Page 77 of Torin and His Oath
I settled in.
Cooper said,“What do you want to eat?”
Jen said, “I bought chicken soup from Marjorie.”
I said, “Perfect.”
A little laterCooper was sitting in the chair across from me, Jen was at the end of the couch. I had taken a few tentative sips of soup, but had left it uneaten on the table. I was disappointed to see that I had gotten saltine cracker crumbs on my blanket. It had been clean. Now it was a mess. I had a mug of peppermint tea.
I asked, “How come you’re not at work?”
“Took the day because my bestie was missing.”
“Oh, and… I left yesterday? It’s only been one day?”
“Yeah, and you said it had been days and days where you were?”
I nodded.
“I was in the year 1558, I think, no one really knew. We would ask the date and get answers like, ‘near a fortnight afore the flower moon.’”
Jen said, “That’s just so absurd, no calendars?”
“Nope, but maybe some people had them, but we were in the middle of nowhere, like cattle country. Hanging with the good ol’ boys.” I dropped my head back on the couch. “It was a real life and death experience. Every minute.”
Jen asked, “How did you escape those guys who kidnapped you?”
“They put us in a shed kinda thing, then started drinking. We just snuck out into the woods, but then Torin went back and… he handled them, and gained two horses. That’s one out there.”
Cooper said, “I fed her, by the way, but I think she needs more than just a grassy fenced-in side-yard.”
“Yeah, likely, not sure, never had a horse before.”
“New hobby, that should be thrilling, and Dude was there?”
“He appeared in the window when we were imprisoned in the shed. I guess he had followed us through the woods; he just stuck near us, rode in the saddlebags, and I’m so damn glad he made it back. I was worried he would get stuck in medieval times.”
Cooper said, “Yeah, me too.”
I said, “You okay?”
“Just upset about this whole thing, it sounds much more dangerous than I even guessed when I was out there all night worrying about you.”
“Yeah, it was really dangerous.”
He nodded. “About the horse, I made some calls, and got two options. There’s a stable nearby. They have space to board him. We just need to let them know, and they can send a hand with a trailer to pick him up.”
“Is there any way he can stay here? I kinda want to keep him near. We went through a lot together, and he’s not used to this place. He might want to be close.”
He leaned forward and pulled some papers close. One was a map. “I looked up the rules, it looks like, because Laurel Ridge is on this side of the city line, by feet, lucky for you, you can have a horse.”
“Good.”
“But you have to have a stable.”
“I can find someone, right?”
He leaned back. “I’ll build it, don’t have anything else to do right now.”
