Paternity Lessons. Maris Soule
look before: in green horses brought to her to be broke; in abused horses that she was asked to salvage; and in the renegades who couldn’t be reclaimed. In the first meeting with those horses, they would approach her as the enemy, the predator they should fear. With most, she was able to eliminate those fears and establish communication. With people, she’d learned, that wasn’t always possible. She’d never been able to communicate with her mother.
Tyler’s look was totally different from his daughter’s. His expression showed concern. Silently, he was pleading with her, though Shaunna knew he probably wasn’t aware of that. And if she’d been a less scrupulous person, his look would have given her an advantage. He was desperate for her help.
Having seen the Mustang, she understood why.
“Good morning,” she said as the two approached.
“Good morning,” Tyler responded.
His daughter said nothing, merely narrowed her eyes a shade more.
He stopped a few steps away from Shaunna and glanced down at the girl. “Lanie, this is Ms. Shaunna Lightfeather, the horse trainer I told you about.”
“Glad to meet you, Lanie,” Shaunna said, and held out her hand.
Lanie ignored the hand and looked at Tyler. “I don’t want Magic here,” she said. “I want him with me.”
“I explained all that to you,” Tyler said, giving Shaunna a quick, apologetic glance. “We can’t keep a horse where we live.”
“We kept a horse where my mother lived,” Lanie argued.
“That was different. Your mother lived outside of town. My house is in town, and city ordinances don’t allow horses.”
“Why can’t I live where I used to live?”
Lanie’s voice was tense, and Shaunna sensed the girl was close to tears. Tyler softened his tone. “Honey, we’ve been through this before. That house has been sold.”
“I am not your honey,” Lanie snapped. “You shouldn’t have sold that house. I could’ve lived there. I could’ve lived there by myself and taken care of Magic.” Her attention switched to Shaunna. “Magic never should have been taken to that stable.”
“No, he shouldn’t have,” Shaunna said in full agreement.
For a moment, Lanie stared at her as if surprised by her response, then the girl looked around, her gaze skimming over the round pen, the two riding arenas, the barns, the paddocks and the house. When she looked back at Shaunna, her attitude was clearly arrogant. “This place is a dump.”
“It could use some sprucing up,” Shaunna agreed. “You have a couple hundred thousand to give me?”
The girl’s eyes merely narrowed again, her chin lifting, and Shaunna knew she hadn’t taken the right approach. Working with horses was much easier, but with them, you also had to listen. Lanie was telling her she wasn’t happy with the way things were. Problem was, Lanie couldn’t go back to the way things had been.
Shaunna tried another tack. “I take it you had a nice place for Magic.”
“He was happy there.”
I was happy there, Shaunna read in Lanie’s body language.
Shaunna looked at Tyler. “If your daughter doesn’t want her horse here, it won’t work.”
“I can’t leave him where he is,” Tyler said.
“They made him mean,” Lanie interjected. “He was never like that before. He loved me.” She looked accusingly at her father. “You put him there.”
“I didn’t know,” Tyler said, then looked at Shaunna and repeated the excuse. “I never would have if I’d realized what they would do to him.”
She couldn’t fault him. He’d already admitted that he didn’t know anything about horses. He’d had no idea that the stable he picked had a reputation for abusing horses.
“Have you seen him?” Tyler asked.
She had, and she’d been appalled by what she’d seen. She looked down at Lanie. “What did you think when you saw him?”
“It made me sick.”
“Made me sick, too,” Shaunna said. “So I brought him here.”
“He’s here?” The girl’s eyes lit up for the first time. “Magic is here?” Then she looked around again and the light went out of her eyes as she screwed up her nose. “In this dump?”
Shaunna ignored the insult and nodded toward the big barn. “He’s in there. Last stall on your right.” As Lanie started toward the barn, Shaunna called after her, “He’s still very upset. Don’t go into the stall. Just talk to him from outside.”
“He’s my horse, and I’ll do what I want,” Lanie snapped back.
“Even if going in would cause you to lose him?”
Lanie stopped and faced her, and Shaunna knew she had to back up her statement.
“If you go in,” she said, “and Magic hurts you, your father will have to call the Bureau of Land Management to come take the horse away. And the way he is now, he’ll end up being destroyed. You don’t want that, do you?”
“Magic wouldn’t hurt me,” Lanie said, but Shaunna knew the girl wasn’t convinced that was true. She also knew, if Lanie loved her horse, she would do the right thing.
Without answering, Lanie turned around and started walking toward the barn. Shaunna looked at Tyler, and he shook his head. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I was afraid she’d be like this. She’s so angry about everything.”
“She’s a lot like her horse, then.” Shaunna nodded in Lanie’s direction. “I think we’d better follow her in.”
“Definitely.” Tyler wanted to see the horse again, and he wasn’t sure he trusted Lanie to stay out of the stall.
“I hope you don’t mind my bringing him here without letting you know,” Shaunna said as they walked toward the barn. “I just couldn’t leave him there.”
“It’s hard to believe you got him here.” Tyler had been worried about how they would accomplish that feat. “Last time I saw him, he was ready to eat every human alive.”
“It wasn’t easy, but we made it.”
“Two days ago, you said you didn’t have a place for him.”
She shrugged. “I moved one of my horses. He’ll be fine for a while.”
At the entrance to the barn, Shaunna stopped and so did he. From where Tyler stood, he could see Lanie. The girl had already reached the last stall, and to his relief, she was standing on a box outside the stall, looking in.
“This won’t work unless she cooperates, you know,” Shaunna said, her voice slightly lowered so it wouldn’t carry down to Lanie. “If he’s going to be her horse, he’s got to learn to trust her again. He doesn’t know what happened, doesn’t know about the accident or that Lanie was hurt. He only knows that he was moved from a place where there was kindness and good care to a hellhole. I’m sure it was traumatic for him to be taken from the wild. Now he’s bad two experiences where he’s been taken from someplace where he was happy. He’s learning to distrust all humans, and regaining his trust isn’t going to happen overnight. Lanie’s got to realize that.”
“I’ll talk to her,” Tyler said although he wasn’t sure that would help.
They proceeded down the wide concrete aisle. They were flanked by horse stalls and the smell of horses, along with the smell of fly spray, fresh horse droppings and leather. The only light in the barn came from what filtered in from the open doors at each end and the windows in each stall. He could see fans installed along the ceiling