High Meadow

by Joan Wolf

  "It would definitely be easier for him to take the bus."

  "Okay."

  Molly said, 'Are you going to tell your parents about Ben's kidnapping?"

  Daniel said, "You know Ben will blurt it all out. It's better that they hear the story from me, first."

  Molly smiled. "Discretion is not one of Ben's virtues, bless him."

  "You mean he's a big mouth," Kate said.

  "He's a very self-confident child," Alberto said. "You two ladies are to be congratulated."

  Molly and Kate exchanged a look.

  "Self-confident," Kate said. "I like that better than conceited."

  "What are you going to do with your parents during their visit?" Molly asked Daniel.

  "My mother will shop and my father will hang out at Kate's barn," Daniel returned easily.

  Kate smiled. "I'll be glad to have him. If I'm lucky, he'll give me another lesson. I learned so much from him the last time he was here."

  When she smiled like that she was breathtaking.

  Daniel said, his eyes still on Kate, "I thought maybe I would stay over at High Meadow tonight. My parents don't get in until late in the afternoon, and this way I can have the morning with Ben."

  "Of course you can stay over, Daniel," Molly said. "The spare room is all ready for you."

  Kate's lashes lowered to conceal her eyes.

  The waiter came to take their drinks order.

  The four of them toasted the new year in with champagne, then Alberto left to go back to Greenwich and the two Foleys and Daniel climbed the stairs to go to bed.

  Molly left them in the hall, going into her bedroom and firmly closing the door. Daniel said to Kate gravely, "Your place or mine?"

  "The spare room shares a wall with Ben's room." "Why don't we make it your place, then?" "Okay. But wait a half an hour until Mom's asleep. I'll get in the bathroom now, then you can have it." "Okay."

  The upstairs in the old house was chilly, and Kate wrapped a fleece bathrobe around her nakedness and got into her double bed with the flannel sheets and pulled the covers up over her head. She breathed in and out in the tentlike darkness, trying to warm the bed up with her breath. Gradually she got warmer and poked her nose out into the chilly air of her bedroom.

  Precisely half an hour after she had left him in the hall, Daniel knocked softly on her door and came in. He was wearing a robe over his pajamas.

  "I think this room is even colder than mine," he said as he came over to the bed and got in beside her.

  "The thermostat is set to go down at eleven because we're usually in bed by then."

  "Come here and let's get warm together."

  Kate moved into his arms.

  "Ai!" she yipped. "Your feet are freezing. Keep them to yourself, please."

  "How are they going to get warm if you don't let them touch you?"

  "That's your problem, buddy."

  "Such tenderness," he said. "Such care."

  "Such cold feet," she retorted.

  He chuckled. "Let's see what I've got here. I feel a fleece bathrobe, but what is under it?" He slid a hand between the folds of her robe and touched her bare breast. "Ah," he said. "How nice."

  "You have pajamas on," Kate said. "I didn't put pajamas on."

  "I didn't want to meet your mother or Ben in the hallway and be wearing only my robe. It would be a little embarrassing."

  "True."

  "Ben would be sure to say, 'Daddy, why are you naked?'"

  Kate giggled.

  "Do that again," he said.

  "Do what?"

  "Make that little laughing sound. It's enchanting."

  "It's a spontaneous sound. I can't make it at will."

  "Are you warm enough for me to kiss you?"

  "I think kissing would help the warming process."

  "All right." And he lowered his mouth to hers.

  He kissed her, and the very touch of her mouth made him shudder. She opened her lips and kissed him back.

  As soon as his tongue entered her mouth, desire washed over her like a surge of warm water, and she clung to him in the darkness that did not feel cold anymore. He pushed her robe away and his mouth was moving all over her and she could feel the pulse between her legs beating more and more intensely.

  "Daniel," she said as her hands spread flat against his back. "Daniel."

  Then he was entering her, and it felt so good. The feel of him inside her was so good. Back and forth he went, back and forth, until she thought she could endure the tension no more, then the explosion of pleasure came, rocking her whole body with its power.

  When it was over she lay still against him, absorbing the heat from his body. "Daniel?" she murmured after a while.

  "Yes?"

  "Is it always like that?"

  "No, Kata, it's not always like that. It's only like that with you."

  "I'm glad."

  She rested her cheek against his chest and listened to the slowing beat of his heart. He was so warm.

  "You don't have to go back to your cold bed right away," she said. "You can stay here for the night. But you have to get back to the spare room before Ben or my mother get up."

  "Perhaps we should set the alarm."

  "I have it set for six because I have to feed the horses. That should be safe enough."

  She felt his lips on her hair. "I love you, Kata," he said.

  "I love you, too."

  "Will you marry me?"

  "Let's not talk about that right now, Daniel. It's too late. Let's just go to sleep."

  "All right, if that's what you want."

  "It is. Didn't we get this bed nice and warm?"

  "It feels wonderful. But I have to go to sleep facing the other way. I never go to sleep on my back."

  "Okay."

  Daniel turned over and punched his pillow into shape. Kate curled up behind him and, briefly, rested her cheek against him. She could feel the movement of his back as he breathed. "I do love you," she murmured.

  "Good," he said.

  "Good night, Daniel."

  "Good night, Kata."

  Within five minutes they were both asleep.

  * * *

  31

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  Ben went back to school the day after New Year's Day and at midafternoon Daniel came over to the barn with his father. Kate had just finished cleaning out the last stall when they arrived. The men were dressed in coats and scarves, but Kate wore only a sweater.

  "Aren't you cold?" Daniel asked.

  "I have on long underwear," she explained. "And I've been mucking stalls."

  "I forgot how cold it gets in America," Rafael said. "I had to borrow one of Daniel's mufflers."

  "If it's too cold, we can skip the lesson," Kate said.

  "Not at all. I was thinking we would work on your seat today."

  "Great," said Kate. "Shane is very good on the lunge line, if that's what you want to do."

  "I will be happy to lunge you."

  As they walked to Shane's stall, Rafael said, "What happened to the horse you rode the last time?"

  "He's been sold. He was too much for his rider, so we got her a new horse."

  "That's too bad. He was a nice animal."

  "Yes, he was. I miss riding him."

  She saddled up Shane while Daniel and Rafael sipped the coffee they had brought. They had thoughtfully brought a cup of Starbucks for Kate, too, but she put it aside for later. "If I drink it now, it will only make me want to go to the bathroom in the middle of my lesson," she explained.

  Once they were in the ring, Rafael began, "The classical seat is vital to any work you might do in dressage. Over two thousand years ago Xenophon wrote, 'I do not approve of a seat which is as though the man were on a chair, but rather as though he were standing upright with his legs apart.' That is the classical seat—not the forward seat which you use for your jumping, and not the chair seat you see often used incorrectly in dressage tests."

  Kate had borrowed a
dressage saddle from one of her clients who did combined training. Rafael put her on the lunge line and watched in silence as she went around him in a circle.

  "Stop," he said, and went to lower her stirrups two holes.

  "Good grief," Kate said. "I feel like I'm reaching for them."

  "You can't achieve the feeling of standing on the ground if your knee is too bent. Let your legs grow long from the hip. Let gravity carry them right down into your foot, then into the ground. But sit proudly with your upper body."

  Kate went back to circling him, concentrating on dropping her legs down. Once Rafael decided she was sitting correctly, she moved into a trot. "Keep your shoulders still, your back straight, then move from the hip with the horse."

  They worked for forty minutes and by the end of the session Kate was sitting more deeply, and more erectly, with her heels, hips, and head all lined up so that a straight line could be drawn through them.

  "That was great," she said as she got off of Shane. "Could we do another session tomorrow?"

  "I don't see why not. It is a pleasure to work with such a responsive student."

  They took Shane back into the barn and Kate didn't bother to put him on crossties to unsaddle him. She and Rafael were talking enthusiastically about Rafael's Andalusians when a white towel that had been perched precariously on the rack of the stall door just behind Shane fell to the ground. Without thinking, Daniel bent to pick it up. His gloved hand was flat on the ground at the same moment that Shane stepped back. Shane's hoof, shod in steel and bearing his full weight, came down on Daniel's hand.

  Daniel exclaimed in Spanish. Shane, feeling something under his foot, lifted it immediately and Daniel pulled his hand away.

  "Oh no," said Kate. "Your hand!"

  Daniel was cradling his right hand, his pitching hand, with the left. "Shit," he said. "I think it's broken."

  Rafael asked Daniel a question in Spanish.

  "Si," Daniel responded.

  Kate said, "We better get you to the emergency room right away."

  "Yes," Daniel said a trifle grimly. "The sooner this is attended to, the less swelling there will be."

  "I will drive you," Rafael said. "Come. Let us go."

  "I'll come with you," Kate said.

  "You can't," Daniel said. He was very pale. "You have to be here for Ben."

  "Will you call me, Daniel? Please?"

  "I will call you as soon as we know something. Come on, Papa. We need to go."

  Kate stood next to her horse and watched the two men leave the barn. My God, my God, my God. How did Daniel's hand ever get under Shane's hoof?

  She brushed Shane and put him out in the paddock with Sebastian. Then she cleaned the water buckets. But her mind was not on her work; it was with Daniel.

  It was his right hand, his pitching hand. What if it's permanently damaged? What if Daniel can't ever pitch again?

  The thought petrified her. Daniel wasn't thirty yet. He had years of pitching before him. It would be too cruel to have his career cut short due to an accident like this.

  But career-ending injuries happened all the time in sports. Why shouldn't it happen to Daniel?

  She walked down to the bus stop to meet Ben and debated whether or not to tell him about what had happened. They were in the kitchen, and she still hadn't decided, when the phone rang. She picked up the kitchen extension. "Hello."

  "Kata."

  She shut her eyes at the sound of his voice. "How are you? Have you seen a doctor?"

  "They've X-rayed my hand and two bones are broken."

  "Oh my God."

  "The treatment is not to use the hand until they're healed. Then I'll need physical therapy to gain the hand's strength back."

  "Will this . . . will this affect your pitching?"

  "I don't know, Kata," he said gravely. "We'll just have to wait and see."

  "Daniel, how can I tell you how sorry I am that this happened. I should have put Shane on the crossties . . ."

  He cut in, "Don't blame yourself. I should have had enough sense to keep my hand away from the vicinity of a horse's hoof."

  "It wasn't your fault. . ."

  "That's the point, Kata. It wasn't anybody's fault."

  "Have you contacted the Yankees yet?"

  "Not yet." He sounded grim. "That's next on my list of things to do. They'll want me looked at by a specialist, not just an emergency room doctor."

  "A specialist is a good idea."

  "Yes. Listen, I'm calling you from a pay phone at the hospital. I'll talk to you again tonight."

  "Okay. Take care of yourself."

  "Right. Good-bye."

  "Good-bye," and Kate hung up the phone.

  Ben was looking at her with very bright eyes. "Was that Daddy?"

  "Yes."

  "Did something happen?"

  "Yes. By accident, Shane stepped on your father's hand."

  Ben's large brown eyes grew even larger. "Did he break it?"

  "Yes, he did. And it was his right hand, his pitching hand, so everyone is very upset."

  "Is Daddy in the hospital?"

  "Grandpapa took him to the hospital, and they fixed the broken bones, but Daddy can't use his hand for a while."

  "But they fixed it?"

  "Yes."

  "Well, that's good then." Ben went back to his glass of milk. "It's a good thing Daddy's not playing baseball now."

  Kate responded hollowly, "Yes, it's a very good thing."

  Half an hour later, she went through the same explanation with Molly, who was horrified.

  "Shane is such a sensible horse. However did this happen?"

  "Claire left a towel on her door and when it fell down, Daniel stooped to pick it up. His hand was on the ground at the exact moment that Shane decided to back up."

  "Oh my dear." Molly came to put an arm around Kate's shoulders. "It was an accident, but you must feel terrible."

  "I feel horrible, Mom. What if it doesn't heal properly? What if Daniel can never pitch again?"

  "That's not likely to happen."

  "How do we know? And we won't know until the bones are healed and the physical therapy is finished and he can start throwing again. Can you imagine the worry he is going to carry for all that time?"

  "It's not going to be fun," Molly admitted.

  "I feel like it was my fault. Shane is my horse."

  "It's not as if Shane did it deliberately, dear. It was an accident. I'm sure Daniel knows that."

  "He told me it was nobody's fault; it was just one of those things that happen."

  Ben said, "I'll pray that Daddy's hand gets better." After the kidnapping incident, Ben had become a great believer in prayer.

  "That would be wonderful," Molly told him. "I'm sure your prayers will help."

  That evening, as Kate was walking back to the house after her lessons, she saw Daniel's car coming up the driveway. Rafael was driving.

  She began to run.

  Daniel was closing the car door behind him when she reached the driveway. "Daniel! How are you doing?"

  "Oh there you are, Kata. I can't stay, I only stopped by to let you know that I'm okay."

  She stopped next to him and looked up. "Did you see a specialist?"

  "I've seen a specialist, I've had an MRI, and the conclusion is the same as that of the emergency room doctor. I've broken two bones in my hand."

  He lifted his hand for her to see it. "It's taped, and I have to wear this protective glove." The glove covered the palm of his hand and left the tops of his fingers free.

  "Can you use your fingers?"

  He wiggled them to show her that he could. "I think it's going to be all right, Kata."

  "I am sure it will be all right," Rafael said. He hadn't gotten out of the car and was speaking through the open window. "Now that you have seen Kate, Daniel, and she knows that you are not permanently maimed, can we please go home?"

  "All right, Papa." He gave Kate an apologetic smile. "I'd better go. My mother wants
to see me, too."

  "Of course you should go. Thank you for coming. The hand doesn't look half as bad as I imagined it would."

  "That is exactly the reason I came by. I didn't want you imagining all sorts of horrible things."

  The light from the front porch showed her his face. He looked tired, she thought. And, for all his brave words, worried.

  She wanted desperately to kiss him, but Rafael was there.

  "Good night," she said.

  "I'll call you in the morning about our lesson," Rafael said.

  "Great."

  Daniel got back in the car, which Rafael turned so he could go forward down the long narrow driveway. Kate felt a pain in the region of her heart as she watched them go-That night, Daniel had a nightmare that when he tried to pitch he couldn't properly grip the ball. He tried to throw pitches but all his balls went into the dirt or sailed overhead into the backstop. And his hand hurt all the time. He woke up sweating, with his heart hammering in his chest. And his hand hurt.

  "Dios," he muttered as he realized he was safely in bed. He thrust his good hand through his tousled hair, pushing it back off his forehead. The pain pills had worn off, and his injured hand was throbbing. "Damn."

  He should be snug in bed with Kata and not lying here alone with a broken hand. What rotten luck. If the damn horse had stepped back one second later, my hand would have been out of the way.

  But he knew that that was how accidents happened: fast. One minute you were safe, and the next minute you had torn an ACL, or gotten a concussion, or broken a hand.

  Itwouldn't be so bad if I was a position player, but pitching is so exact. If my grip changes at all, I won't be the pitcher that I was.

  I have to be able to hold the ball the exact way I held it before the hand was broken.

  What are the chances of that happening?

  No one would tell him the answer to that question. All the doctors would say was, "Wait and see."

  It would be three weeks before they could take X rays again. The doctor had told him that broken bones were better than torn ligaments, that bones generally heal cleaner.

  What will I do with myself if I can't pitch? I'm not ready to give it up yet. I'm too young.

  He got out of bed, went into the bathroom, and took more pain pills. While he was waiting for them to kick in, his mind turned to Kate.

  Kata said she loved me, but she didn't say she'd marry me. How will she feel if I can't pitch anymore?