More Than a Horse Read online

  Eager to encourage Kristen's interest in something other than Moley's death, Leeann asked, "What about it?"

  "Well, I don't remember much, except it's supposed to help their balance and stuff like that. It takes about three people to keep a kid on a horse, so they need a lot of volunteers to work it. Therapeutic Riding Program, that's what it's called."

  "I'd be willing to volunteer for something like that," Leeann said.

  "Me, too," Kristen said.

  "Yeah, and me," Zach said.

  "Just what you need, Joy," Alan said sarcastically, "another thing your mom can get into for Joey."

  "Oh, I know I complain because my mom spends half her life at Joey's school, but..." Joy studied Kristen, who had finally stopped crying. Then she turned to the others and said, "I'll ask Mom if she knows about therapeutic riding. If we could all volunteer together, it might be fun." She raised her eyebrows and with a tilt of her head silently pointed out to Zach and Leeann that it would be good for Kristen to get involved.

  So Joy was capable of concern about someone besides herself, Leeann noted, glad to regain her first impression of a friendly, warmhearted girl. They were a good bunch, these Arizona classmates, Leeann thought. She'd been really lucky to land in their midst.

  CHAPTER 11

  The school bus dropped Leeann off at the ranch just in time to witness the disastrous finale of Joey's first riding session. Mrs. Childs was standing outside the corral wringing her hands. Joey was up on a mounting block struggling wildly with Amos, who was trying to get him onto the back of a small, barrel-shaped horse.

  "No, no, no!" Joey screamed in terror.

  "He wants Sassy," Mrs. Childs said to Amos. "Couldn't you get—"

  "This here is the gentlest horse we got," Amos interrupted her. "This here is a mannerly horse." He turned to Joey and growled, "Now you sit quiet on her and she'll show you. Sit!"

  But Joey wouldn't sit. As soon as Amos got him on the saddle, he shifted so that he was leaning precariously toward the mounting block. His cry of "No" became inarticulate yelling and thrashing about. Amos finally hoisted him off the horse and set him feet first on the ground. Instantly Joey crumpled onto his back in the dirt, wailing. Mrs. Childs crouched beside him and drew him into her arms.

  "What's he yelling for?" Amos asked indignantly. "I didn't hurt him."

  "He came expecting to ride Sassy, and he's very disappointed," Mrs. Childs said in a voice like a block of ice.

  "I told you. Sassy took off somewhere. And this here is a better horse anyways."

  "You don't understand." Mrs. Childs gave Amos a glance of disdain while she sat Joey up. He clung to her, quiet now. "I'll bring Joey back tomorrow and we can try him on Sassy then," Mrs. Childs said.

  "A kid like him don't belong on a horse," Amos told her.

  "He'd do fine if someone had the patience to help him," Mrs. Childs snapped. "In any case, I'd like to see how he does on Sassy."

  She looked up and saw Leeann, who had come halfway to the corral and stopped because she was leery of going near Amos. "Perhaps my daughter's friend, Leeann, could help Joey tomorrow. He trusts her," Mrs. Childs said.

  Amos glanced sullenly at Leeann and said to Mrs. Childs, "You better see Mr. Holden about that." He led the barrel-shaped horse out of the corral and back toward the barn.

  "I'm Leeann," Leeann introduced herself. "It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Childs."

  "I guessed who you were," Mrs. Childs said with a grin. "You've made such a hit with everyone else in my family that I've been eager to meet you." She held out her hand and Leeann shook it.

  "Hi, Joey," Leeann said then. "I'm sorry Sassy took off again, but how come you didn't like that nice horse Amos saddled up for you?"

  Joey shuddered without lifting his head from his mother's shoulder or answering Leeann.

  "He's exhausted," Mrs. Childs explained. "Come on, Joey, honey, we'll go home."

  "Ride horsey," he whimpered.

  "Not today, Joey. We'll come back tomorrow."

  "Sassy's playing hide and seek with us today, Joey," Leeann said.

  "Ride horsey," Joey insisted.

  "Want me to go look for Sassy now, Mrs. Childs?" Leeann offered.

  "No, thanks, Leeann. He's too tired to try again anyway." Lines showed around Mrs. Childs's lovely eyes when she smiled at Leeann. "But tomorrow I'll wait until you're home from school, and then I'd appreciate your seeing to it that the horse is available before I come. I'll call you."

  "Well, I can tell you if he's around, but I'm not allowed to go near the horses, Mrs. Childs. Everybody here's mad at me because I borrowed Sassy without permission last weekend."

  "Don't worry," Mrs. Childs said, as she got Joey to his feet. "I'll fix that."

  Leeann supported Joey on one side while his mother held his arm on the other. Between them they walked Joey to Mrs. Childs's van and buckled him into his seat belt.

  "Bye-bye," Joey said when his mother was seated behind the wheel and had turned on the engine. "Bye-bye, Girl. I love you."

  Leeann laughed in surprise. "Thanks, Joey. I love you, too."

  Mrs. Childs let out a sigh of relief. "Good. He's getting over his disappointment." She lowered her voice so that only Leeann could hear. "I'll tell you something," she said. "Even if Sassy had been here, that wrangler is the wrong person to handle a kid like Joey. I'll insist that you and Joy be allowed to help him ride—if that's okay with you."

  "It would be wonderful, but I don't think Mr. Holden'll let me."

  "Wanna bet?" Mrs. Childs twitched her lips and her eyes narrowed. Suddenly her prettiness showed a knife edge. "One thing I've learned from raising Joey is how to fight for what I want."

  "Mrs. Childs," Leeann said impulsively, "did Joy tell you about that therapeutic riding program for kids?"

  "Yes, I've already located the people in Tucson who do it. I'm going down there to see what's involved. Plenty of parents of special needs children around here would be interested. But I understand it will take lots of volunteers to run a program like that."

  "Right, but I'd be willing, and so would Zach and Kristen. Probably Alan would be, too, if Joy does it." Leeann was thinking that since it was for a good cause, Kristen's grandmother might be persuaded to let her get involved in the program.

  "Good," Mrs. Childs said. "I'd like to get started before Joey loses interest, even if we can't do things very professionally at first."

  Leeann's hopes soared. She felt the way she did before Christmas when she didn't know what she would get but knew it would be good.

  Rose had been off shopping for food supplies with Hanna. When the two women returned, Leeann helped them restock the refrigerator and pantry. The wranglers had the horses back in the corral by the time Leeann was finished, but she didn't see Sassy among them.

  She followed skinny Robuck, who was carrying tack into the barn, and asked him about the horse.

  "Still gone, and Amos said he don't care if that horse never comes back." Robuck grinned at her over his shoulder as if he thought that was funny. "He says that horse tried to wreck his good hat."

  "Sassy was just teasing," Leeann said.

  "Yeah, well, Amos don't much take to horses with a sense of humor," Robuck said.

  Leeann did her math homework while Rose and Hanna made dinner for the guests. Later, she went out to check on Sassy again. It was hard to distinguish one horse from another in the dark, especially since so many had the characteristic brown body with black tail and mane of their sire, Darth Vader.

  "Sassy," she called softly, standing at the railing of the corral, "Sassy." But none of the big bodies did more than shift from one foot to the other in the ten minutes she waited in the silky, cool evening air.

  She didn't get really concerned until the next morning when Hanna told her Sassy was still missing.

  "I'll look for him," Leeann said.

  "You go to school. If he's not here when you get home, then you can go looking for him," Rose said.

&nbs
p; In school that day Kristen seemed more aware of her surroundings, but she was obviously still very sad. At lunchtime, Joy reported that neglecting Dancer had served to improve her horse's disposition.

  "He actually let me get on and ride him around the ring last night without giving me a hard time," Joy said. "My father says if he does that a couple more times, he'll let me take him trail riding—so long as someone goes with me."

  "I'll go with you," Alan said. "We could ride to Wolf Canyon."

  "Um, maybe," Joy said.

  "I know a canyon back of Lost River Ranch I'd like to see again," Zach said. "My dad took me there when I was a little guy. How about I borrow the Percherons and you ride up there with me tomorrow, Leeann?"

  Tomorrow was Saturday.

  "If Sassy's not back when I get home from school, I'm going to search for him on foot. But if he's still not back tomorrow, it would be great to go looking for him on horseback," Leeann said. "Maybe if we ride toward your canyon we'll find him, Zach."

  "Could be," Zach said with a smile that lifted his long jaw.

  "You're really willing to ride those monsters?" Alan asked Leeann. "You'll be sore for a week just getting your legs around them."

  "They'll get me farther than my own two legs," Leeann said.

  "Amos has to lend you a horse to go looking for Sassy," Joy said.

  "Why? He has it in for Sassy and me both," Leeann said. "Amos wouldn't do anything for either of us." She laughed. "And Joey's riding experience didn't make Amos like us any better."

  "Mom said things didn't work out, but she didn't want to talk about it. What happened?" Joy asked.

  Leeann described how Amos had behaved with Joey. "Incidentally, I told Mrs. Childs you'd all be willing to volunteer if she gets a therapeutic riding program going here." Leeann looked at Zach.

  "Sure, so long as it doesn't interfere with my chores," he said.

  "I'll help if my grandmother lets me," Kristen said.

  "What are you going to do this weekend?" Leeann asked her.

  "I don't know. Clean my room and read, I guess."

  "I thought your grandmother wouldn't let you read anything but the Bible," Alan said.

  Kristen frowned at him. "She's not that bad."

  As they were depositing their garbage in the cans, Zach said quietly to Leeann, "I was thinking. It'd be easier if we both rode one horse. I mean, they aren't really riding horses and handling them might be tough for you."

  Alan, who had been standing close enough behind them to hear, teased, "Ooo hoo hoo, sexy!"

  Zach threw him a disgusted look that didn't shake Alan's grin.

  "Come on, Alan," Joy said. "We're going to be late for math." She winked over her shoulder at Leeann as she hustled Alan off.

  Sassy was still missing when Leeann got home from school. "Does he usually disappear for this long?" she asked Hanna.

  "Never that I've heard," Hanna said. "Holden's after Amos to get him back. Poor Amos had to ride out to look for him before he did his chores. You should have heard him cussing." Hanna laughed.

  Leeann didn't think it was funny. What if Sassy was in trouble, trapped somewhere, or hurt? She hiked around the ranch for more than an hour, covering five or six miles, and returned in time for dinner without seeing anything but a roadrunner and a bird she couldn't identify.

  Rose gave her permission to go searching with Zach on Saturday, and Leeann called him to ask him to come over early. "I'll bring a picnic lunch," she said.

  "My mouth's watering already," Zach said.

  After breakfast Saturday morning, Rose offered cold roast chicken, fruit, and nutcake for the lunch. In addition, Leeann made up a few peanut butter sandwiches in case Zach's appetite still needed satisfying.

  "I want you home before suppertime, Leeann," Rose said. "And be careful."

  "Aren't I always?" Leeann asked.

  "Not when your feelings are involved," her mother said, but she took the edge off her criticism with a hug.

  Leeann dressed in old jeans, a T-shirt, and the sport boots she used for riding. She borrowed one of Rose's straw hats and tied a jacket around her waist just in case. Then she filled up a couple of gallon jugs of water and tied them together with a rope long enough to go over a Percheron's wide back.

  When Zach rode up on Paul, his favorite of the two massive horses, Leeann was waiting for him on the ramada with the lunch in a backpack and the water jugs beside her. She even had a carrot for Paul, who dipped his big white head and took it gently from her fingers. A quiet strength pulsed from his shoulder as she leaned against him while Zach dismounted and arranged the water bottles. He also had brought water, she noticed. And extending from behind the saddle was a blanket where a second person could sit.

  "We can trade off sitting in the saddle," Zach said. "Some places we'll both have to walk anyway. Pop drew me a map of how to get to the canyon. It's got like a keyhole pass into it that's pretty narrow. Paul may not fit through. See, last time we were there Dad had a couple of little cow ponies."

  "Sounds exciting," Leeann said, "but I hope we find Sassy before we get to your canyon."

  "Yeah, but you know, this canyon's a really special place, Leeann. I didn't want to say it in front of the others because Pop says the less people know about it the better. That canyon's got petroglyphs that are over five hundred years old."

  She must have looked puzzled because he explained, "Petroglyphs. You know, those rock paintings of animals and stuff that ancient Indians made? We've got a lot of them around here, but kids go and mess them up with graffiti or they just get worn out from too much traffic and exposure. Some people actually blast out the rocks and take them home for a souvenir."

  "They sound interesting, Zach, but to be honest, what I really want most is to find Sassy."

  He nodded, and Leeann asked how long it was since he'd been to the canyon.

  "Years. It was back when Ma wasn't so bad we couldn't leave her alone. My pop and me used to go camping weekends. He didn't work so hard then." Zach stopped to think about it. Then he said wonderingly, "He used to laugh a lot and be the best company." He shook his head.

  "Well, come on, you get up first." Zach made a basket of his hands. Leeann stepped into it and vaulted lightly onto Paul's dappled rump, grabbing hold of the back of the saddle.

  She thought about Kristen home under her grandmother's prison rules and felt sorry for her. It was fun to be riding out with Zach. It would be even better if they came riding back with Sassy.

  CHAPTER 12

  Once Paul started walking, the rocking motion thrust Leeann's body against Zach's. Suddenly the parts of her touching his bony back sprouted sensitive new nerve endings. It was both pleasant and scary to find herself tingling wherever she touched him.

  The tingling kept her from paying much attention to the Lost River Ranch horses, which were grazing freely again on their day off. The one thing she did note was that Sassy wasn't among them. The solid Percheron rocked his passengers along rhythmically past the bunkhouse where Amos and his wranglers slept.

  Amos's voice preceded him from the dark of the open doorway. "Where you headed?"

  "Ho," Zach commanded Paul, who stopped and stood as if he'd never budge again. Politely, Zach answered, "You know that butte that looks like a horse's head?"

  "Up west of here a few miles?" Amos asked.

  "Yeah. My dad took me camping in the canyon back of that once. That's where I'm taking Leeann."

  "You better not mess with the petroglyphs there," Amos warned. "They're the property of Lost River Ranch."

  "We're just going to look," Zach said mildly.

  Amos grunted, and then spoke to Zach as if Leeann weren't there. "We got a horse missing. If you should happen on it and could bring it back, I'd be obliged."

  "We're planning to look for Sassy," Zach said.

  Finally Amos slid his eyes at Leeann. "You want a saddle and bridle in case you happen onto him?" he asked Zach.

  "That'd be great," Zach sai
d.

  "Wait a minute."

  "Could be he's easing up on you, Leeann," Zach said as Amos disappeared.

  "You maybe, not me. He hasn't said a word to me."

  Zach sniffed and rubbed his nose. "He's talking to you through me."

  Amos reappeared with a small worn saddle and bridle in hand. "Should fit the girl, skinny as she is," he mumbled and handed the gear up to Zach. He rearranged the water jugs so that they balanced out the weight of the saddle hanging on the other side of Paul.

  "If you come upon the horse and it's in trouble, you get on back here and let me take care of it," Amos said.

  "You think something's happened to Sassy?" Zach asked.

  Amos shrugged. "He's never missed a feeding before." His eyes reached for Leeann as if he wanted to say something. But then he didn't.

  She sensed the right words now might ease the bad feelings between them, but none came to her. Instead Zach started Paul up and they plodded on their way.

  "Be careful now," Amos called after them.

  By the time they'd seesawed their way past the hill where Amos most often led the trail riders, the sun was heavy on their backs. Leeann was getting used to the feel of Zach's body as she bumped into him going downhill or grabbed hold of him to keep from sliding off Paul going uphill. They came to the first dried-up riverbed and stopped in the shade of cottonwood trees along its bank.

  "Stretch time," Zach said. He slid off the saddle and reached up to help Leeann off. It was so far down, she took his hands and let him break her fall as she jumped. "Not exactly easy riding, is it?" Zach asked her.

  "No, but it's fun. This was a great idea, Zach."

  "Want to do the driving for a while?"

  "No, thanks. I'm fine." She wasn't. The blanket was chafing her legs, but she thought that since this whole operation was for her sake, she should be the one to suffer.

  They followed the sandy bed of the river for a half a mile or so, walking and leading Paul, who sank in up to his hocks in soft patches. Then Zach led them up the bank on rocks that had fallen from a wind-sculptured bluff. Its tan rock face had eroded into long curving shapes like the headless bodies of giants. The horse seemed uneasy on the loose boulders, and Zach had to coax him along.