Читать книгу Paternity Lessons - Maris Soule - Страница 10

Chapter Two

Tyler and his daughter arrived promptly at ten o’clock Saturday morning. Shaunna watched the two of them get out of the car. Tyler was less formally dressed than the first time she’d seen him, his suit replaced by khaki pants, a tan golf shirt and brown loafers. He looked like an ad from GQ, and she knew what an hour of working with horses would do to his clothes.

His daughter was more appropriately dressed. The girl had on jeans, a Western-style plaid shirt and cowboy boots. She was as leggy as a colt, thin and pale, and her reddishbrown hair lacked luster. In some ways, Lanie reminded Shaunna of the Mustang they were about to discuss. Both showed the effects of trauma, Lanie’s the result of an automobile accident, Magic’s caused by the actions of his caretakers.

Lanie limped slightly as she walked toward Shaunna, and Shaunna could see that the girl had a scar on her forehead. It disappeared into the uneven part between her two braids, and considering the stray hairs hanging down the girl’s neck, Shaunna guessed that Lanie had braided her own hair.

What she found intriguing was how little the girl resembled her father. Although Shaunna could see that both Lanie and Tyler had blue eyes, the shapes of their faces were entirely different, along with their hair coloring and body builds. Then again, Shaunna knew she resembled her mother far more than she did her father, especially in her eyes.

Besides the differences in their looks, there were other things Shaunna noticed about the pair walking toward her that piqued her curiosity. Father and daughter kept a distance between them, didn’t touch and didn’t look at each other. Both were staring at her, each with a different expression.

With Lanie, the look was defensive... almost defiant. Her back was rigid, her chin high and her eyes narrowed. Shaunna could tell that the child was measuring her, judging her merit. She looked ready for battle.

Shaunna had seen the look before: in green horses brought to her to be broke; in abused horses that she was asked to salvage; and in the renegades who couldn’t be reclaimed. In the first meeting with those horses, they would approach her as the enemy, the predator they should fear. With most, she was able to eliminate those fears and establish communication. With people, she’d learned, that wasn’t always possible. She’d never been able to communicate with her mother.

Tyler’s look was totally different from his daughter’s. His expression showed concern. Silently, he was pleading with her, though Shaunna knew he probably wasn’t aware of that. And if she’d been a less scrupulous person, his look would have given her an advantage. He was desperate for her help.

Having seen the Mustang, she understood why.

“Good morning,” she said as the two approached.

“Good morning,” Tyler responded.

His daughter said nothing, merely narrowed her eyes a shade more.

He stopped a few steps away from Shaunna and glanced down at the girl. “Lanie, this is Ms. Shaunna Lightfeather, the horse trainer I told you about.”

“Glad to meet you, Lanie,” Shaunna said, and held out her hand.

Lanie ignored the hand and looked at Tyler. “I don’t want Magic here,” she said. “I want him with me.”

“I explained all that to you,” Tyler said, giving Shaunna a quick, apologetic glance. “We can’t keep a horse where we live.”

“We kept a horse where my mother lived,” Lanie argued.

“That was different. Your mother lived outside of town. My house is in town, and city ordinances don’t allow horses.”

“Why can’t I live where I used to live?”

Lanie’s voice was tense, and Shaunna sensed the girl was close to tears. Tyler softened his tone. “Honey, we’ve been through this before. That house has been sold.”

“I am not your honey,” Lanie snapped. “You shouldn’t have sold that house. I could’ve lived there. I could’ve lived there by myself and taken care of Magic.” Her attention switched to Shaunna. “Magic never should have been taken to that stable.”

“No, he shouldn’t have,” Shaunna said in full agreement.

For a moment, Lanie stared at her as if surprised by her response, then the girl looked around, her gaze skimming over the round pen, the two riding arenas, the barns, the paddocks and the house. When she looked back at Shaunna, her attitude was clearly arrogant. “This place is a dump.”

“It could use some sprucing up,” Shaunna agreed. “You have a couple hundred thousand to give me?”

The girl’s eyes merely narrowed again, her chin lifting, and Shaunna knew she hadn’t taken the right approach. Working with horses was much easier, but with them, you also had to listen. Lanie was telling her she wasn’t happy with the way things were. Problem was, Lanie couldn’t go back to the way things had been.

Shaunna tried another tack. “I take it you had a nice place for Magic.”

“He was happy there.”

I was happy there, Shaunna read in Lanie’s body language.

Shaunna looked at Tyler. “If your daughter doesn’t want her horse here, it won’t work.”

“I can’t leave him where he is,” Tyler said.

“They made him mean,” Lanie interjected. “He was never like that before. He loved me.” She looked accusingly at her father. “You put him there.”

“I didn’t know,” Tyler said, then looked at Shaunna and repeated the excuse. “I never would have if I’d realized what they would do to him.”

She couldn’t fault him. He’d already admitted that he didn’t know anything about horses. He’d had no idea that the stable he picked had a reputation for abusing horses.

“Have you seen him?” Tyler asked.

She had, and she’d been appalled by what she’d seen. She looked down at Lanie. “What did you think when you saw him?”

“It made me sick.”

“Made me sick, too,” Shaunna said. “So I brought him here.”

“He’s here?” The girl’s eyes lit up for the first time. “Magic is here?” Then she looked around again and the light went out of her eyes as she screwed up her nose. “In this dump?”

Shaunna ignored the insult and nodded toward the big barn. “He’s in there. Last stall on your right.” As Lanie started toward the barn, Shaunna called after her, “He’s still very upset. Don’t go into the stall. Just talk to him from outside.”

“He’s my horse, and I’ll do what I want,” Lanie snapped back.

“Even if going in would cause you to lose him?”

Lanie stopped and faced her, and Shaunna knew she had to back up her statement.

“If you go in,” she said, “and Magic hurts you, your father will have to call the Bureau of Land Management to come take the horse away. And the way he is now, he’ll end up being destroyed. You don’t want that, do you?”

“Magic wouldn’t hurt me,” Lanie said, but Shaunna knew the girl wasn’t convinced that was true. She also knew, if Lanie loved her horse, she would do the right thing.

Without answering, Lanie turned around and started walking toward the barn. Shaunna looked at Tyler, and he shook his head. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I was afraid she’d be like this. She’s so angry about everything.”

“She’s a lot like her horse, then.” Shaunna nodded in Lanie’s direction. “I think we’d better follow her in.”

“Definitely.” Tyler wanted to see the horse again, and he wasn’t sure he trusted Lanie to stay out of the stall.

“I hope you don’t mind my bringing him here without letting you know,” Shaunna said as they walked toward the barn. “I just couldn’t leave him there.”

“It’s hard to believe you got him here.” Tyler had been worried about how they would accomplish that feat. “Last time I saw him, he was ready to eat every human alive.”

“It wasn’t easy, but we made it.”

“Two days ago, you said you didn’t have a place for him.”

She shrugged. “I moved one of my horses. He’ll be fine for a while.”

At the entrance to the barn, Shaunna stopped and so did he. From where Tyler stood, he could see Lanie. The girl had already reached the last stall, and to his relief, she was standing on a box outside the stall, looking in.

“This won’t work unless she cooperates, you know,” Shaunna said, her voice slightly lowered so it wouldn’t carry down to Lanie. “If he’s going to be her horse, he’s got to learn to trust her again. He doesn’t know what happened, doesn’t know about the accident or that Lanie was hurt. He only knows that he was moved from a place where there was kindness and good care to a hellhole. I’m sure it was traumatic for him to be taken from the wild. Now he’s bad two experiences where he’s been taken from someplace where he was happy. He’s learning to distrust all humans, and regaining his trust isn’t going to happen overnight. Lanie’s got to realize that.”

“I’ll talk to her,” Tyler said although he wasn’t sure that would help.

They proceeded down the wide concrete aisle. They were flanked by horse stalls and the smell of horses, along with the smell of fly spray, fresh horse droppings and leather. The only light in the barn came from what filtered in from the open doors at each end and the windows in each stall. He could see fans installed along the ceiling and fluorescent light fixtures, but none of them were on at the moment.

As they neared the last stall, they could hear Lanie talking. “Oh, Magic, what have they done to you?” she kept repeating, and Tyler felt her words stab at his heart.

She was right He was the one responsible. He’d put the horse in that stable.

He felt Shaunna’s hand on his arm, a light and reassuring touch. “You didn’t know,” she said softly, and he glanced her way.

She was nearly his height, her dark hair pulled back and braided in a single loose braid that hung down to her shoulder blades. Again there was a feather woven into the braid, this time only one, and in the dim light of the barn, her skin tones looked darker.

He’d thought of her often since leaving her. Not that he’d wanted to think about her. Somehow her image just kept popping into his head—memories of how she’d looked, the sound of her voice and the warmth of her smile. Images that had excited him, just as now the touch of her hand and husky sound of her voice had his pulse racing.

“Look at him! He’s not any better off here. This place is no better than the other one,” Lanie said accusingly, and Tyler’s attention returned to his daughter.

“Things may look the same,” Shaunna said, her voice calm and soothing as she walked over to stand beside Lanie. “But he’s better off here. It’s going to take time.”

Tyler also moved closer so he could look into the stall. What he saw made him ill.

The horse was standing against the back wall, eyeing them with a wild look. Tyler could see the horse’s ribs, their sharp delineation a reminder of the other stable owner’s solution for handling ill-tempered horses. What had probably once been a beautiful mahogany coat was now a rough, scruffy, dull red brown, hair missing in some places and in other places so matted with dung they formed hardened clumps. The freeze brand on his neck—his identification as a wild horse—was barely discernible beneath the filth, and his black mane and tail were a twisted, knotted mess. Dirt had turned the white star on his forehead and the white sock on his foreleg a dusty brown, and even at a distance, the smell of him was vile.

The only bit of white that Tyler could see was in the horse’s eyes. And it wasn’t a good sign.

“All we did yesterday was transport him here and get him settled in the stall,” Shaunna said, speaking more to Lanie than to him. “I want him to get used to the smells and sounds around here today, then tomorrow we’ll open the door so he can go out.” She pointed toward the left side of his stall where the outline of a solid door could be seen. “All of my stalls have direct access to an attached paddock. I felt this stall would be best for your horse since it was built for a stallion. It should hold him.”

“He’s a gelding,” Lanie snapped, looking at Shaunna as if she were stupid.

“I know he’s a gelding. He’s also a Mustang, and Mustangs, especially those that were born in the wild, are a lot more wily than horses bred in captivity. Until he decides we aren’t the enemy, we’re going to need something strong to hold him. Otherwise, you’re going to be looking all over Bakersfield for your horse.”

“He never tried to get out at our place,” Lanie said defiantly.

Shaunna didn’t lose her composure. “That was then, this is now. At that other stable, he discovered that he could get out. That’s why they were keeping him in a stall all the time. We’ve got to show him that he can’t get out.”

“I want to touch him, pet him,” Lanie said, and stuck her arm through the bars on the stall. “Come here, Magic,” she called.

“I wouldn’t do that,” Shaunna warned.

Lanie glared at her. “He’s my horse.” Using the flat of her hand, she slapped it against the inside of the stall wall to get the horse’s attention. “Magic, come.”

The Mustang came.

With a lunge, he sprang toward Lanie, his teeth bared and his ears laid back. The horse’s squeal of anger sent a chill down Tyler’s spine, and he automatically grabbed Lanie, pulling her off the box and out of danger. The two of them landed on the concrete floor of the aisle, Lanie on top of him. The breath was knocked out of Tyler, but not out of Lanie.

“You ruined him!” she yelled, scrambling to her feet. “Everything’s ruined!”

She looked down at Tyler, hatred in her eyes, then turned and ran back down the aisle and out of the barn toward the parking area. Shaunna watched Tyler push himself up from the floor and brush off his khaki slacks. She saw the dirt on the back of his slacks but said nothing. She wanted to know what his reaction was going to be and kept her eyes on his face.

He sighed, shaking his head as he watched his daughter leave the barn. Then he looked at Shaunna. “Well, so much for the horse helping the two of us establish a relationship. I think, if anything, he’s driving a bigger wedge between us.” Then he added bitterly, “If there could be a bigger wedge.”

“She’s very angry,” Shaunna said, knowing that was an understatement.

“Tell me about it. She acts as if it’s my fault that her mother and stepfather are dead. I don’t know what to do. Her doctor says she just needs time, but that’s what I’ve been hearing for almost six months, and things haven’t been getting any better.” Again, he sighed. “I’d better go after her.”

“What have you gotten yourself into?” Shaunna muttered to herself as she watched Tyler follow his daughter out of the barn. Then she looked back into the horse’s stall.

Magic had returned to the far wall and was watching her, a wary look in his eyes. Given time, she could probably help the horse. She wasn’t sure about Tyler and Lanie.

Before they left, Tyler set up an arrangement with Shaunna. Since it was summer vacation and they didn’t have to worry about school, every day for the next two weeks Lanie would spend some time at the stable working on reestablishing a relationship with Magic. Someone would bring her, and he would pick her up at night after he got off work. Not only would she spend time with her horse, she would do any chores Shaunna assigned her and take some riding lessons.

Shaunna felt it was the best way for her to see what Lanie could do and how she acted with other horses. The girl was angry, and Shaunna had seen too many people take out their anger on animals. She wasn’t about to ask Magic to trust them if Lanie was going to turn around and destroy that trust.

On Monday, Lanie arrived around one o’clock. Shaunna expected the girl to be excited. Instead, she was met with sullen resistance. Even seeing her horse out in the paddock didn’t help Lanie’s attitude. When the horse didn’t come when Lanie called him, it was Shaunna who got the blame. She tried to explain Magic’s thinking to the girl, but Lanie wasn’t ready to listen.

Shaunna found herself trying to puzzle out the girl as much as the horse, but by Friday, she was ready to give up. The horse was settling in nicely, though it was clear that Magic didn’t trust any of them and could still be quite dangerous. Lanie, however, wasn’t settling in nicely at all. No matter what Shaunna said or did, Lanie got angry. Shaunna knew she had a thick hide and could take it—after all, she’d grown up being called incompetent by her father and berated by her mother, but when Lanie started swearing, then decided to take out her anger on one of the other young riders at the stable, Shaunna decided matters had gone far enough. Putting her stable manager in charge, she drove Lanie to her father’s place of business.

Tyler was working at his desk, reading over the new tax laws and trying to decide how to summarize them for the benefit of his clients. When his telephone rang, he automatically picked it up.

“There’s a woman here who wants to see you,” Eve, the firm’s receptionist, said. “She has your daughter with her, and they—”

Before Eve finished, his door banged open and Lanie stormed into his office. “She says I can’t be around Magic,” Lanie shouted. “That I can’t even set foot on her property again. Well, I want you to know, I don’t care. She’s a slave driver, that’s what she is!”

Tyler stared at her as she marched up to his desk, then he looked back at Shaunna, who’d followed Lanie into his office. Behind Shaunna was Eve. He nodded toward the receptionist, indicating that he’d like his door closed. Eve discreetly complied while Lanie continued her tirade.

“Look at me!” she cried. “She treats me like dirt!”

Tyler did look at her. Lanie’s jeans and boots were filthy, dirt ground into the denim and crusted around her soles. She even had dirt on her face and in her hair, and he had a feeling it wasn’t just dirt. The smell in his office was definitely pungent.

“I’m her slave,” Lanie said dramatically. “Is this what you plan on doing with me? Are you going to turn me into a slave?”

Tyler wasn’t sure what to think. Lanie’s physical condition certainly indicated something was wrong. Though she’d come home dirty the past four days, she’d never been this dirty.

“As for her—” Lanie turned and pointed a finger at Shaunna “—she’s not helping Magic. She doesn’t do anything with him, just lets him run around in that paddock. She won’t even let him into his stall except when it’s time for him to eat. And then you know what she makes me do? She makes me clean out his paddock. I have to scoop up his crap.”

She emphasized the word, and Tyler cringed, wondering how far her voice was carrying. He looked at Shaunna, expecting an explanation, but when his gaze met hers, her topaz eyes clear and steady, she merely nodded.

And Lanie wasn’t finished. “All she does is order me around. Do this. Do that. Don’t do this. Don’t do that. I’m supposed to be getting to know my horse, but when do I have time to get to know him? She’s got me so damn busy doing other things, I don’t have time to get to know him.”

“Don’t swear,” Tyler said, then spoke to Shaunna. “Is this true?”

“I expect her to follow the barn rules, and I expect her to do what I say when I say it,” she said calmly. “And I think she has more to tell you.”

He looked back at Lanie. Immediately, she glared at him. “What does it matter what I tell you? You’re going to take her side, aren’t you? I should’ve known it. I’m nothing to you. You don’t give a—”

She used the F word, and at exactly that moment, the door to his office swung open. In stormed his boss, Gordon Fischer, his face a crimson-red, and right behind him was Gordon’s niece, Alicia. Both looked shocked.

As soon as they were in the room, Gordon and Alicia scanned the office, their expressions almost identical as their gazes landed on Lanie, then on Shaunna. Both uncle and niece wrinkled their noses.

Gordon spoke first. “What is going on here?” he demanded, staring directly at Tyler. “Everyone up and down the hall can hear you two arguing. And the language...”

Tyler mentally cringed. He knew his boss didn’t like a scene. Gordon believed an accounting firm should represent calm efficiency and traditional values. You did not have family arguments in your office, and you didn’t swear.

Alicia said nothing, but he noticed how she was looking at Shaunna. The contrast between the two women was even more apparent than he’d imagined. Alicia was wearing her red power suit and high heels, her blond hair neatly confined in a twist and her makeup flawless. Shaunna, on the other hand, wore scuffed cowboy boots, soiled denims, a faded plaid cotton shirt that had a large stain across the front, and no makeup at all.

Although Lanie had met Gordon once, the day Tyler had given her a tour of the offices, and knew Alicia from the times Alicia had come to the hospital and then to the house, Tyler thought he’d better introduce Shaunna. “Gordon. Alicia. I’d like you to meet—”

Lanie didn’t let him finish. “Oh great,” she snapped. “Now you’re going to be all proper, just like you always get when Ah-lee-sha is around.”

She was looking at Alicia when she stretched out her name, and Tyler knew Lanie was a ticking time bomb. He didn’t want to imagine what she would come out with next. “Lanie,” he said in warning, hoping she’d get the message.

Lanie glared back at him and let out a series of words that would make a street kid blush. She then made her departure, bumping against the two standing in her way.

“I never,” Alicia said, turning to stare after the ten-year-old.

“Really,” Gordon said.

Then Shaunna spoke. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have bothered you here at work. I’ll get her and take her home for you.” She headed for the doorway, nodding at Alicia and Gordon as she passed.

Tyler watched her go, too dumbfounded to say anything.