by Terri Farley
Oh well, Candice already thought she was a lost cause.
“Uh, do you think I could have a donut to go with my coffee?” Sam asked.
Candice gave a condescending chuckle.
“Take care of her, Ben,” she said, then walked away.
Ben gave Sam a thumbs-up sign and whispered, “Nice save.”
“Real nice,” Sam said, feeling embarrassed, though there was no reason she should worry about what Candice thought of her. “She thinks I’m dumb as a rock.”
“So what? She thinks everyone is,” Ben said.
It was almost an hour later by the time Dr. Scott had splinted and wrapped Violette’s arm at her insistence, and Pepper—proud of the responsibility—had driven her to the hospital in Darton.
Although Inez was eager to load up the horses and get back to her cozy camper where she could change into dry clothes, when the cameraman Ben motioned to her, she pushed back the wet hood of her costume, tightened her ponytail, and looked suddenly alert.
“What’s up?” Inez asked.
“I’ve got something you’re going to want to see,” Ben told her.
Exhausted as she was, Inez hurried over to watch a monitor.
Sam didn’t groan, but she wished Jake hadn’t already left with his mother. They would have given her a ride home.
Or she could have ridden with Pepper. Still, he’d been hauling Violette with him, and he wouldn’t have made a detour to River Bend before heading to the hospital.
Sam imagined that trip with Violette and decided she’d much rather stand here with the horses, even if it meant getting soggier by the second.
“Wow,” Inez said, pulling Sam’s attention back.
Excitement and disappointment whirled together in that single word and Sam was moving toward Inez before the trainer motioned her over.
Both Inez and Ben looked over their shoulders, searching, Sam would bet, for Candice, before they rewound the film.
“Watch,” Ben said, and Sam did.
Somehow the camera’s eye had peered through the curtain of rain, turning it to silver mist and there, silhouetted against the sky, she and Ace jumped over the miniature waterfall.
“He looks amazing! It’s so dramatic,” Sam sputtered. Her little brown mustang looked absolutely magnificent! And then she realized what this meant. “Is that what Candice—?” Sam whispered, but she couldn’t manage to finish the sentence.
“At first even I thought it was Bayfire,” Ben said, almost under his breath, “and I was watching your whole circus going on up there.”
Sam stared at Inez.
“She thinks it’s us,” Inez said, touching her chest. “Ben says she’s happy with the shot and she hasn’t made any more remarks about Bayfire being finished.”
But the horse leaping that cliff wasn’t Bayfire! It was Ace, and he deserved to get credit for his wonderful performance, didn’t he?
Sam’s heart pounded and she swallowed against the lump in her throat.
If she let the producer think the glorious leap had been made by Bayfire, Inez and the stunt horse would keep their jobs and, more important, their reputations as experts. If she forced the producer to see that the horse in that shot was Ace…
Sam looked toward Bayfire and Ace. Her little brown mustang was lipping the stallion’s mane, grooming him as he would a best friend.
Ace didn’t care whether or not he got credit, Sam realized. It was her. She wanted to tell Dad and Brynna and Gram and Jake and Jen! She wanted to show Violette that—what?
Sam put her hands on her hips and faced Inez and Ben.
The cameraman’s frown told Sam he thought she’d be too starstruck to turn down the glory. Inez looked hopeful.
She knows me better, Sam thought.
“What if we make a deal?” Sam said.
“You want the footage I took of the wild horse across the canyon?” Ben blurted.
Surprise whiplashed through Sam. Of course, a man who depended on his eyes for his artistry would have spotted the Phantom. A video of the Phantom!
“Oh my gosh,” she gasped.
“You’re not a very good negotiator,” Inez said, laughter breaking her tension.
“Oh yes I am,” Sam insisted, drawing herself up to her full height. “Of course I want the film of the Phantom, but there’s more.”
“Spit it out,” Inez said, still smiling.
“I won’t tell a soul it’s Ace, if you come back next week and pick out your own wild horse,” Sam whispered.
“But how?” Inez asked.
“There’s an adoption day at Willow Springs Wild Horse Center next week,” Sam said. “Lots of mustangs need homes.”
“And that way, Bayfire will have his inspiration whenever he needs it,” Inez finished. “Sam, you’re brilliant.”
The trainer swallowed audibly, then, looking humble as she put a hand on Sam’s shoulder. “And the three of us”—she paused to glance across the movie set to the tent sheltering Bayfire and Ace—“I guess the horses make five—know who really stars in that incredible scene.”
Sam nodded, surprised that just knowing was good enough for her.
“Okay, so I’ll be back and adopt myself a mustang,” Inez said, and as excitement charged her voice, the trainer glanced toward the mountaintop with a considering expression.
“Oh no,” Sam said, following Inez’s eyes. “There’s one wild horse you can never have.” Sam realized she’d been shaking her head with each word and she made herself stop. Still, she couldn’t help adding, “You can’t have the Phantom, because he’s mine.”
About the Author
Terri Farley has always loved horses. She left Los Angeles for the cowgirl state of Nevada after earning degrees in English and Journalism. Now she rides the range researching books and magazine articles on the West’s people and animals—especially Nevada’s controversial wild horses. She lives in a one-hundred-year-old house with her husband, children, and way too many pets.
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Read all the books about the
Phantom Stallion
1
THE WILD ONE
2
MUSTANG MOON
3
DARK SUNSHINE
4
THE RENEGADE
5
FREE AGAIN
6
THE CHALLENGER
7
DESERT DANCER
8
GOLDEN GHOST
9
GIFT HORSE
10
RED FEATHER FILLY
11
UNTAMED
12
RAIN DANCE
13
HEARTBREAK BRONCO
14
MOONRISE
15
KIDNAPPED COLT
16
THE WILDEST HEART
17
MOUNTAIN MARE
18
FIREFLY
19
SECRET STAR
Credits
Cover art © 2006 by Greg Call
Copyright
PHANTOM STALLION 19: SECRET STAR. Copyright © 2006 by Terri Sprenger-Farley. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
ePub Reader February 2009 ISBN 978-0-06-189073-4
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