ONE
JULY1839
GREENRIVERVALLEY(FUTUREWYOMING)
The stallion’s muscles coiled beneath Faith as the massive animal prepared to rear. But she wouldn’t let him throw her—wouldn’t lose control. Exhaling slowly to keep her own body from tensing, she crooned, “Easy, boy.”
She had a job to do, and she would not fail. The sooner she finished this horse’s training, the sooner the family could continue their search for Steps Right. She gripped the reins tighter and pressed her weight deeper into her heels. If he shied sideways or lunged forward into a bucking fit, she’d be ready. This stallion’s determination and endurance were not to be underestimated. Those qualities would make him an excellent cavalry mount...ifshe trained him into a solid riding horse first. In this moment, she needed him to walk around the corral without attempting to throw her.
The stallion’s front legs lifted off the ground, and her lungs froze as she steadied herself. Then he landed on his toes. He’d risen just enough to threaten a full rear.
“Walk on.” She nudged him forward with her heels. No matter what, she couldn’t let him feel the fear that gnawed at the edges of her confidence. Too much depended on her finishing this animal’s training.
He settled into a flat-footed walk for a half-dozen steps, then his muscles coiled again. The warning came only a heartbeat before his front legs rose up in a full rear.
Her heart surged, and she leaned forward to keep their balance upright, loosening her reins and flicking the ends on his shoulder.
“Walk on!” The words came out more as a roar than a shout, but her tone accomplished her goal.
The stallion dropped his front legs to the ground.
She dug her heels into his sides and said again, “Walk on.”
He obeyed, jigging forward a few steps, then finally settled into a calmer walk. She worked to make her body relax again. Horses fed on tension. If he sensed it within her, he’d act out more.
“That’s enough for today, Faith.” Rosemary’s commanding voice sounded across the yard from the front porch of their cabin. “End on a good note, then come help me with the food.”
Not now. She was just making headway. Surely Rosie understood she needed to take advantage of every moment when the stallion would cooperate.
Faith let her focus dart toward her sister for only a second before returning to the horse’s ears, which were now pointed firmly in the direction he stared—toward Rosie and their one-year-old niece, Bertie, who was propped on her hip. Distracted like that, he could startle easily.
Faith shook her head and kept her tone pleasant for thehorse’s sake. “I think he needs more time cantering to wear off his extra energy. He’s still not focusing.”
“Save it for tomorrow. I need you in the house.”
She grunted her frustration but kept her reins loose so the horse didn’t feed off the emotion. Didn’t Rosie understand how important it was for her to work the stallion when she could make headway? Why were her plans and goals always the ones that had to be delayed to help the rest of the family? It wasn’t as if she was being selfish in riding this stallion. Training the younger horses was one of her main jobs on this ranch that she and her sisters owned together. They were supposed to be running it as equals. But she was the only one who bent to the others’ needs.
She halted the stallion and slid to the ground, then led him toward the corral gate, using her sleeve to wipe the sweat running down her temple. July in this mountain country wasn’t as hot and humid as it had been back in Virginia, but an afternoon working with the horses in the piercing sun had stripped the strength from her weary body.
As she led the horse toward the barn, a little voice called from the cabin. “Da da da da da.” Bertie stood at the top of the porch steps, her pudgy arms waving.
Just the sight of her niece’s sweet smile lifted a bit of the exhaustion from Faith’s shoulders. Bertie had been walking since Christmas but still always seemed on the verge of losing her balance—and often did.
She tied the stallion to a hitching rail, then strode across the yard toward her niece. She could unsaddle the animal in a moment, but right now she needed the joy that came when she played with Bertie—and to make sure she didn’t tumble down those steps.
She clomped up the porch stairs, then bent low and scooped up her niece. “Hello there, my sweet one. Can you say ‘Auntie Faith’?”
Bertie grinned, her round cheeks appling as she revealed a mouth full of mostly new teeth. “Da da da.” That was the sound the child made most. Perhaps because her “dada” Riley doted on her so.
Faith chuckled, then gave the girl a quick tickle in her belly. “Where’s your mama and Aunt Rosie?” Rosie had disappeared inside when Faith approached the porch, probably rushing to stir something on the cookstove.
Rosie had been working hard to prepare a spread of food for the celebration meal to be held that evening—a special farewell supper for their missionary friends who’d been visiting for the past week. Goes Ahead, Elise, and their children would leave tomorrow to continue traveling through the mountains, working with the tribes and sharing their faith.
“I’m right here,” Rosie said from inside the cabin. “Keep Bertie outside, though, so she doesn’t wake Juniper.”
Faith turned back to her niece. “Is your mama sleeping?” Being in the family way again sapped the strength from Juniper.
Though her and Riley’s cabin on the ranch wasn’t far, her sister caught a nap in Rosemary’s room when she could, if she and Bertie were helping with something in the main house.
