Mandie stroked the mare’s jaw and muzzle, clearly comfortable with horses. “She’s lovely.”
Willow nudged Mandie’s palm, and her white teeth flashed in a smile—the first he’d seen from her all evening. Something in his chest eased at the sight.
“Hello, beautiful girl,” she murmured, stroking the mare with those long, delicate fingers. “Are you going to be a mother soon?”
Enoch tore his gaze away from the pair and slipped into the stall, then moved down the mare’s side to check her flanks and udder. More dried milk on her hind legs. Her sides weren’t asrounded either, which meant the baby had moved into the birth canal.
“When will her foal come?”
He stepped back to study the mare as a whole. “Tonight mayhap. Tomorrow night at the latest.”
Mandie stroked the mare’s neck. “Will she need help?”
“Most times they don’t.” Enoch moved close again to run a hand down Willow’s sleek shoulder. “But sometimes there’s trouble. I usually sleep out here when they’re this close.”
Which brought his dilemma into sharp focus. Normally, he’d bed down in the straw nearby so he would hear when the mare started to get restless.
But with Mandie in the house, he hesitated. What if she woke in the night and needed something? Or cried out with nightmares stirred by her recent memories? He knew well enough how trauma could send dark dreams slithering through the night.
“You don’t have to stay out here all night.” Mandie stroked Willow’s jaw in a steady rhythm. “I’d be happy to take a turn watching her.”
Mandie sleep in the barn? Lose sleep from waking to check on the mare? Not a chance.
But as he studied Mandie’s face in the lantern light. The softness there was genuine, not the polite mask she sometimes wore around the house. Here with the animals, she seemed more at ease.
“I appreciate the offer.” He kept his voice low to avoid startling the mare. “But I couldn’t ask that of you.”
“You didn’t ask. I offered.” Her eyes met his with that determination he’d half-learned to expect by now.
He held in a sigh. He’d not yet successfully managed to stop her when she took on this expression.
Perhaps having a task, something to focus on beyond her own troubles, would help her. He could cling to that thought, for he didn’t seem to have another choice.
He motioned for them to step out of the stall and fastened the latch behind them. Then he led her to the stall next to Willow’s. “I’ve brought in blankets, and I’ll already have a lantern lit. The cracks between boards are wide enough you can easily see her if she starts to pace or sounds like she’s in pain.”
She nodded. “And you’ll wake me up around two o’clock?” She eyed him, probably realizing he might try to keep from committing.
This time, he did let his sigh come. “If you’re certain. And if she hasn’t already foaled.”
Mandie straightened. “If the baby comes before, please wake me. I’d so love to see the birth.”
The hope glimmering in her eyes, excitement even, nearly tugged a smile from him. But he responded with the same begrudging answer. “If you’re certain.”
Yet as they turned back toward the house, he couldn’t keep the smile in. This woman with all her genteel ways and city raising just might learn to fit in this mountain country after all.
CHAPTER 18
Enoch jolted awake, flinching a bit as his healing wounds pulled. Darkness surrounded him, so why had he awakened? His bed… That’s right, he was in the barn.
Willow.
He peered between the boards into her stall.
The mare was pacing, her tail swishing up and down. She paused to paw at the straw, then let out a low nicker.
It was time.
He watched a few minutes longer, just to gauge where she was in the process. Had her waters broken yet? At that point, she wouldn’t be able to stop her laboring. But if he brought Mandie too soon, Willow might worry about the spectators and slow the birthing down.
