Kidnapped Colt
Authors: Terri Farley
Phantom Stallion 15
Terri Farley
An albino mustang with crystal-blue eyes watched the ranch house.
“I won't wreck her,” Sam insisted.
Hiding horses wasn't the same as stealing them, but wouldâ¦
Sweat burned Sam's eyes. She'd already pushed her shirt sleevesâ¦
Sam stood by the kitchen sink, chugging down a thirdâ¦
Sam opened her mouth, but nothing came out. Should sheâ¦
Sam noticed Sheriff Ballard's leisurely approach.
Sam had always thought it would be fun to rideâ¦
“So the horses were just gone?” Jen asked, after Samâ¦
“We're late,” Jen moaned the next morning. “My first meetingâ¦
Sam wasn't surprised Sheriff Ballard didn't answer his office phone.
For an instant Sam was afraid she'd made a mistake.
Squatting and looking down at the dust instead of eachâ¦
They'd just bumped across the bridge over the La Charlaâ¦
Sam heard a rushing sound, like a wave cresting. Sheâ¦
Sam and Blaze sat on the bridge over the Laâ¦
Parade horses' hooves clattered on asphalt.
A
n albino mustang with crystal-blue eyes watched the ranch house. Samantha Forster watched back, holding the curtain aside so she could peer through the window in the kitchen door.
Even though the sun hadn't yet risen, a lot was going on at River Bend Ranch. Two cowboys had ridden out to check the stock. The foreman hammered a loose hinge on the barn door. Dad was tossing hay into the pasture and all the saddle horsesâexcept Popcornâjostled each other as they ate.
How did Popcorn know she was coming? And why did the captive mustang care?
A cold nose bumped Sam's palm, then Blaze yapped like a dog half his size.
“I know how to open the door,” Sam told the border collie as he tried the movement again, lifting her hand toward the doorknob.
Sam stepped outside. Blaze knocked against her knee as he rocketed into the morning, but Sam stood still, rubbing warmth into her arms. Mornings started off bright and cold in Nevada's high desert country.
July sunlight, yellow as lemonade, shone over River Bend Ranch, while frost still sparkled on the fence around the ten-acre pasture. It wouldn't last long. Blue morning glory flowers vining up the chicken wire surrounding Gram's garden were halfway open.
It would be eighty degrees by noon.
Sam walked toward the ten-acre pasture where Popcorn waited. Her sneakers were quiet, but Ace and Strawberry noticed her approach and raised their heads, hay dropping from their lips.
Popcorn snorted, then tensed, forgetting all about Sam as an orange monarch butterfly landed on his nose.
The gelding's blue eyes crossed for an instant, trying to focus on the butterfly. As its wings spread, Popcorn shook his head, lashed out his hind legs, and launched into a gallop.
“I know you're just terrified of that tiny butterfly,” Sam called after him.
Popcorn was tall for a mustang and his sturdy
build hinted at draft blood. His startled retreat wasn't due to fear, but high spirits.
Blaze rushed barking along the fence. Hooves thudded as other horses joined the morning run. Their glossy backs glinted bay, sorrel, and roan. Manes of black and tawny brown flew and their nostrils widened as they rejoiced in the scent of hoof-crushed grass.
This joyful stampede happened every morning, but it thrilled Sam every time.
“You ready?” Dallas, the ranch foreman called from the barn doorway.
“Just about.”
Sam knew it was time to get busy. Today, she'd start training her month-old black filly, Tempest, to lead.
Before she took a single step toward Dallas, who was waiting to help, Gram called from the porch.
“Jen's on the phone. Do you have time to talk before you get started?”
Weird
, Sam thought.
Last night when she'd talked with her best friend, Jen had moaned over the huge number of chores she had to finish before she was allowed to ride over to spend the week at River Bend Ranch.
It would be worth it, though. Not only would Jen be a new counselor for HARP, the Horse and Rider Protection program, but it was the week of the Fourth of July.
A parade, carnival, and other festivities were planned. They couldn't have picked a better time for a weeklong sleepover.
Since Jen's parents were leaving on a rare holiday away from the ranch, they were monitoring Jen's every move, making sure she finished her chores before they let her escape.
If Jen had made time for a phone call, it must be important.
“Sure,” Sam said to Gram. Gesturing to Dallas, she added, “I'll be right back.”
Inside, Sam took the telephone receiver, noticing a sticky spot from the oatmeal cookie dough Gram was mixing.
“Hello?” Sam said.
“How would you feel about a playdate?” Jen asked.
“A playdate?” Sam asked. She pictured her best friend's intelligent face and owlish eyes as she tried to make sense of the question. “Aren't we a little old for playdates?”
“Sure,” Jen said, then she drew a breath so deep, Sam heard it. “But this isn't for us. Ryan wants his colt to come play with Tempest.”
“Wow,” Sam said. As she twirled in excitement, the phone cord wrapped around her. “That is so cool.”
Ryan Slocum's colt was one day older than Tempest. On the open range, young horses raced
around and learned how to be herd members by playing with other foals.
“That's perfect!” Then, as she disentangled herself from the cord, Sam's mind collided with a complication. Ryan's father, Linc Slocum. “Is it okay with his dad?”
Linc Slocum was the richest man in northern Nevada. No one knew exactly how he'd gotten so wealthy. Most folks were too neighborly to pry, but the wild schemes he'd pulled since he'd bought Gold Dust Ranch proved Linc Slocum didn't mind skirting the law.
“I'm not exactly sure Ryan's told his dad,” Jen said. “Ryan said something about his father driving to Winnemucca to look at a custom-made saddle.”
That figures
, Sam thought.
Linc Slocum dreamed of being a real cowboy and thought he could buy the trappings to make people think he was one.
Ryan's colt was the offspring of one of those “trappings.”
To Linc, Apache Hotspot, a blue-blooded Appaloosa mare, had looked like the perfect Western horse. He'd spent thousands of dollars on her and he'd planned to begin an Appaloosa breeding program. He'd been furious when Hotspot escaped, then turned up in foal to Diablo, a fierce blue roan stallion noted for his hammerhead.
Sam hadn't yet seen the foal, but she'd heard Linc
hated the colt as much as Ryan loved it.
“Sam, there's just one thing,” Jen said, hesitantly.
Sam waited, stepping aside so Gram could get to the kitchen counter and check a crock that held rising bread dough.
“What is it?” Sam asked.
“I'll let Ryan tell you,” Jen said. “Or beg you, I guess. It's kind of a big favor.”
“Really?” Sam asked. “Ryan can buy anything he wants. What kind of favor could he need from me?”
“You have to say yes, Sam,” Jen insisted. “He wouldn't ask if it wasn't important.”
“Can't you do it?” Sam asked. Jen's persistent voice made her uneasy.
“Not this time.”
“You can do anything I can. And more.”
Besides, you're the one with the crush on him
, Sam thought, but she said, “And you're the one he likes.”
“I can't give him the permission he needs to do this,” Jen said with forced patience. “But you can.”
Sam didn't like the sound of that.
“Now you've got me really worried,” Sam said.
Despite his money and good looks, Ryan didn't have much backbone. Weakness could get you in big trouble here, where life hadn't left the frontier days totally behind.
Looking up, Sam wished she'd kept that last sentence to herself. Judging by Gram's frown as she stirred her cookie dough, she'd heard.
“Tell him to come on over, and we'll see,” Sam told Jen, then she glanced at the kitchen clock. “I've got to go. Dallas is waiting for me.”
“You're a pal,” Jen said, sighing. “I'll be over as soon as I can.”
“Hurry,” Sam encouraged her. Then, so that Jen could do just that, Sam said good-bye.
“What's that all about?” Gram asked.
“Ryan's going to bring his colt over to play with Tempest.”
“How nice,” Gram said. She raised one eyebrow, as if she expected an explanation of what she'd overheard.
Sam edged toward the door, even though she doubted Gram would let her escape.
She only had three steps left to go, then two, when Gram asked, “Sam, what has you worried?”
“I'm not sure,” Sam said honestly.
Jen had sounded nervous. That was not like her.
And if Ryan planned to “beg” her to do something before his dad returned, his favor must be something sneaky.
Gram would not approve.
“I want plenty of time to work with Tempest before the HARP girls get here,” Sam admitted. “I think the first day is the most important.”
Gram studied Sam as if she might draw out another reason.
“I wonder if you're also just a little bit worried
Ryan's colt will be like his sire,” Gram suggested.
“Diablo was fierce,” Sam admitted. The chaos of fighting stallions, with the biting, kicking, and screaming neighs of superiority, came back to her. “But this is just a baby. Besides,” Sam paused, smiling as she reduced the stallions' battle to a schoolyard boast, “Tempest's daddy beat his daddy.”
Gram laughed, then fluttered a hand toward the door.
“Dallas isn't good at waiting, so you'd best get along out there. I won't expect to see you 'til lunchtime.”
Sam kissed Gram's cheek, then bolted out the door toward the barn, trying to make up for lost time by running.
Sam heard Tempest's tiny hooves galloping around the barn corral. As she drew closer, Sam heard the filly huff with exertion.
“Don't know that you'll ever be able to use her with those HARP kids,” Dallas said as Sam opened the gate to the barn corral and eased inside.
Instantly, Sam could tell Dallas wasn't talking about Tempest.
Dallas held a lead rope clipped to Dark Sunshine's halter. Dallas had been foreman on River Bend Ranch for as long as Sam could remember. The only time she'd seen his gray hair this disheveled was during last summer's barn fire.
Dark Sunshine's mane was just as untidy.
Torrents of black hair stood up on her crest and tangled against her brown-gold neck. The mare glared past her forelock with accusing eyes.
“What happened?” Sam asked.
“Had us a little set-to,” Dallas explained, with a glance toward Tempest.
The filly's slender legs slowed to a trot. Her head swung from side to side, considering her mother, Sam, then her mother again.
“I thought it might be a good idea to keep the mare inside the barn,” Dallas continued. “That way the filly could concentrate on her lesson. But the buckskin had a different opinion.”
“Sorry,” Sam said.
“Didn't seem like a good day to insist,” Dallas said.
Sam nodded in agreement. In a few hours, the HARP girls would arrive. And then there was Ryan, but she wouldn't tell Dallas about that until she had to.
There was a good chance she and Dallas were already destined for a day of butting heads. They'd never agreed about handling horses. Though he was kind, he believed in telling horses what to do. Sam liked to try asking first.
“Mare doesn't know how to be tame,” Dallas pointed out, as he handed Tempest's halter and lead rope to Sam.
Like most cowboys, Dallas only said a tenth of what he was thinking.
Did he mean Dark Sunshine never should have been captured? Sam wondered. Or that she should have been carrying a saddle and rider by now?
Sam studied Dallas's sun-lined face, hoping he'd go on.
“Once the filly's weaned, you'll want to see to that,” Dallas said.
Sam's heart zigzagged in fear or excitement. She couldn't tell which as she answered, “I will.”
Bidding for Sam's attention, Tempest skittered up, within reach, and stopped.
Blue-black in the sunlight, the filly dipped her head, then lifted it, waiting for the sound of her secret name. But Dallas stood too close.
“Makes more sense to wean a foal before breaking it to lead,” Dallas said. He skimmed a callused hand along Dark Sunshine's neck, rewarding her for staying calm.
“Tempest doesn't mind the halter,” Sam said.
“She's still kinda young,” Dallas said.
Dallas had already had a half century of horse experience on the day Sam had been born. She respected that. He was River Bend's foreman, too. Only Gram and Dad had more say-so in how the ranch was run.
If she hadn't been present for Tempest's birth, if she hadn't spent hours bonding with the filly, Sam would have accepted Dallas's advice. But she knew Tempest. This time Dallas was wrong.
Since she couldn't argue with him, Sam decided she'd let Dallas see for himself how Tempest accepted the halter.
“Hey, baby girl,” Sam crooned as she slipped the noseband over Tempest's muzzle, lifted the halter into place, and lay the thin leather strap behind the filly's flicking black ears. Finally, Sam fastened the buckle.
Tempest didn't protest. She only stamped one tiny hoof, urging Sam to rub behind her ears as she always did after the buckle was fastened.
Sam smiled. She was never quick enough to satisfy the filly.
“It's your call,” Dallas said, though his tone insisted she was making a mistake trying to teach such a youngster to lead.
“She trusts me,” Sam explained.
Tempest closed her eyes and leaned harder into the fingers kneading behind her ears.
“Trust'll mean nothin' if she's scared. When you snap on that lead rope, she'll run to her mama.”
Sam looked Tempest over carefully. She didn't look like she was poised to make a dash for her mother. She looked drowsy.
“If you don't take Sunny into the barn, maybe Tempest won't run after her.”
“Horses are prey animals,” Dallas insisted. “Something happens that filly don't understand, and it's natural she'll run from it. Just be ready, is all I'm sayin'.”
Still rubbing Tempest's velvety head, Sam imagined Tempest bolting, then hitting the end of the rope with all her energy. She could fall. That would be a bad introduction to the world of ropes and reins.
“What if we start inside the stall?” Sam asked.
“Good idea,” Dallas said.
Amazed at Dallas's approval, Sam gave a quick laugh, but the old foreman was already leading Dark Sunshine to the barn.
The mare walked with him, but her ears flicked back, then sideways.
“It's okay, girl,” Sam assured the buckskin mare.
Sunny's golden-brown head swung to consider Sam. Then she kept walking. The mare wasn't sure two people belonged inside the stall she shared with her foal, but she didn't fight the pull of the lead.
