More Than a Horse Read online

In their cabin that night, Leeann asked her mother, "If a boy takes a risk for you, does that mean he likes you?"

  "I expect it does." Rose's warm amber eyes rested on her daughter.

  "Likes you especially? I mean more than any other girl?"

  "I don't know, Leeann. What risk did this boy take?"

  "Oh, never mind," Leeann said. Considering that she was just a tall, thin girl with ordinary features, it wasn't likely that Zach was attracted to her. Probably he was just goodhearted. Probably that was it.

  "Have you found yourself a boyfriend already?" Rose persisted, smiling.

  Leeann had always confided her crushes to her mother. They'd started as far back as second grade when she'd dropped anonymous gifts on a boy's desk at school and sent him an unsigned valentine card. It had seemed safer to like someone without letting him know it to save being hurt if he didn't seem to like her back.

  "I doubt it," Leeann answered Rose now. "Sassy's the only one I'm gone on so far."

  Rose laughed. "Good," she said. "A horse shouldn't give me nearly as much to worry about as a boy."

  Leeann wasn't sure Rose was right, especially if she got into trouble stealing Sassy, which was what she meant to do rather than risk having Amos refuse to let her take him. It shouldn't be that hard to steal him. Amos was so used to Sassy disappearing that he wouldn't even realize the animal was gone. And if he happened to see Leeann returning to the ranch with Sassy, she could say she'd just found him wandering and brought him back again. Leaving was the only tricky part. Sassy would have to cooperate by going out of sight of the main buildings before Leeann tried to catch and saddle him.

  One good thing about Zach, Leeann thought as she showered in the rusty metal stall in the bathroom, was that he was as tall as she. Even though he was kind of homely, with his long jaw and nose, she liked him a lot. Not as much as she liked Sassy, but enough so that her nerve endings tingled when she was near him.

  Saturday morning Hanna told Leeann that on Amos's day off, he usually took a long ride out to some canyon or other—unless he had to go to Tucson for arthritis treatments. "Sometimes the poor man can barely haul himself onto a horse's back. He won't give in to it, though. Says he can't afford not to work. No insurance, no benefits. Nobody to take care of him, and nothing saved up for his old age."

  Hanna shook her head in sympathy. But Hanna probably wasn't any better off, Leeann thought. And neither was Rose. Of course, the women were still relatively young and strong, so they didn't have to worry yet. And Rose had her. Leeann intended to take care of her mother as soon as she got old enough to earn a living.

  Even if Amos had a good excuse for his grouchiness, Leeann was wary of him and kept an eye peeled for both him and Sassy. She'd hidden Zach's saddle across the road from the ranch behind a mass of prickly pear cactus. It was tangled up with mistletoe that was growing on a dead tree and was right on the route she'd be traveling, according to Joy's map. Leeann had told her mother she was going to Joy's house for a few hours. Since Rose was concentrating—under Hanna's direction—on the proper technique for mixing biscuits, she forgot to ask how Leeann proposed to get there.

  Locating Sassy was the next step. Leeann sniffed in disgust when she saw how easy and how hard it was going to be. There Sassy was in plain sight in the main corral, the only horse left. He was pulling at hay from the huge wire feeding silo, which was protected from rain and sun by a wooden canopy.

  "Sassy," Leeann called from the corral gate. The horse ignored her. "Did you leap this fence to get back in just because you're not supposed to be here?" Leeann asked. The horse continued munching. Leeann whistled. Sassy looked up, then went back to eating.

  Stealing him from the corral would be impossible in full view of the ramada, which was at its busiest this morning. Cars were parked all over the place, with guests either packing up to leave or unloading to check in, and Robuck was there, busy doing extra duty as bellhop.

  "Sassy," Leeann called. "Here, Sassy." She whistled louder. The horse looked over his shoulder inquiringly, then went back to pulling at the hay. What if he felt like spending the whole day munching away?

  Leeann waited for him to get tired of eating. It was hot in the sun and she didn't have a hat. Sassy was probably cool, comfortable and content under the canopy. Leeann sighed and walked back to the cabin for the straw hat Rose used outdoors to shade her sensitive skin. When Leeann returned to the corral, it was empty.

  Now where had that horse gone? It was time to leave if she was to get to Joy's on time. Leeann started her search by following the fence uphill to the fields where the horses were spread out, grazing on whatever patches of green they could find. Plenty of brown horses with black manes and tails were about, but none with a mischievous sparkle in its eyes.

  Amos had forbidden her to go through the gate into the fields. Instead Leeann climbed over the hill and down to the dry riverbed where she'd found Sassy the first time. A small black bird with a pointy crest flew from the fence to a nearby tree. The bird was the only sign of life in the riverbed.

  Where was Sassy? Even with the hat to protect her, the sun pressed insistently against Leeann's back and shoulders. If she were a horse, she'd be looking for shade, someplace high and breezy. She considered the track out toward the buttes where she'd seen Amos leading trail rides. It was as good a place as any to search, and it led through cactuses and scrawny trees with little leaves that didn't provide much protection from the sun but were better than nothing. The first hill turned out to be higher than she'd expected, and Leeann was panting by the time she got to the top. She wasn't sweating, though; the air was too dry for perspiration to gather.

  From the top of the hill, she could see back to the ranch and past it to creased and crumpled mountains against the horizon. To her right she saw a picnic table under a thatched roof, and to the left what looked like a canyon leading off from the river bottom below her. If she'd followed the riverbed it would have taken longer, but she wouldn't have had to climb, she thought. Then she spotted Sassy. The horse was pawing at something in the riverbed on the far side of its curve around the hill. Leeann headed downhill straight toward him, knocking bits of gravel that clinked as they rolled ahead of her. Sassy looked over his shoulder, ears quirking forward, more interested than alarmed at Leeann's approach.

  "Hi, there," Leeann said. "Want to go visiting with me?"

  Sassy wore a bell on a leather thong around his neck this morning, probably to make him easier to find when Amos wanted him. "Come on," Leeann said, tugging at the bell. "It's an adventure. You'll like it."

  Sassy whoofed as if to scoff, but he began ambling along easily enough when Leeann started walking. She led him via the riverbed back toward the ranch. "Let's hope we don't meet Amos. If we do, I'll say I found you and am bringing you back like before. If we don't find him, though, I'm going to walk you straight across the road to where I've got the tack hidden and hope nobody yells 'stop thief"

  Sassy stopped to nibble at a clump of grass. Leeann waited patiently. "I know it's your day off," she said, "but you don't work that hard. Hanna says half the time Amos can't find you and has to use some other horse. A little ride over to Joy's house shouldn't be any problem for you, right?"

  They were passing the barn. No one seemed to notice her walking down the driveway, no one who was employed on the ranch, anyway. Leeann was sensitive to the noisy clip clop, clip clop of Sassy's hooves as they crossed the asphalt road, but not a car or truck was in sight. On they went, into the cactus-studded wasteland toward the butte Joy had said to use as a landmark. When they reached the sprawling prickly pear behind which Leeann had hidden Zach's saddle and bridle, Leeann relaxed.

  "You're sure easy to steal," she told Sassy, who nudged her companionably as if he were enjoying their escapade. Leeann took off the bell and exchanged it for the bridle. On the route home, she'd reverse the procedure and stow the saddle there again. Sassy took the bit into his mouth without protest, and Leeann slid the headstall over his ears.
The saddle was light enough to toss onto his back easily. Leeann cinched the girth and stepped into the dangling stirrup. There, she was mounted. Sassy started walking before Leeann had adjusted her stirrups.

  "Ho," Leeann said and pulled back on the reins. Sassy stopped obediently. "Good boy," Leeann told him. "For a horse with such a mind of your own, you're pretty easy to ride."

  She took the map out of her back pocket. It seemed simple enough to circle the butte and then head toward the road on the other side of it and walk along that to Joy's house. Joy said her house had a bright red, yellow, and blue playhouse and slide in the yard that her brother loved. Leeann wondered how old Joy's brother was. A toddler probably. She wished she had a little brother, but as things stood, Rose had enough to manage with just one child.

  To keep Sassy entertained, Leeann whistled as they went. Sassy's ears turned back to hear her. Leeann was getting excited now that it seemed she was actually going to pull off this caper. It would be interesting to see Joy's home and meet Kristen's beloved Moley, and it would be fun to spend an afternoon with both horses and friends. Besides, Zach would be there.

  As for getting Sassy back without being caught, no point worrying about that until she had to, Leeann decided.

  CHAPTER 6

  Joy's handsome, white, one-story house sparkled as if it were newly painted. It was surrounded by a latticework fence of white concrete block. The playhouse and slide in red, yellow, and blue plastic stuck out incongruously just as Joy had described them.

  Leeann laid the right rein lightly over Sassy's neck. Obediently, the horse turned into the crescent-shaped driveway and ambled around the house to the back where flowering plants in clay pots outlined a patio set in a lawn. It was the first lawn Leeann had seen in this desert community, aside from the small oval in front of the ramada at the ranch.

  One of Zach's Percherons was already tied to the skinny metal railing around the corral to the right of the lawn. Inside the ring, a wheat-colored palomino frisked about, swishing its blond tail. So Alan had been right about Joy's father getting her the horse she wanted, Leeann thought. The palomino was beautiful. Its compact body flowed as smoothly as rippling water as it sidestepped daintily on slender legs.

  "Some horse, huh?" Zach asked. He emerged from Joy's house carrying a thermos and paper cups. Joy followed him with a tray of cookies.

  "Gorgeous!" Leeann said with genuine admiration.

  "I mean Paul, my horse," Zach teased. "You ever see shoulders like his? He could pull apart a mountain with those muscles."

  Leeann laughed and admitted, "Paul's beautiful, too. In his own way." She swung off Sassy and tied him to the top rail of the corral. "You are, too, fella," she murmured in his ear in case the amiable animal was feeling slighted. "Can I help with anything?" she asked Joy.

  "No, thanks, we're done," Joy said. She and Zach set the refreshments on a picnic table outside the ring. "Come let me introduce you to Rabbit. Isn't that an awful name for a horse?"

  The palomino backed away from them in wide-eyed alarm when they joined him in the ring. "He's not used to me yet," Joy said.

  "He's really graceful," Leeann said. "You could rename him Dancer."

  "Dancer. I like that," Joy said.

  "Jeremiah'd be better," Zach said straight-faced.

  "Zach's big on biblical names," Joy said. "Him and Kristen's grandmother. Which incidentally—Kristen's not coming because her grandmother got mad at her for something again, so Kristen has to copy a page out of the Bible. That's what her grandmother always makes her do. And if Kristen makes the least little mistake, she has to keep copying until she gets it perfect."

  "Which explains why the girl's handwriting is so great," Zach said.

  "Come on, Zach," Joy protested. "You know Kristen's grandma's mean to her. My dad says that lady's a fanatic. She thinks anybody who disagrees with her is going straight to hell. And she's sure anybody outside of her own church will pollute Kristen."

  "Nobody much around here goes to her church," Zach said.

  "Actually, we're the only friends Kristen has," Joy told Leeann. "And she isn't allowed to see us after school."

  "That is mean," Leeann said.

  "Well, once in a while her mother brings her over to do homework with me. And she's allowed to come to my birthday parties."

  "Last year, Kristen's grandma wouldn't let her be an angel in the school play. She said it was blasphemous," Zach said.

  "But doesn't Kristen's mother decide anything?" Leeann asked.

  "Not in that house. The grandmother runs the show because she's got the money," Zach said. "Disobey her and they go on bread and water."

  Joy gave him a shove and said, "Don't listen to Zach. He exaggerates everything." Thoughtfully, she added, "In my family, Dad earns the money and Mom decides how to spend it."

  They all turned at the sound of someone squealing, "Joy-ee, Joy-ee, Joy-ee!" A boy was running toward them as awkwardly as a two-year-old. His hands flapped in the air in front of his chest, but he wasn't a toddler. He was shorter than Joy but looked older somehow because of his large head and high, naked forehead.

  "Careful, Joey. Don't run or you'll fall," Joy cautioned.

  "I want a cookie, Joy-ee," he said as he came up to them. "Ma said."

  "Sure, Joey." Joy slipped out between the railings of the corral. She got the tray of cookies and held it out to him.

  His still-raised hands jerked about as he stared big-eyed at the tray. Anxiously he said, "You pick, Joy-ee."

  She gave him a plain butter cookie and his face crumpled in dismay. "Not that one, not that one!"

  Joy put the cookie back, "Point to the one you want, Joey," she said patiently.

  "I want, I want, I want." He hugged himself in his excitement.

  She offered him one with a white icing design on it. "This one?"

  "Yes, yes, yes." He smiled, open-mouthed. His face relaxed again.

  "Now, what do you say?"

  "Thank you, Joy-ee."

  "Say hi to my friends," Joy said to him. "This is Zach. You know Zach with the big horses?"

  "Yes. Big horses." Joey flung his arms wide.

  "And this is my new friend, Leeann," Joy said.

  Leeann had never talked to a disabled child before, never even been close to one. Gravely she said, "I'm pleased to meet you, Joey."

  "You know my name," he said with delight.

  "Can you say Leeann?" Joy asked.

  "Leeann," Joey parroted.

  "So, do you want to stay and watch us ride?" Joy asked him.

  "No." Still smiling, Joey shook his head, but he didn't move away.

  "Just be sure you don't come inside the ring. Okay, Joey?" Joy instructed her brother.

  "Is Alan coming?" Leeann asked.

  "Probably, but he's always late," Joy said. "He hates getting up in the morning, and then he takes forever with his sisters' horses."

  "Alan's only a horse person because all the women in his life are," Zach said. He was massaging Sassy's chin to the horse's evident delight. Sassy wrinkled up his nose and showed his teeth as if he were laughing.

  "Sassy's a love," Leeann said. "He didn't give me a minute's trouble riding him over here."

  When Zach stopped rubbing, Sassy pushed his shoulder. Joey laughed and said, "Nice horsey. I like him."

  A pleasant-faced blond man who was unmistakably Joy's father came up to the ring and leaned on the railing near Joey. "Came out to see what's got your brother so interested," the man said.

  Joy introduced him to Leeann. "Fine-looking horse you've got there," Joy's father said politely.

  "Oh, Sassy isn't mine. He belongs to the Holdens. They own the ranch where I'm living." Leeann gulped after she'd blurted out that news. Now she was in for it. If Joy's father called the Holdens, he'd know and they'd know she was a horse thief. Suddenly she was struck by the seriousness of what she'd done.

  Joy's father, however, had switched his interest from her to Joy, who was attempting to get a
bridle on the palomino. The animal kept jerking his head nervously and backing away from her.

  "Need help?" her father asked.

  "Please, Daddy," Joy said. The palomino's ears were back. "He didn't do this when we bought him."

  "No, he didn't. He's probably upset being in a new place. Besides, he doesn't know you yet, honey." Mr. Childs bent and slid between the railings to get into the ring. He put his hands on the palomino's neck and stroked him, talking to the horse in a deep, murmurous voice that seemed to calm him. Then he helped Joy get the bridle over the palomino's head.

  Once he had the horse saddled, he gave Joy a boost onto his back.

  "Okay up there?" Mr. Childs asked. The palomino kept backing away and sidestepping.

  "I think so," Joy said uneasily.

  "You look good on him," her father said. "Both of you have the same color hair."

  Joy laughed.

  "Me, me, me," Joey cried, stretching his splayed-out hands toward his family.

  "You better stay outside the ring with us, Joey," Zach said. "Want to say hello to Paul?" He pointed at his horse.

  "No." Joey backed up, although he was already a good distance from the massive, white-faced animal whose rear quarters were spotted with black.

  "Want to pet my horse, Joey?" Leeann asked him. She touched Sassy, who was standing quietly beside her.

  Warily the boy extended his hands to Leeann. She walked over to him and gently drew him close enough so that he could put his hand on Sassy's sleek brown side. Sassy looked back inquiringly. "Doesn't he have beautiful brown eyes, and look how long his eyelashes are," Leeann said. "I think he likes you, Joey."

  "Like me?"

  Leeann nodded. "I think he does."

  Joey put his other hand against the horse voluntarily and then leaned his cheek against Sassy's ribcage. "Tickles," he said.

  Zach laughed. Leeann put her cheek against the horse's neck farther up. "It does," she said. "You're right Joey. It tickles."

  "Horsey, horsey," Joey yelled, and he jumped up and down.

  "That's the first horse I've ever seen Joey take to," Joy's father said. He was still standing beside the palomino, stroking the horse to calm it. "He's always been too scared even to touch one."