the reason having four horses wouldn’t be a bad idea. If one decided to pitch a fit, one of the other horses would likely be willing to go to work without a fuss. It wouldn’t be a guarantee, but I’d have a much better record for getting to work on time when I was bringing a horse along. “Do you have a second horse?”

“Not yet. None of my other horses meet the grade for RPS work. They’re great ranch horses, but most of them aren’t steady enough for what we need.”

Steady made a big difference. “It takes special training and temperament to get a horse ready for service in the RPS. That’s why Montana tends to buy broodmares that haven’t been bred with my stud’s line. He tends to throw steady foals, so the majority of his babies are suitable for RPS work. My new mare? She would not be earmarked for RPS breeding with how she’s fussing right now. In good news for her, she’s a freeloader. I’ll see what I do with her, if anything, once I get her to New York.”

Olivia returned, challenged me with her stare, and set a plate loaded with four tacos in front of me. “You’re exerted, so you need to eat these. If you don’t eat these, I’ll need to have Melody’s foot surgically removed from my ass.” To make it clear that the Maine princess meant business, Olivia provided evidence in the form of a text.

“You can report that I will do my best to eat these tacos, after which I’m going to bed. You can play with the horses if you want, but I’m going to find a soft surface and hope to sleep through tomorrow rather than have an evaluation done.”

“No evaluations tomorrow. Melody’s orders, Eddie. Next week at the earliest. Melody doesn’t care if Terry might have new talents. He’s to wear the suppressor he’s got during the day, remove it at night, and do that for the next week. She’ll send her old man back with your dad to oversee Terry for his evaluation. We’re to still get done. Honestly, I was trying to get out of it for all of us, but she only took mercy on Terry. So yes, Terry, you absolutely can sleep through tomorrow and skip the evaluations if you want. When you aren’t sleeping, you’re to be taking it easy. Play with the baby horses. For some reason, this ranch has more than a few baby horses that would love to play with you. Read books. Hide me under your bed when the talent evaluator comes for my head.”

Knowing she’d gotten as much exposure to King Patrick of Texas as I had, I would be hauling her out from under the bed and dragging her to the talent evaluator myself. “Reading and playing with the baby horses seems like a good use of my time,” I conceded before grabbing a taco, taking a deep breath to prepare for stuffing myself silly, and getting to work eating it.

“There. We’ll sacrifice ourselves tomorrow and defend Terry so Melody doesn’t come to Texas and correct us.” Olivia grabbed one of her tacos and raised it in a salute in Eddie’s direction. “But we should run away tomorrow because I don’t want to do a talent evaluation.”

If they ran, I would have to chase them, and I glared at the princess while chewing on my food.

“I don’t think Terry likes that idea very much.” However, Eddie raised his taco in a salute as well. “We ride at dawn.”

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