Free Moonrise by Terri Farley Page B

stepmother with admiration. When it came to wild horses, Brynna didn’t miss much.
    â€œHe told me he saw Moon with a red mare,” Sam said. “The Phantom still has two blood bays in his band, but I remember a red chestnut…. Do you think he could have stolen her from the Phantom? The way they were fighting, I can’t believe Moon got away with it.”
    â€œThe Phantom might have let her go. The daughters of a herd stallion are supposed to be taken into another band.”
    Sam nodded. Even at this time of night, Brynna could sound like a biologist.
    â€œIn fact, there’s something else we need to talk about.”
    Sam’s trouble radar flashed on.
    Something we need to talk about rarely meant something good.
    â€œOkay,” Sam said.
    â€œNow that Sunny and Tempest are locked in for the night, let’s have a cup of tea before we settle down, too.”
    â€œSounds good,” Sam said, though she was pretty sure she was hours from settling down.
    Moon’s appearance and Tempest’s reaction to him had Sam’s mind darting all over the place. And what did Brynna want to discuss?
    As she stepped onto the porch, Sam glanced back over her shoulder toward the bunkhouse. Usually this kind of excitement had Blaze bouncing around her ankles, but he was nowhere to be seen.
    Five minutes later, Brynna clutched the handles of two mugs of mint tea in one hand and a honey pot in the other as she came to the kitchen table.
    Sam drizzled a stream of honey into her tea, but she was watching Brynna from beneath lowered eyelashes. Absently, her stepmother braided her hair, reached the bottom of the plait and discovered she had nothing to bind it, then tossed it back over her shoulder.
    Something was making Brynna uneasy. She pushed her mug aside, rested her elbows on the kitchen table, and looked into Sam’s eyes.
    â€œThere’s a fact of mustang life that’s not pretty.”
    Sam squared her shoulders. Did this have to do with the constant range battle between cattle ranchers and wild horses? Was Brynna, as a Bureau of Land Management employee, caught in the middle again?
    â€œAnd since you’ll be out alone in wild horsecountry for a couple days,” Brynna continued, “you should know about it.”
    She already knew about the food rivalry between cattle and horses. What could Brynna be talking about?
    Brynna knew Sam had loved horses forever. She’d read books about them and listened in on cowboys talking of horses for most of her fourteen years.
    Clearly, though, Brynna thought she was about to reveal something shocking.
    â€œI’m ready,” Sam encouraged her.
    â€œWhen stallions fight, they prove more than their dominance. They prove their right to father the next generation of colts.”
    â€œI know,” Sam said. “I was just thinking about that. Moon lost that fight we saw in Arroyo Azul because the Phantom was stronger and smarter.”
    â€œRight,” Brynna said. “So nothing really changed in the Phantom’s herd, but it might have. If Moon had won, he would have been the new boss at a time when mares were already in foal to the Phantom.”
    â€œSo?”
    â€œSo…” Brynna stretched the word out a little longer than usual. “The new stallion would have won the right to father the next generation.”
    Sam knew horses were smart, but what Brynna was saying seemed far-fetched even to her.
    â€œWould Moon actually know that?”
    â€œSomehow they seem to,” Brynna said. “And that’s not horse-lover talk, that’s science.”
    Sam took a gulp of tea and waited.
    â€œSometimes the victorious stallion doesn’t want the other stallion’s foals around. He’ll be rough with the mares or run them too fast, too far, causing so much stress, the mares don’t give birth to the foals they’re carrying.”
    Sam stayed quiet, but she felt a wave of relief.
    The