Page 25 of Irish Rebel
“We’ll go, you and I,” he said quietly. “We were meant to go together. Rebels we are, or so people say who can’t see where we’re headed. We’ve races to win, don’t we?”
He shortened the line, and she dropped into a trot. Shortened it still further and her gait changed to a walk. Sweat gleamed on her coat, trickled down his back. Summer wasn’t just clinging to September. It was pummeling it.
They ignored the heat, and watched each other.
Again and again he used the line to signal her as she circled, and all the while he praised her.
Watching was irresistible. She had work to do, chores piled up. But if she couldn’t take a few moments out on a brilliant September day to watch a little magic, what was the point?
She leaned on the paddock fence, enjoying the view as Brian put Betty through her paces. Her father had been right in hiring him, she thought. There was a connection between man and horse that was stronger, and even more tangible than the line between them. She could feel it. Amusement, affection, challenge.
This wasn’t something that could be taught. It simply was.
She knew Brian took time for every weanling on the farm when he wasn’t out of town at a race. That wasn’t an easy task in an operation as large as Royal Meadows. But it was the kind of touch that made a difference. A smart and caring horseman knew that the more a horse was handled, touched, communicated with during its youth, the better it would respond to later training.
“Looks good, doesn’t she?” Brian said as he let out the line for one last canter.
“Very. You’ve made considerable progress with her.”
“We’ve made progress with each other, haven’t wea ghra.She’s ready to feel a rider on her.”
Knowing Betty’s reputation, Keeley tucked her tongue in her cheek. “And who are you bribing—or threatening—to get up on her?”
Gradually Brian shortened the line, and Betty moved into an even trot. “Want the job?”
“I have a job, thanks.” But it was tempting.
Brian knew when a seed planted needed to be left alone to sprout. “Well, she’ll have her first weight on her tomorrow morning.” He shortened the line again, moving Betty toward him, and both of them toward Keeley.
He liked the look of her there against the fence, with her hair as glossy as the filly’s coat, and her eyes as cautious. “This one won’t be placid and eager to please. But she’ll come ’round, won’t you,maverneen?”
He stroked the filly’s neck, and she sniffed at the pouch on his belt, then turned her head away.
“She wants to let me know she doesn’t care that I’ve apples in here. No, doesn’t matter a bit to her.” He looped the line around the fence and took an apple and his knife from his pocket. Idly he cut it in half. “Maybe I’ll just offer this token to this other pretty lady here.”
He held out the apple to Keeley, and Betty gave him a solid rap with her head that rammed him into the fence. “Now she wants my attention. Would you like some of this then?”
He shifted, held the apple out. Betty nipped it from his palm with dignified delicacy. “She loves me.”
“She loves your apples,” Keeley commented.
“Oh, it’s not just that. See here.” Before Keeley could evade—could think to—he cupped a hand at the back of her neck, pulled her close and rubbed his lips provocatively over hers.
Betty huffed out a breath and butted him.
“You see?” Brian let his teeth graze lightly before he released Keeley. “Jealous. She doesn’t care to have me give my affection to another woman.”
“Next time kiss her and save yourself a bruise.”
“It was worth it. On both counts.”
“Horses are more easily charmed than women, Donnelly.” She plucked the apple out of his hand, bit in. “I just like your apples,” she told him, and strolled away.
“That one’s as contrary as you are.” He nuzzled Betty’s cheek as he watched Keeley walk to her stables. “What is it that makes me find contrary females so appealing?”
She hadn’t meant to go down to the yearling stalls. Really. It was just that she was up early, her own morning chores were done. And she was curious. When she stepped inside the stables, out of the soft gray dawn, the first thing she heard was Brian’s voice.
It made her smile. At least the exasperation in it made her smile.
