Riverbreeze: Part 1 (6 page)

Jamie laughed. “You’re already too late to
even get in the way. All I have to do is harness and saddle them
and then we can go. You just rest there; it won’t take me long; and
then we’ll ride up to the house to pick up Robin.”

Robert did just that, rested and watched his
little brother ready the horses. First Jamie disappeared into the
stable; then he returned with a bridle and reins for Pisador. He
then fit the animal with the double bridle with both snaffle bit
and curb bit and a double set of reins. Robert had to smile; Jamie
was in his element, taking care of those animals. What a happy day
it had been when the boat had arrived directly at their wharf and
Jamie had been able to run on board to greet them and supervise
their disembarking.

The horses had been wobbly and dirty and
scared out of their wits, but Jamie had looked upon them as if they
had been the most gorgeous creatures he had ever seen. And Robert
had to admit they were gorgeous creatures. They were some of the
finest horses ever to be had from England by way of the Iberian
Peninsula. The brothers had their grandfather to thank for these
beautiful animals, their bloodlines going back as far as fifty
years of careful selecting and breeding. Spanish horses were and
had been the preferred mounts by the royalty and aristocracy for
numerous years and were even now being bred for use by King Charles
himself and his top officers in the army.

The horses were sure-footed, having
originally been mountain dwellers and they had cat-like agility,
developing keen senses from living among and fighting the wild
bulls of the mountains of Spain. Robert hadn’t been surprised when
Jamie had announced that he was going to obtain his horses from
Wesley, but he knew how it had galled Jamie to have to pay the man
for them. If their father had lived and they had still been living
at Brentwood Manor, those horses would have belonged to them
already.

Jamie returned to the barn to retrieve the
saddle and saddle blanket. Earlier, he had complained about not
being able to afford all new tack for the horses and Robert had had
to remind him how lucky he was just to be able to afford the
horses. When their agent had negotiated for the animals, getting
them at a fair price because of their unusual color, (they weren’t
the standard and preferred dappled gray) he had also negotiated for
two full sets of used tack. Much to Jamie’s surprise, he had been
quite pleased when he saw that the leather bridles and saddles had
not been too old and were still in fine shape.

When Jamie came back out, he was whistling
softly to himself and he had the most cheerful look on his face
that Robert just shook his head. The boy was so excited about this
visit he could barely keep his shirt on!

It was just the opposite for Robert. He
really wasn’t in any mood to go to this gathering. Since the death
of his wife, he had seen no point in socializing or visiting
friends. All they ever did was smother him, making noises of
sympathy and looking at him with pity in their eyes. And then the
match-making had begun, a mere month after Kathleen’s death!

First it was suggested he should marry
Abigail. She had moved in with them after the tragic death of her
husband and three-month old baby, but she had made it perfectly
clear she did not want another man ever touching her again. Then
Daphne Dixon had been paraded in front of him, but my God, she had
only been fourteen! Then there was Susie Somebody and Wilhemina
What’shername and Joanie with the green eyes and on and on the
busybodies went. He became fed up with it all, no matter their good
intentions. So it had just been easier for him to stay at home and
fill his days with mindless work or when he did take a day off,
sneak away to the nearby Indian village.

But he couldn’t say no to Tyler this time; it
would be rather rude of him to purposely refuse the invitation and
not welcome his cousins to the colony. And he knew how much Jamie
wanted to go and needed to go. Jamie was young and vibrant and was
so handsome with his big blue eyes and thick blond hair that Robert
was surprised he didn’t have a special lady already. The same women
who had been pushed on him had been introduced to Jamie, but Jamie
was younger and didn’t feel comfortable with some of the older
women who had already been married and widowed or with Daphne
Dixon, the fourteen-year-old. And at that time Jamie was just
getting established, he had only been given one hundred acres of
land at the time of his release and had no house or income. He was
living with his brother,
the recluse
, and
no time to devote to a wife. So he had stayed single as well.

And Robert hadn’t felt bad for any of those
women who they had rejected. They had all found husbands among the
scores of single men in the colony in mere days or weeks of being
introduced to them.

So Robert would go and make the best of it
for Jamie’s sake. Jamie was quite a catch now. It made Robert smile
to see him so grown up. He realized he was going to have to stop
thinking of Jamie as his little brother. Even though Jamie had
grown to be quite a tall man, it wasn’t only Jamie’s height that
had made him the man he was today.

Over the past two years his brother had
matured significantly in body and in mind. Being released from his
contract of indenture at seventeen and being sent to live with a
grieving brother had been more than difficult for Jamie. Robert
knew he had not been in the best of moods after the death of his
wife; and poor Jamie had had to put up with an awful lot of his
anger and despair. Robert couldn’t have been more grateful for
Jamie’s company. Jamie had always been patient; he had always been
helpful and even if his shoulders had been a little bit skinny,
they had born the brunt of Robert’s sobs time and time again.

By this time, Jamie had fitted the mare with
her snaffle bridle and single set of reins and was now putting the
saddle on her, tightening and securing the girth strap. Robert
noticed she was a little calmer than the male and knew he would be
riding her. He couldn’t take any chances, since he would be riding
with his two-year-old son, and he also thought that Jamie should
have the privilege of arriving at the party atop his mighty
stallion.

But in the back of his mind, he was
remembering several years back when he and Jamie would ride and
race Tyler’s horses and how the wind felt on his face, and how it
whipped his own blond hair back, and the feel of the horse’s
powerful muscular body beneath his thighs. How they would laugh and
whoop with abandon, feeling carefree, invincible and secure in
their new world. It had been a time of regained innocence, a time
to put the horrors of their lost childhoods behind them. Tyler had
allowed that behavior, encouraged it, in fact, to make them whole
again and to allow them times of unrestricted playtime before the
responsibilities of adulthood would end all that.

Suddenly, he wanted some of that gaiety back.
He hadn’t ridden a horse in over two and a half years,
really
ridden a horse, but he was sure he could manage.
How difficult could it be? He remembered how to hold the reins; he
knew to put his feet in the stirrups. Surely that was all he needed
to know.

He was ready for some fun!

Suddenly he stood up, startling Jamie.

“What! What is it? Did you see something?” On
alert, Jamie quickly looked around.

“’Tis nothing, nothing like that.” Robert was
quick to reassure him, but he also had to grit his teeth against
the pain in his leg. However, that didn’t stop him. “But, Jamie, I
want to take you up on your offer.” He said, an urge so strong in
him, he couldn’t understand it. Robert knew it was reckless of him
and totally irresponsible, but he just had to do it.

“My offer?” Jamie looked totally blank.

“Two days ago you asked me if I would like to
ride Pisador.” Robert reminded him, but like the idiot he was, he
had refused and gone off to do more mind- numbing work, leaving his
brother once again, shaking his head in his wake. “I want to do it
now.”

“What! Now?” Jamie goggled at him. “Are you
mad?”

“Maybe so; I know not. But do you remember
when we used to ride Apollo and Peasblossom and how much fun we had
and….”

Jamie interrupted him, angered by this sudden
change in his brother. “Of course I remember! Obviously you hadn’t
until just now, for some strange reason. But you cannot ride
Pisador now with your leg the way it is. Two days ago you might
have managed, but now…I mean you haven’t ridden in over two and a
half years and…!”

Robert gave Jamie a cold look that froze the
rest of Jamie’s words. He didn’t need to be reminded of his
accident that had nearly crippled him. But he had healed and there
were days when one would never know how he had nearly sliced off
half his calf chopping wood.

“Help me get on him.” Robert said in a tone
that brooked no further argument.

“All right.” Jamie relented, shrugging his
shoulders. “We’ll see how far you get.”

“Shut up.” Robert muttered.

He moved closer to the stallion, murmuring a
few soothing words to the horse as he put his hand out slowly to
allow the horse to get the smell of him, but the big stallion
wasn’t having anything to do with Robert. He went to bite him and
Robert had to snatch his hand back quickly lest he lose a few
fingers. “Bloody bugger.”

Jamie laughed. “So, you think you’re going to
ride him, hmm? He won’t even let you near him! I told you yesterday
you should have spent more time with them these past two weeks to
let them get to know you, but no, you wouldn’t listen to me…”

“Shut up, I said!” Robert snapped. He was
determined to do this. “Come on, hold the bridle; keep his damn
mouth away from me while I mount him.”

Jamie just stood there gaping at him for a
second. “You really mean it, don’t you?”

Robert stood his ground. “Yes, I do.”

“Oh Christ!” Jamie threw up his hands. “All
right, but if you fall off, blame me not!”

Robert just laughed. “I’m not going to fall
off.”

“You say that now.” Jamie muttered under his
breath.

They finally got Robert up in the saddle. It
had required Jamie to hold tightly to Pisador’s bridle to keep his
head from swinging back to try to bite Robert while he used his
good leg to boost himself into the saddle. Luckily his good leg was
his left leg and he could mount on the left like the horse was used
to. And once up there it had taken all his strength and skills to
keep the horse under control.

He took hold of the double set of reins and
hoped he could keep them straight. Meanwhile the horse bucked and
twisted, trying to unseat Robert. Jamie attempted to keep a hold of
the bridle and did a pretty good job of it for a while, until
Robert just told him to let go, that he could handle it on his
own.

And then without meaning to, Robert loosened
the reins, the horse’s head came up and Pisador took off as if he
had been stung by a bee, catching Robert off guard. He could barely
keep himself in the saddle as they flew across the just-cleared
fields, the horse’s big hooves splashing through puddles and
kicking up big clods of rusty-colored mud. His leg burned; both
thighs quivered with the effort to hold on; the reins chafed his
hands, but the wind in his face was exhilarating and his
shoulder-length hair had come loose and was whipping around his
head. He could feel the stallion’s muscles rippling under his
thighs; his heart pounded in his chest and he felt wild and free
and scared and excited and terrified all at the same time. He
thought he heard Jamie screaming something from behind him, but the
sound was lost in the rush of wind past his ears.

He thought for that moment that he could have
ridden forever, over fields, through forests, over meadows, through
creeks and streams; the horse was strong and powerful, he was
feeling powerful and one with the horse; but the land was not
accommodating, the cleared fields didn’t last forever and also the
pain in his leg was becoming unbearable and he knew he would have
to slow down soon. But as much as he tried pulling back on the
reins, the horse would not obey (Robert realized later that his
clumsy handling of the double reins had confused the horse) and
soon they were at the edge of the forest. This didn’t worry Robert
so much as he knew the trees were so tall that he could easily pass
underneath the lowest of branches, but there were other dangers
that he might encounter, like fallen trunks, small saplings or
large puddles from the recent rains.

As they passed through a stand of girdled
trees--trees that had strips of bark stripped from them and left to
die slowly-- the horse slowed only slightly. By then Robert’s leg
was so painful, he couldn’t put any more pressure on it and he
pulled it from the stirrup leaving it to dangle and flop at the
horse’s side. He tried to use his thighs to grip the saddle to keep
himself steady, but it wasn’t working. Too quickly they were
crashing through the forest proper and then there was one of those
dangers, a fallen gigantic tree trunk. Robert felt the horse’s
muscles bunch as he launched himself over the obstacle and then the
horse was flying over and then landing safely, but the jolt
unseated Robert and suddenly he found himself flying through the
air and landing with an awful splash and thud on the forest floor,
his bad leg twisted painfully under him.

He lay there for a while, stunned, catching
his breath, looking up at the sky through the thick branches of all
the trees. Sensation was coming back little by little, the cold and
wet seeping through his brand new wool breeches, doublet and linen
shirt.
What would
he wear
to the party now
? He thought dimly in the back of his mind.
Every muscle in his body hurt despite landing on a cushion of wet,
pine needles, leaves and forest debris. Even his teeth hurt from
being clacked together from the force of the fall. He hoped he
hadn’t broken anything.