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She had me there. And that knowing grin across her face was irresistible.

I looked around again at the flat property that seemed to go for miles. It reminded me of the devastated farms after the Nazis or Russians had trampled them and slaughtered their staff and horses.

Perhaps she needed this, especially after losing her grandfather.

“Gramps wasn’t one to take on easy clients.” She followed my gaze and grew serious. “He also took on any horse who needed help and didn’t charge much of the client. Which is why, well, things are lean right now.”

Her Gramps sounded every bit the opposite of my own grandfather: ruthless and cutthroat. I probably knew which of the two had more peace at the time of his death, but regardless, I wasn’t sure I could just turn her loose with an erratic eight-hundred-pound animal.

What if my horse injured her? What if something worse were to happen?

The voices of my grandfather and father in my head chirped with all the things that could go wrong and what the headlines would say. How it would affect my chances for election or the stock price of Continental Savings and Loan. I hated those voices. I’d been able to drown them out while on the front lines, because so little mattered aside from the lives of the men around me.

“Please, Captain, just give me a few months to see what I can do with him.”

Her tone was measured, professional. Still, I could hear the tinge of hope and desperation. Her voice from when we met rang in my ears. “You’re not the first to underestimate me.”

Phantom kicked the metal of the trailer, shattering the calm between us.

I ground my jaw and shook my head. I couldn’t. I’d need to find an old rancher somewhere to take the horse and turn him loose in a large pasture, safe from anyone or anything. Hadn’t Phantom suffered enough with whatever had caused him to be so uncontrollable?

“What would it take for me to convince you to give me a chance?” Eva crossed her arms.

Phantom stomped and shook the trailer, and I let out a long breath. The horse couldn’t stay in there for much longer. I’d already driven two days straight from our last stop in Nevada. I’d been feeding him and watering him inside the trailer, but he stomped most of it into the floor and kicked the buckets over. I needed to clean the mess inside, and I also needed a decent night’s rest.

As I’d learned from Eddie and Kenneth in Czechoslovakia, horses needed to be loaded and tied carefully, differently from how cattle were transported and handled. That also put the handler in harm’s way when the horses were violent.

“If you can get him out of the trailer without causing harm or injury to yourself or the horse,” I said, “I’ll consider a one-month trial.”

Eva’s eyes lit up. “Two months?”

“One month.” I held back my smile at her tenacity. After the first experience at the stables that rejected us, I had decided I’d need to stick around for a while to know this was the right place for him. I needed to know he was safe and wouldn’t risk him being mishandled. Not that I’d worry about that with Eva. “If it looks like you might get hurt, we shut that door and he stays in there, got it?”

She straightened and nodded. “When I show progress in one month, then we discuss entering him in competition?”

“No promises.” Phantom was a long way off from any show horses I could imagine, and he was far too unpredictable to be around a crowd. Besides, my own timeline added further complications. Once August hit, I’d be too busy to come back to pick up Phantom, and hiring another person to do so could be risky.

She huffed a satisfied breath, then held out her hand. “Keys?”

I hesitated. “Keys for what?”

“Your truck.” Her cheeks were rosy under the beaming sun, and her lips smothered a smile.

I handed her the keys, and she motioned me to stand aside. She went into her focused, silent mode, the way she’d been back in Germany when she was tending to Mira during Phantom’s delivery. No wonder horses listened to her—she transfixed anyone and anything around her.

She slipped into the driver’s seat, the twirl of her skirt catching the wind. She fired up the engine and then twisted to look behind her. She carefully backed the truck and trailer against a pasture with an open gate.

Clever. As I realized what she was doing, my arm ached. Why hadn’t I tried something similar in the dozen barns I’d visited in the past month? Not one other trainer had even suggested this.

She parked the trailer in between the gate posts, opened the door, and ducked out of the way as Phantom burst out of the trailer. Then she closed the trailer door and the paddock gate behind it.

Phantom trotted and snorted into the air, kicking up red dust. I expected her to turn and gloat, but her gaze was locked on the horse. She went completely still, and her brow creased as she studied him.

I walked up to her slowly, watching her as she absorbed the state of the horse. While she was distracted, my mind wandered. I’d tracked down her hospital unit just before I was discharged. I knew she’d been in the Philippines, which had suffered some brutal battles in those final months of the war. Had she been safe? Or did she bear those silent, invisible scars we all seemed to carry home?

Perhaps I’d have the chance to find out now that she’d won our little wager.

I stood next to her along the fence line. “In Hostau, the trainers insisted we walk the horses into the trailers. I thought that’s how it was done.”