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

especially when the fever was upon me.
    I must have rambled on about Hero, because next thing I heard
was George, declaring he was going to hang me for stealing Hero.
    Mabel said she would have none of that talk, and I heard
hoofbeats as he rode away.
    “He’s going to get Pa,” Dawn said, her face white. “He wants Pa
to hang you or put you in jail.”
    I’d been waiting for this moment. It almost seemed unreal.
    Mabel came in to the room. “Did you steal that horse?” she
asked.
    “Yes, Ma’am. It was during the war.”
    “What side were you on?”
    “Confederate.” I hoped I had given the right answer.
    She snorted. “What happened?”
    So I told her about my cousin, and Hero, and having to escape.
“He was just a standing there, all saddled and ready to go. He even had a
bedroll on him. I’d like to give him back, now that the war’s over, but I don’t
know where Trey is. It’s been two years.”
    I passed out again. Next time shouts woke me. Dawn was there,
and I asked her what was going on.

8
    Dawn smiled, looking happy. “You missed all the fun.”
    “What happened?”
    “Pa came and Aunt Mabel loaded her shotgun. She told Pa to turn
around and go home. That I was here, nursing you, and he wasn’t going to get
either one of us. That we could figure it all out when you were well enough to
talk.”
    “Oh. She also told George to go stay with my Pa until he could
get the noose out of his rope. Then I stepped out with a rifle in my hands.”
    “Pa said he was quit of me, riding through the countryside with
no clothes on.”
    “I said, ‘I guess you’d have rather I drowned in the river.”
    “He said, ‘What did Trahern do to you?’ And I said, ‘Saved my
life. I didn’t see you tryin’ to save me from the Indians.’”
    She smiled at me. “He doesn’t have a hold on me anymore. It’s
like you said. I’m of age. I can choose my own life now.”
    “You don’t want to choose a life with a horse thief,” I said,
leaning back into the pillow. I felt so weak and tired, I wouldn’t be able to
stop a kit fox right now.
    “I’ll do what I choose.”
    Now when women set their mind on something, you’d best get out
of the way. Seems she and Aunt Mabel had decided on me for her.
    I fell asleep wondering what I should do. I wanted Dawn, more
than any woman I’d ever seen, but I didn’t want to drag her into my life if it
meant jail.
    The next day Dawn was laughing. She told me the news as she
changed my dressing.
    “Aunt Mabel’s corrals weren’t high enough. We found Hero in with
Misty this morning, acting all important like.” She handed me some broth to
drink. “I guess he’s done what he set out to do.”
    “He is for sure the smartest horse in Texas. Now when I send him
back to Trey, he’ll leave a part of himself behind.”
    “Once we find out where Trey is.”
    I nodded. “And if he wants to press charges.”
    The cloud hung over me as I
tried to get well. Get well—in time to hang?
    Three weeks later I got ready to leave.
    I didn’t want to leave Dawn or give up Hero, but I had to. “Trey
might throw me in jail. I don’t think he’ll have me hung.”
    “Your cousin? I wouldn’t think so. He should be glad to get Hero
back.” She looked at me with those big blue eyes of hers. “Do you really have
to go?”
    “Yes. I’ve been having a hard time livin’ with myself. I have to
do the honorable thing. No matter what the cost.”
    “I’ll wait for you. No matter how long it takes.”
    “I don’t deserve you.”
    “I love you, Matthew Joseph Martin Trahern,” she said. “Now get
that horse returned and get yourself back to me so’s we can get married and
start some little Traherns of our own. I expect I’ll breed as fast as that
filly.”
    My face grew hot. “Yes,
ma’am. I’ll leave first thing in the morning.”
    We went inside and I washed up while she and her aunt put the
food on the table.
    The dogs barked and I walked over to the door, checking