Free Moon Racer by Constance O'Banyon Page B

"I'll
have Christmas bring her home tomorrow."
    Before Jonah could offer his help, Abby had
already thrown her saddle over Moon Racer and
cinched it. He watched her smile at the horse,
dimples dancing in her cheeks.
    "You can't always have me to yourself," she said
to the stallion before climbing into the saddle. Then
she turned to Jonah. "I know he's spoiled, but he
almost died as a colt. He grew up without a mother,
like I-"
    Even though Abby had clamped her lips together,
Jonah knew she had stopped short of telling him
about her motherless childhood. She was tugging at
his heart, and other lower extremities, and he didn't
seem to have any defense against her.
    He found himself thinking how difficult her life
must be, knowing her father had murdered her mother. The woman in the portrait had definitely
been a lady, and if she had lived, her gentle
guidance would have helped her daughter. He
wondered if Abby dressed in trousers because she
had never learned how to be a woman, or if it was
her way of defying convention.

    He tried to think of Patricia, but her image was
blocked by Abby's mischievous green eyes.
    He had to concentrate on something else, say
something, anything, to distract himself. "Now that
I see how much the stallion means to you, I know
why you were offended when I offered to buy him."
    Her mood changed from somber to hostile. "Moon
Racer is as much a part of this ranch as the soil itself
Many of the horses you see here were sired by him,
and many of our neighbors' horses as well."
    She nudged the stallion forward, and they rode
away from the pasture, through another gate, until
they finally reached a hilly meadow.
    "The two horses you asked to see are just over
the next hill," Abby told Jonah. "If you choose one
of them, I'll train it for you."
    He glanced out at a land that looked like Eden,
but there were thorns and secrets in this paradise.
The woman who rode beside him was like an
unbroken horse herself, wild and untamed.
    Abby Hunter had disturbed him almost to the
brink of madness. He'd had trouble going to sleep
the night before, knowing that she was in the room
next to his. He had been awake to hear her restless
pacing and wondered at the reason for it.

    She reined in the powerful stallion. "After lunch
I'll take you to see the mustangs," she told him.
    Jonah nodded, his attention centered just above
her head because he dared not look into those
mesmerizing eyes. "I'll look forward to it," he
answered, wishing she had never come bounding
out of that tree at him, disrupting his orderly life.

     

Frances had prepared a feast.
    She had certainly outdone herself for the major's
benefit. Abby thought of the sandwiches and fruit
the housekeeper usually packed for her on the days
she couldn't get home for lunch.
    "You have a choice of spiced beef, chicken,
block cheese, and apple or cherry tarts. What would
you like to start with?"
    He had sat down with his back against a tree
trunk, watching her. He bent forward and looked
into the bag. "Is there a chicken leg in there?"
    "As it happens, there is." She handed him a redand-white-checked napkin along with the chicken
leg he had asked for.
    Abby took a chunk of cheese and nibbled on it
while she watched the way the breeze danced through the high grass, all the while feeling the
major's eyes on her.

    At last he asked, "What do you do for fun?"
    "Fun?"
    "Yes, fun-interest, hobbies, pastimes."
    She had to think a moment. "I like riding, of
course. I try to draw when I have time. I used to
spend a lot of time visiting Iona Montgomery-you
met her husband yesterday."
    "Used to?"
    She frowned and glanced up at the sky. "Iona
was a good friend." Abby looked at him. "She died
a short while back."
    "I'm sorry. I wouldn't have brought up a
painful-"
    She stood, feeling pain in her heart for the woman
she had loved like a mother. "No. It's all right. Iona
had been ill for some time before she... died."
    "What