Page 52 of Wed to the Devil

“All right. As I was saying, this is River. Who can guess what kind of horse he is?”

Several hands shoot up and a couple of the kids start shouting out answers.

“Big!”

“German shepherd!”

“Okay. Remember what I said earlier. Horses don’t like loud noises, so we are going to use our inside voices when we are here. Okay?”

“Yes, Miss Gina,” the kid says in a stage whisper. “Sorry, River.”

Gina laughs and starts talking about the horse. She gives some basic information like how old he is, what breed he is, and what he likes to eat.

“Yes?” she asks the girl with her hand raised.

“Can we pet him now?”

Gina smiles. “Let me tell you about how we are going to pet the horse. He likes to be touched here…” She pets his muzzle and all along his nose. “Here…” She pets his head and mane. “And here.” She pets his shoulder and chest. “You will want to pet him with all five fingers together, like this. I like to call this my canoe. And like a canoe in a river, it only goes down. Never go against the current, in this direction. Horses don’t really like that.”

She flashes everyone her upright palm with no spaces between her fingers. Then she pets River again using the same technique.

“Now, if you’re ready, I will have Miss Talia come up here and stand beside you while you pet River. Does that sound good? Does everyone have their canoes?”

She makes that same gesture, reminding everyone to pet with an upright and rigid palm.

A chorus of yeses is the gleeful reply. All the kids stand up. I turn to Dare, giving him a soft hug. His lips twitch. To his credit, he doesn’t seem to be sulking over this morning’s news anymore. He smiles at me and says nothing, but there is some unnamed emotion flickering in his eyes.

Leaving him, I head up to the front of the circle. For the next hour, I stand beside River, watching the kids respectfully pet him with stiff hands. River seems mellow about the experience, but the kids absolutely light up inside. It’s so fun to watch them look up at River with wide eyes and a grin.

I gently correct a few of them when they forget to keep their hands like a canoe or when they pet against the grain of River’s fur. But for the most part, the children behave themselves.

Gina cups her hands around her mouth. “I’m going to put our friend River away in his stall. Then how about you all help me feed the horses? Would you like that?”

“Yeah!” the curly-haired little boy shouts, still excited beyond measure. “Let’s go!”

As I walk back to Dare, Solana comes barreling over to me. The kid throws her entire body weight at my legs and almost bowls me over. Only quick thinking on Dare’s part to grab my arm and hold me up saves the day.

“Whoa, Solana!” I say, laughing. “What’s going on?”

Solana shakes her long raven hair, tears threatening to pour from her velvety brown eyes. “My shoe is broke.”

She sticks out her foot to show us both a dingy white sneaker with several Velcro straps. The Velcro is all bunched up on a couple and sticking to itself. I kneel down so I’m eye level with her. Then I spend a minute adjusting the straps, evening them out, and smoothing my touch over the top of her foot.

“All fixed.” I smile at the girl. “I have a surprise for you. Are you ready?”

She glances at Dare, looking for his approval. He puts his hand on my shoulder, smiling at the girl. Apparently that’s enough, because Solana whips her hand out and looks at me expectantly.

I reach in my coat pocket and produce a carrot. “Do you want to help me give this to River?”

Solana’s eyes widen and she snatches the carrot from my open palm. She looks at me with a deep doubt. The kind of look that tells me that this kid has probably known a lot of hardship and disappointment in her short life.

“You hold onto it. We’ll feed it to the horse together.”

I hold out my hand, palm facing up. Solana stares at me for a second, trying to decide if I’m trustworthy. Then she takes my hand.

I wiggle my eyebrows. “Let’s go look in the stalls and see which one River is in.”

Solana nods and we walk over to feed River for a few minutes. At length, I leave Solana watching Gail and another little girl feed Black Beauty a carrot. When I head back to the circle, I find Dare leaning against the last stall with a watchful smile on his face.

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