Free The Smartest Horse in Texas (The Traherns #2) by Nancy Radke

we
were on a shallow side. Hero got a purchase on the bed, struggled through some
deep sand, and flung himself out of the water, pulling the rest of us with him.
    He was shaking, tossing Dawn about, and I had to grab his head
and stop him long enough for her to untie herself.
    “Are you hurt?” I asked.
    “No. They grabbed me, and I told them in the Kiowa language to
leave me alone. They thought that was a big joke, but they just tied my hands
and led me away.” She shuddered. “I didn’t think anyone was following me.”
    She put her head against my chest and her body shook. “I don’t
think I could face that again.”
    “I know. I wasn’t about to let them take you.”
    She straightened and I let her step away.
    “How did you find me?” she asked.
    “I just rode to the fork in the road, then Hero followed Misty.”
    “Did Pa send you to bring me back? Cause I’m not going.”
    “No. He didn’t send me anywhere. I drew my wages and left.”
    “I know it wasn’t right to take Misty, but Lewis would have her
ruined in less than a day.”
    “He can’t. I just bought her.”
    “Pa sold her to you?” You could tell she didn’t quite believe
it.
    “He didn’t have a choice. There’s a bill of sale in my
saddlebags. You own her now.”
    “How?”
    “The paper says she’s mine, and as soon as I sign it over, she’s
yours. I got her for you. Did you leave because of Misty?”
    “No. Yes. She was part of it. But he said you couldn’t teach
me...”
    “That was when I decided to leave, too.”
    We looked at each other.
    “You don’t have to go back to him, Dawn. He’s your pa, but you
are of age now. He can’t control you any longer.”
    She started to cry, then collapsed on the ground. It caught me
by surprise. I hadn’t quite realized how afraid she was of him.
    I untied my blanket and started to drape it over her. She stood
up and pulled it around herself, then leaned into my arms.
    She was shaking, and I pulled her close, wanting to shelter her
from her pa and the Indians and anyone else who might want to hurt her. I
kissed the top of her head, then her eyes as she lifted her face to me.
    “Thank you,” she said, her voice soft and low. “Thank you.”
    I understood why the horses would do anything she asked, because
I felt the same way. “You’re welcome.”
    She laid her head against my chest and I wanted it to stay
there. It felt right. This woman felt right.
    “There’s something you need to know,” I said. “I checked the
bags in the pantry. When we got back from the store, Lewis put the supplies
away. Whoever filled the bags, filled them wrong. There was salt in the sugar
bag and salt in the salt.”
    “So I wasn’t dumb.”
    “Not at all. Never was. You need to understand. There’s a whole
heap of difference between book learning and smarts. Hero is smart, probably
the smartest horse in Texas, and he can’t read a word.”
    That brought a grin to her face and a sparkle to her eyes. “Hero
don’t need to read. The fillies don’t care. He just flashes those stallion eyes
at them and they line up.”
    “You can read a book about how to ride a horse, but until you
put in hours of riding, you aren’t a rider. You know that.”
    She nodded.
    “Well, you just need more time to be a reader. Then you would’ve
known you weren’t wrong.”
    It was just common sense, but she’d been so beat down by the
people at the ranch, that she’d lost faith in herself.
    “You know that if you took any of those people back there and
dropped them in the desert, they wouldn’t be able to find water like you can.
You aren’t dumb, you just had a different type of education. One which is very
practical for out here.”
    She snuggled close to me again.
    “May I kiss you?” I asked.
    “Yes.”
    I’d never kissed a girl, except when I was a youngster on the
mountains, and my cousin Bo bet me I couldn’t get a kiss from Lucy Kendale. It
hadn’t mattered then, but this was different. I