by Suzanne Weyn
On the other end of the call, Mercedes began to say something and then broke down sobbing.
Taylor sat in the back of Claire’s van between Eric and Travis, her cell phone to her ear. “Well, tell her you have to be allowed to come to the stable. You’re the assistant junior barn manager. We need you.”
Mercedes sniffed. “Maybe she’s just upset, and she’ll change her mind later. They’re putting a cast on Mom’s leg right now, and that can’t be fun.” She burst into tears once more. “Wildwood is the only good thing that’s happened to me since we came to Pheasant Valley. I don’t know what I’d do if … if …” Mercedes started crying even harder than before.
“Is she all right?” Eric asked.
“Not really,” Taylor replied, and she held her phone to him so he could hear Mercedes’ sobs.
Eric cringed. “I guess not.”
“Is that crying I hear?” Travis asked. “I can’t picture Mercedes crying.”
Taylor knew how he felt. Mercedes was efficient and no-nonsense when it came to horses and running the stables, so much so that she could even be annoyingly bossy at times.
“What’s she so upset about?” Eric asked.
Taylor covered the phone. “Her mother said she’s never allowed to come back to Wildwood again,” she explained.
The three of them stared at one another as the impact of this hit them. The barn meant everything to Mercedes. She’d just moved to Pheasant Valley in her freshman year of high school and seemed to have no friends except for Taylor and Daphne, who only hung out with her there at the stables.
“Does she want us to come pick her up?” Claire asked from the driver’s seat, tilting her head back toward Taylor.
Taylor passed Claire’s offer along to Mercedes.
“No … wait, yes,” Mercedes answered. “I’ll call you. I don’t think Mom will be able to drive home with a cast on her leg. We might need a ride.”
“Are you all alone?” Taylor asked. “Did your dad arrive yet?”
There was silence on the other end.
“Is your dad there?” Taylor repeated.
“Uh … no. He’s not going to be able to get here, I’m pretty sure of that.” Taylor had never heard Mercedes mention her father, though she’d just assumed she had one. Suddenly, she wondered if she’d said the wrong thing.
“We’ll wait there with her,” Claire suggested.
“No, you’d better not,” Mercedes said, having heard Claire for herself. “Mom thinks of you guys as belonging to Wildwood, and she’s pretty mad at the ranch right now.”
“Pretty mad?” Taylor questioned hopefully. Pretty mad didn’t sound too awful.
“Really, really mad,” Mercedes corrected. “Furious.”
“Oh,” Taylor said, and a sick lump of anxiety formed in the pit of her stomach.
* * *
Heading uphill toward the pasture, Taylor hurried behind Mrs. LeFleur. Wildwood’s owner wore a barn jacket and hiking boots. The late morning sun glinted off her thick glasses. Eric and Travis walked several paces behind, neither one speaking to the other.
“I’m really so sorry about this, Mrs. LeFleur,” Taylor said for what she knew was probably the tenth time that day. “Are you angry with me?”
Mrs. LeFleur had been incredibly generous to Prince Albert and Pixie by letting them board at Wildwood Stables in exchange for using them as school horses and for Taylor’s work at the barn. Taylor was more grateful than she could say, and now she’d done something that possibly threatened the whole future of the barn. “I wish I could just rewind time,” she added.
Taylor studied the stable’s owner. Her glasses made it hard to read her expression. Mrs. LeFleur was not wearing her usual pleasant expression, though. That much was easy enough for Taylor to see.
“Taylor, if you could rewind, what would you have done differently?” Mrs. LeFleur asked. Her voice was not warm.
Taylor thought for a moment. “Should I have been closer to the side of Wildwood Lane?” Honestly, she couldn’t think of any way in which this was really her fault. It was Plum’s mother who’d careened down the lane at top speed, but some instinct told Taylor that putting the blame off on the Masons wasn’t the answer Mrs. LeFleur was after.
Mrs. LeFleur kept walking purposefully toward the pasture, but she turned her head to look directly at Taylor. “How about this? You should not have been on Wildwood Lane with a horse. It’s too close to the road, and you should have known that.”
The words That’s not fair! rushed to Taylor’s lips, but she didn’t let them free. No one had ever told her not to take a horse onto the lane.
“What were you doing out there, anyway?” Mrs. LeFleur asked.
“Talking,” Taylor replied meekly, “to Prince Albert.”
“Talking!” Mrs. LeFleur echoed, incredulous. “You were having a conversation with Prince Albert that was so private you had to go out onto the lane to have it?”
“I thought he’d listen better if we could be alone,” Taylor explained, suddenly feeling too stupid for words.
Mrs. LeFleur shook her head. The exasperated gesture made Taylor sure that Mrs. LeFleur was angry, and worse, disappointed in her. Taylor could feel her eyes begin to well up.
“I’m sorry, Mrs. LeFleur,” she repeated, this time with an unsteady quaver in her voice. “I just didn’t think he would ever bolt like that.”
Mrs. LeFleur handed Taylor a clean though crumpled tissue from the pocket of her jacket, and the angry set of her expression softened a bit. “Stop apologizing, and let’s find Prince Albert,” she said more kindly. “He’s got to be up here somewhere. Prince Albert thinks of this as his home by now, and I just think he would come back here.”
“Unless he’s lost,” Taylor worried.
“Possibly,” Mrs. LeFleur allowed, “but horses are good about finding their way home.”
They arrived at the pasture gate, and Taylor held it so Mrs. LeFleur and the two boys could pass through, then she relatched it. In the field, Daphne Chang sat on her speckled gray mare, Mandy. The fifteen-year-old riding instructor waved when she saw them come into the pasture.
Taylor took a moment to admire how relaxed and at ease Daphne appeared on her horse. One of Taylor’s goals was to someday be as excellent a rider as Daphne. It might take a long time, but Daphne was helping Taylor learn more about horses and riding, and Taylor felt she couldn’t ask for a better teacher.
“Daphne, is Prince Albert up here?” Mrs. LeFleur called as Daphne and Mandy approached them, passing Cody, a broad-chested white gelding with black spots, a purebred Colorado Ranger.
But even before Daphne could reply, Taylor already knew Prince Albert wasn’t there. The sure sign was that Pixie had positioned herself at the pasture gate. Her fuzzy, thick tail flicked from time to time with agitation, and her eyes scanned the landscape, keenly alert for the return of her dear friend, Prince Albert.
Taylor was reminded again that the closeness of Pixie and Prince Albert was another knotty problem that needed to be straightened out. Wherever Prince Albert went, Pixie followed — and if she couldn’t, she became extremely anxious and depressed.
Taylor separated from the group and approached Pixie. “Where did he go, girl?” she asked as she stroked the aged pony’s frizzed mane. Almost as if she understood the question, Pixie gazed into Taylor’s eyes. Her ears swiveled forward suddenly, and she raised her head, seeming to detect a scent on the crisp autumn breeze.
“Is it Prince Albert, Pixie?” Taylor asked. “Is he nearby?”
Eric and Travis joined Taylor, while Mrs. LeFleur spoke with Daphne several yards away. “I think she senses him somewhere,” Taylor told them.
“How could you tell?” Travis asked.
Eric spoke before Taylor got a chance to reply. “Her ears are forward, which means she finds something interesting, and look how she’s sniffing the air. Whatever she smells has got her full attention.”
“I could see that,” Travis said in
an annoyed voice. “I’m not an idiot.”
Despite her concern for Prince Albert, Taylor turned away as if searching for her horse, but really she was disguising the fact that a smile — prompted by Travis’s outburst — threatened to break loose on her face.
Travis knew almost nothing about horses, and she was sure he hadn’t picked up any of the clues that Eric just mentioned. The only reason he helped out at the stable was because he and Taylor had been best friends since grade school. Now that Taylor was spending so much time at the barn, it was the best way for them to continue to spend time together. Travis didn’t even ride and had no desire to learn. What he’d just said was a complete lie.
But Taylor understood why he’d said it. Travis thought Eric was a show-off because he went to the fancy Johnson School in Dobbs Ferry, even though he was on scholarship. Having Eric, who was an excellent rider, explain horse stuff was obviously more than Travis could stand. If Taylor had told him the exact same things, he wouldn’t have minded at all.
Travis shot Taylor a look that she could read loud and clear: There goes Mr. Show-Off-Know-It-All again. She looked away, trying to pretend she hadn’t caught the silent communication.
The truth was that Taylor felt lit up inside when Eric was around, especially if they were just talking to each other without anyone else in the conversation. She could just tell by the way he smiled at what she said that he thought she was funny and smart, which made her feel so great because she’d never thought of herself as being either of those things. He had already mentioned in passing that he’d described her to someone as “cute.” She’d stood in front of the mirror for days afterward searching for previously unnoticed signs of cuteness. After a while, she could almost see what he saw. Sort of.
And she sure felt the same about him.
He was at the Johnson School on scholarship, after all — which proved he was a brain. And he had a sly, quiet sense of humor that she totally got. But that wasn’t really what Taylor cared about. She couldn’t completely nail down an exact reason why she fizzed inside when Eric was around — it wasn’t something logical, it just happened.
Pixie turned from the fence and began walking toward the wooded area at the far end of the pasture. Taylor, Eric, and Travis hurried along at her side.
“Where are you going?” Mrs. LeFleur called to them.
“We’re following Pixie,” Taylor shouted back. “Maybe she knows where Prince Albert is.”
From her gestures, Taylor saw that Mrs. LeFleur was telling Daphne to take Mandy and go with them.
What if they did find Prince Albert, and he was hurt? Having someone on horseback who could get help fast would be useful. Besides, Daphne was lively but calm, and Taylor felt better just knowing she was there.
As they followed Pixie into the woods, Taylor wished Pixie had been wearing a halter. It would have given her something to hold on to. Pixie was not likely to run away, but she’d thought that about Prince Albert, too. It seemed as though this was a bad luck day when anything could go wrong.
They traveled quietly together down a dirt path in the woods. Taylor had ridden Prince Albert this way with Pixie trailing behind. She knew there was a creek just ahead, and she could already hear its rushing water.
The multicolored leaves rustled above them, and sunlight dappled through the branches, forming wavering patterns of light on the ground. Occasionally, a bird’s wild call or the snapping of a twig as squirrels scurried through the trees broke the steady, wavelike noise of the leaves.
“Maybe Prince Albert was trying to run home, but he got confused in here,” Daphne suggested as she rode Mandy alongside Taylor.
Taylor looked around at the rise and fall of the hilly landscape with its seemingly endless vista of trees. Prince Albert had only been here a couple of times before. “You could be right,” Taylor agreed, and the idea gave her new hope. It made total sense. Taylor glanced at Pixie. “Is Prince Albert around here, girl?” she asked.
Picking up her pace, Pixie got ahead of the group. Taylor hurried to keep up with her.
“Does she smell Prince Albert or something?” Travis asked.
“I don’t know,” Taylor replied with a note of excitement in her voice.
“She can hear the creek and might only want water,” Eric suggested.
Pixie was getting farther and farther ahead of them. Taylor was tempted to call her to halt, but she resisted, not wanting the pony to lose Prince Albert’s scent if that was, in fact, what she was following.
“I’ll stay with her,” Daphne offered. With a gentle pressure to Mandy’s sides, she moved her horse into a trot and was quickly beside Pixie.
Taylor watched anxiously as Pixie made a left turn off the path, headed toward the creek. Daphne and Mandy stayed right behind her. Daphne said something, but Taylor couldn’t quite make it out. “Did you guys hear what Daphne just said?” Taylor asked the boys.
“I think she said, ‘There you are,’ ” Travis replied.
“That’s what it sounded like,” Eric agreed.
Taylor was instantly running down the path. There you are could only mean one thing. Veering left, she headed down the embankment. Her sneakers dug into the dirt, and she abruptly stopped when she realized Daphne was lifting her arm, signaling her to stop.
At the bottom of the embankment, Daphne and Mandy stood beside Pixie on the near side of the creek. Prince Albert was there on the far side.
Pixie neighed shrilly, throwing her head back and shaking her blond mane, calling to her friend to join them.
Prince Albert snorted in response but stayed where he was. Taylor’s heart soared with relief. Then she noticed a clump of tall grass in front of Prince Albert. The black gelding’s ears were forward with keen interest as he jutted his muzzle toward it. Daphne and Mandy also appeared riveted on the spot.
What were they all looking at?
Taylor approached slowly, creeping forward with silent caution. A twig snapped behind her, and she glanced over at Eric and Travis to her left. Sorry, Travis mouthed.
Inside the mound of high grass, she could see a dark form move just a little, a mere twitch, a flicker. It had to be some kind of animal sitting there very quietly. Was it injured? Why was Prince Albert standing next to it like that?
Coming alongside Pixie, Mandy, and Daphne, Taylor gazed across the stream but couldn’t see more deeply into the mound. “Climb up with me,” Daphne whispered, taking her foot out of her stirrup.
Taylor slid her boot into the empty stirrup and swung up behind Daphne. From this higher vantage point, she could look down into the grass, and immediately she let out a sharp gasp. “A fawn,” she breathed in awe.
The small creature lay in the grass with its spindly legs folded. Its ears drooped at the tops, and the wet blackness of its nose glistened. White spots speckled its brown and gray coat. Deer were plentiful in Pheasant Valley and roamed freely, but Taylor had never before seen a baby this small. “It’s sooo cute,” she crooned tenderly.
“Why is Prince Albert standing there?” Travis wondered aloud as he came beside Mandy.
Daphne quickly shushed him.
“A fawn,” Taylor whispered as softly as she could. “It’s in the grass.”
While Travis and Eric stretched high, standing on their toes in an attempt to see the little animal, Taylor dismounted and went to the edge of the creek. She clicked gently for Prince Albert to come to her.
The large black horse hesitated, glancing over at the fawn as though reluctant to leave it.
“The fawn will be all right,” Taylor coaxed. “You can come to me.” Mentally, she was already mapping a path of rocks she could hop across the creek if Prince Albert wouldn’t wade in on his own accord. She knew some horses were afraid of water, and though Prince Albert had never shied from drinking in the creek, she couldn’t be sure if he’d be willing to cross through it.
But Prince Albert stepped right into the bubbling, crystal flow of the creek without hesitation. Taylor felt h
erself swell with pride as she always did when he displayed his calm and brave nature.
Taylor let the full force of her happiness and relief at finding her horse finally hit her. He wasn’t hurt, and he had come right to her. Smiling broadly, she blinked back a quick impulse toward happy tears.
When Prince Albert stepped up out of the creek, Taylor rushed to his side and stretched her arms around his neck, laying her head against it. “I’m so sorry, boy, so sorry,” she murmured emotionally, filled with remorse that she’d let anything bad happen to him. All she’d ever wanted for Prince Albert and Pixie was to give them a better life than the one they’d known before she and Claire had rescued them.
Pixie was quickly at their side. Her joy at being reunited with Prince Albert was easy to see in the small and joyful dance she did, stepping from side to side and then back again. Her happy whinny made them all smile.
“Let’s see the fawn,” Travis suggested. He was already out in the creek, balanced on a low, flat rock rising just above the water.
“We should probably leave it alone,” Daphne disagreed as she swung her legs to the ground in a graceful dismount. “Isn’t that what they say to do?”
“I think so,” Eric said. “The mother goes out to look for food and hides the baby away until she comes back.”
Taylor was impressed with Eric’s knowledge, but Travis shot her a look that she could read loud and clear: There he goes again. She looked away and pulled her cell phone from the front pocket of her jeans to call Claire. “We have Prince Albert,” she reported when Claire answered. “We also found a little fawn in the woods.”
Claire asked if it was injured, and once Taylor told her that she didn’t think so, although she couldn’t be sure, Claire instructed Taylor to leave the fawn where it was, saying that its mother would return for it. “Are you sure?” Taylor questioned. “It’s really small, and Prince Albert acted like he was standing guard over it or something.”
Just as Daphne and Eric had said, Claire insisted that they should leave the fawn and come back to the ranch. She said the sky was becoming overcast. Looking up into the spaces between the leaves, Taylor saw that the bright blue had turned gray.
