Free Gone: An Emma Caldridge Novella: Part Two of Three by Jamie Freveletti Page B

toward her. She saw two more shadowy bodies jockey for position behind the screen door and couldn’t tell if they were male or female. Brink stopped two feet in front of her, and from that distance she could see the intelligence in his wary eyes.
    “Can you ride?”
    “I used to own a horse. I’ll be okay.”
    “Back East? What kind of horse?”
    “Trakehner. Dressage.”
    “Dancing horses,” he said, and this time Emma heard a touch of humor in his voice. One of the shadows in the screen door snickered.
    “A horse is a horse, and you’d be surprised how much time it takes to teach one to dance.” She let a bit of humor lace her own voice, and this time his mouth crooked at the corner.
    “Actually, that wouldn’t surprise me at all. They’re not meant to dance.”
    “They’re also not meant to cut around barrels or buck until they drop, but people use them that way too.” She shrugged. “If you don’t want to rent one, I’ll understand. I can hike it. It’s just that the whole thing will go easier on me if I ride.”
    He looked incredulous. “Hike it? It’s easily thirty miles round-trip to the plateau alone.”
    “I’m an ultrarunner. When you’ve done a hundred, thirty is not a problem, but like I said, I’d rather ride.”
    A bit of respect entered his gaze. “I raise Quarter Horses. They’re good for endurance, but the best for endurance is an Arabian.” He ran his eyes down her body again. “You look light enough for one, and I have a mix called Lily that would do. She can be a handful at times, but she’s brave and can go forever.” He turned a bit toward the house. “Calvin, come on out here.”
    The door squeaked again and a skinny teenage boy emerged and hustled down the stairs. Another shadow took his place behind the screen.
    “What do you need?” Calvin said.
    “Can you get Lily tacked up? She’s going out on the mountain.”
    Emma shook her head. “No rush. First I’m heading back into town to have some breakfast and ask around. See if anyone’s spotted Ryan.”
    “They won’t talk to you,” Brink said.
    “What makes you think so?”
    “You’re what they call an ‘Outsider.’ They don’t mix with Outsiders.”
    “You’re talking to me,” Emma pointed out.
    Calvin shot Brink a worried glance. As if he was afraid Brink would be upset with Emma’s comment. Brink’s mouth tightened, so perhaps Calvin was right.
    “I’m cast off. They shun me, so I can talk to anyone I like.”
    “Me too,” said Calvin. He had sandy hair, freckles, and a friendly air about him.
    Emma frowned. “What do you mean, ‘cast off’?”
    “Been ordered to leave town. When a boy turns thirteen he’s viewed as a competitor for the girls. There aren’t enough girls to be wives for the older men, so the younger ones are thrown out. I was cast off at fourteen. Calvin here is fifteen. Everyone here will talk to you. It’s just the ones in town that won’t.”
    Emma was appalled. “How many have been thrown out?”
    “Over two hundred. More each day.”
    “What happens to them?”
    Brink frowned. “Nothing good. The ones that have family on the outside are better off than the others. I made my way here, and Cowboy Leon, who owns the place, took me in. He showed me how to breed horses. I was lucky. Since then he’s taken in six other boys.”
    “What about the parents? Surely they don’t agree to this.”
    Calvin snorted. “They’s the ones that threw us out.”
    “They are,” Brink corrected him.
    Emma’s parents would never have allowed such a thing. It would have been unthinkable.
    “So Shaw’s brainwashed them all?” she said.
    “They don’t want to burn in eternal hell,” Calvin said.
    “Sounds like they don’t want to think for themselves.” Emma let her disgust show. Brink kept a steady gaze on her but said nothing. She couldn’t tell if he agreed with her or not. “I’m still going to town. I haven’t had breakfast and I saw the diner. It looked