Pegasus: A Novel Part 15

"What are you doing, Dad?" Lucas asked, looking confused.

"Never mind. Wait here," Nick said, pulling their trailer off the road and jumping out. He ran back to where the other trailers were in line. He ran until he saw her, by the side of the road, with her suitcases, holding Chloe, and Peter was carrying the rest of their bags. She looked like a refugee in a war zone, with big, terrified eyes. "Okay, I give up. We're staying. We'll stay in the circus forever. I love you," Nick said, feeling like jello inside. The dream was worth nothing to him without her. And he loved her more than any ranch.

"We're coming to California," she said in a trembling voice. "We're leaving."

They had each been willing to give up everything they wanted for the other. Her brother smiled at them and set down her bags.

"You're both crazy. You deserve each other." But he was happy for them. "So which way are we going?"

"California," she said clearly as she looked at her husband and smiled.

"Are you sure?" Nick asked her. "I'll stay if you want to. All I want is you. The rest isn't important."

"Yes, it is. To all of us. It will be good for Lucas and Chloe. I don't want her growing up on the high wire, or terrified like my sister." She and Nick walked to his trailer then, and her brother followed with the rest of her bags. Peter kissed them both, and Nick opened the door to speak to Lucas.

"We forgot something," he said matter-of-factly.

"What?" Lucas asked him, confused by the delay.

"Christianna and your sister. They're coming." Lucas's face exploded in smiles. Christianna settled Chloe in the backseat with a bag of toys, and slid in next to Lucas.

They waved at her brother as they left the fairground, and headed for California. It was a long trip, and took them ten days, going slowly with the horses, but they never looked back.

Chapter 27.

It was six months before Nick and Christianna found their ranch in the Santa Ynez Valley. They looked every day, and the right property finally fell into their hands, on the bluff that Nick had always loved on their annual pilgrimages to Santa Ynez. Finding a ranch there was his dream come true.

They rebuilt the ranch house while living in a rented house, and by the end of the year, Pegasus Ranch was off and running, and Nick had bought six more Lipizzaners and a few Arabians. He wanted to breed the best Lipizzaners in the country, using Pegasus as his champion stud, which had always been his plan.

Lucas missed the circus and the clowns, but he liked his new school and made lots of friends, and Chloe was thriving. And even Christianna agreed that a normal home life was better for them all.

Nick exchanged letters with Marianne at Christmas. Her baby, a boy, had been born in July, and she was already pregnant again. Having lost her father, she was grateful for the contact with Nick. He was the last vestige of her lost life in Germany before the war.

Christianna's entire family came to stay with them for several days during the holidays, and again when they were on tour in California the following summer, and they made it a tradition to come twice a year every year from then on. The house was bursting at the seams the moment they arrived, with lots of cooking, laughing, talking, and riding horses around the ranch. Although her father was still unhappy that Christianna had left the circus, he was pleased to see her with a good man and a solid life. And despite her earlier reluctance, Mina had stepped into Christianna's shoes on the high wire. She had no choice once Christianna left, and she had taken on the role without complaint, and seemed more confident about it now. She was dating a Romanian gymnast, and her brother thought they'd get married. They were happy he was in the circus. Only Nick had gotten away with absconding with his bride.

For Nick, and even Christianna, the circus began to feel like a dream that was fading behind them. They loved living on the ranch. The circus had been exciting, but they had a life now that she had never dreamed of before. They had a beautiful home, friends, and Lucas loved his school and friends too. Christianna also loved their horses, and in time Nick had the finest Lipizzaners in the state, and wanted to have the best ones in the country. Pegasus's foals had begun to be born, and were finer than Nick had ever hoped.

After they left the circus, Marianne sent them a Christmas card every year, announcing a new baby. She had four with Arthur now, three boys and a girl, and Violet of course. In her letters, she said that the Beaulieus came to visit them at Garrison Farm once a year, and she and Arthur and the children stayed with them in England at Haversham every summer. Marianne said they were wonderful grandparents to her other children as well. And best of all, she was happy with Arthur. She said he was the kindest man alive, and they shared a terrific life together. Just as Nick and Christianna did on their ranch. They had each found the life of their dreams, after the turbulent years of the war.

For nineteen years after Nick and Christianna left the circus, Marianne was busy with her kids, her husband, and their farm. She and Arthur added on to it, and she was always taking her children to horse shows, as all of them were serious compet.i.tive riders. She never made it to California for a visit during those years as a result. Her life was too full where she was, with five busy children and a husband. And Nick was no better. He could never get away, nor wanted to. And Lucas and Chloe kept them busy too. And monitoring Pegasus's breeding and that of the other horses kept Nick present and intensely occupied on the ranch.

Nick was ashamed and often felt guilty at how much time had gone by without getting together with Marianne, and she felt badly about it, too, but the years pa.s.sed too quickly. It was 1965 before Marianne and Violet were in Santa Barbara for a horse show Violet was in. She was training for the Olympics, and Marianne wanted to drive to the Santa Ynez Valley with Violet, and visit Nick and Christianna at last, even if it was only for a day. She was planning to leave the other children at home with Arthur, and she had a free day with Violet after the show. Nick wrote back and invited them to stay for the weekend. He felt as though he had let his old friend down, that he hadn't seen Alex's daughter for so long. And she was a woman now, with five grown children of her own. Nick was seventy, Christianna was forty-eight. And Chloe had turned twenty-two that year, while finis.h.i.+ng college at a Stanford program in Florence, and speaking Italian fluently, or so she claimed.

Lucas was thirty-three, married to a terrific girl from the Valley, and working on the ranch with his father. They had only been married for a year, and didn't have kids yet, but Nick figured they'd get around to it eventually. Lucas and Sally were in no hurry. And Nick liked her a lot. She was from a family that owned a ranch nearby, and she was as horse crazy as the Bings, and was both knowledgeable and helpful on the ranch. Nick had invited Marianne and her family to Lucas's wedding, but she couldn't get away, and had missed it. She wanted to at least meet Sally now, and hadn't seen Lucas since he was fourteen, which she was sad about too. In her heart, they were part of her family, and always would be.

When Marianne got out of the car at the ranch, after the horse show in Santa Barbara, she looked no different to Nick at forty-four than she had at twenty-five, nineteen years earlier when he'd last seen her, or barely. She was the same beautiful, tall, aristocratic-looking, lanky blonde that she had been as a young girl in Germany, and when she'd married Arthur nineteen years before. And like Nick and Lucas, she'd been American now for years, ever since she married Arthur. And Violet was a beautiful young woman at twenty-three.

Marianne was bowled over when she saw Nick's Lipizzaners-they reminded her of her father's so long ago. And she was pleased to find Pegasus still alive at thirty-one. She considered him an old friend and went to the stables where they kept him, to say h.e.l.lo. He was quiet and old now, but still a spectacular-looking horse, just as he had been when she was in her teens and her father had given him to Nick. He had served Nick well to establish their bloodlines. The success of the ranch was thanks to him. And Violet was excited to see Pegasus and the other Lipizzaners too. She was a horsewoman to her core, like the grandfather she had never known. And she had the exuberance and slightly British eccentricity of her paternal grandmother, Isabel Beaulieu, with whom she spent her summers. Violet said the Beaulieus and her stepfather were close too. And although Arthur had never adopted Violet, out of deference to her father and the Beaulieus, Violet was extremely close to him and he had always been wonderful to her, and treated her no differently than his own children.

Marianne and the Bings had a wonderful visit, and spent a terrific weekend together, as Nick rode all over the ranch with Marianne, and they talked about her father, and some of the memories Nick hadn't allowed himself to think of in years. He still missed Alex, and Toby of course. But life in Germany had faded into the mists for him, except for Alex, Toby, and his own father, Paul. It was part of another lifetime, for both of them. It all seemed so long ago.

Although Violet was ten years younger than Lucas and Sally, they were all such pa.s.sionate horse people that they talked about horses all weekend, and her training on the Olympic equestrian team. They saw her ride at the ranch, and it was no surprise three years later, when they saw on TV that she won the gold medal. She was beaming during the ceremony, and Nick was proud watching her, and knew Alex would have been too.

Lucas and his wife, Sally, were so busy on the ranch that they were married for six more years before they had their first baby, Nick's first grandchild, a little boy they named Alex, after Nick's old friend. Lucas wrote and told Marianne, and she was touched, and sent them a tiny pair of riding boots as a baby present, in memory of her father, and her beloved old friend Toby, Lucas's older brother. Their families were inextricably woven together, even all these years later.

Chloe was studying equine medicine at Davis by then, in order to become a vet for the horses on her father's ranch, and her parents were thrilled with what she was doing.

They had sad news four years later, when Violet wrote to tell them that Marianne had been killed in a car accident on the way to a horse show. She was only fifty-four. It was the end of an era for Nick, and saddened him deeply. Marianne had been the last survivor of a lost world, other than Lucas, who was too young then to remember anything except his life in the circus, once he came to the States. Marianne was part of Nick's extended family, through his bond to Alex, and a last link to him, and now she was gone too. Her early death hit Nick hard, and her daughter Violet maintained the friends.h.i.+p in the ensuing years. She was running her stepfather's horse farm since none of her siblings were interested, and Arthur had turned the farm over to her on her mother's death. He said he wanted to travel, and without his wife, no longer wanted the responsibility of the farm.

Violet married a year after her mother died, to another horse breeder on a neighboring farm, and she had a baby girl a year after that, whom she named Nicola, after Nick. He was eighty-two by then and very touched by her gesture. He was still in good health and very active, although Lucas took over running the ranch that year. But his father went to all the auctions with him when they bought new horses, and Nick still had an unfailing eye. The horses Nick purchased were superb, to maintain their bloodlines, and Lucas had learned his father's lessons well. Lessons Nick had learned from Alex forty years before.

Little Alex, Lucas's son, was six when Violet's daughter Nicola was born. And he was the apple of his grandfather's eye. Nick taught him all about the Lipizzaners, and told him stories about the circus, and the clowns who had been his father's friends when he had been the same age Alex was now. He loved listening to his grandfather's tales of Pegasus, the circus, and the clowns. He knew all about Pegasus, although the stallion had died before Alex was born, and was buried on the ranch.

Nick and his grandson rode together every afternoon, usually just before sunset, while Nick told him stories about the circus, his uncle Toby who died in the war, his father as a boy, and their friend Alex in Germany, whom Alex had been named after, and the beautiful horses he had, how well he trained them, and how brave he was in the war. Alex was fascinated by his grandfather's stories, and they were riding together one day when Nick stopped talking, and seemed to be resting in his saddle, and the beautiful Lipizzaner he was riding, one of the sons of the great Pegasus, just turned slowly home toward the barn, and Alex's horse followed.

"Grampa's sleeping," Alex told Lucas, his father, when they got back to the barn. The little boy didn't look worried, and Lucas glanced at his father and saw what had happened. Nick had been busy and alive until the end, in love with his life, happy on his ranch, and pa.s.sionate about his horses. He had died just the way he would have wanted to, riding a Lipizzaner, cantering across the fields of his ranch with his grandson, and enjoying his life and his world as the sun set on the mountains he had loved.

Lucas sent his son in to see his mother, and then he gently lifted his father down from the saddle for the last time.

They buried him on a peaceful corner of the ranch, near where Pegasus was buried, on the bluff he had visited for so many years with Christianna. They took him to the spot on a horse-drawn carriage, pulled by two Lipizzaners, with his favorite one, saddled and riderless behind it, as Christianna walked beside him.

She visited him every day, and talked to him. And sometimes she rode there on one of the Lipizzaners herself. He had given her a wonderful life, and she had never regretted coming to the ranch with him. He had been right for both of them, and even at sixty, she was a beautiful woman. And she had loved him to the end.

Chapter 28.

The bidding took off at a rapid clip in the auction, near Haversham Castle in Hertfords.h.i.+re in England. It was an auction that happened every year, and drew aficionados from all over the world. The most knowledgeable people about horses, and the most serious buyers, turned up to buy Arabians, fabulous show horses, hunters, jumpers, and whenever possible Lipizzaners. It was the second Lipizzaner on the list, a stallion, that drew the highest bids, and one of the locals, allegedly a family member, a Beaulieu staying at the castle, wasn't letting go. She moved her paddle almost imperceptibly, and kept her eyes locked on the auctioneer's. She had no intention of losing the fabulous stallion to someone else. And she had stiff compet.i.tion from a tall man in a cowboy hat, standing languidly to the side. But his eyes were keen and sharp, and one of the spotters had him in his sights, as the bidding continued to go up at a rapid pace.

"The lady in the pink s.h.i.+rt," the auctioneer said again, as the spotter reported yet another bid from the side an instant later. Eventually everyone else dropped out, and finally with a nod and a smile, the man in the cowboy hat gave up. And the woman in the pink s.h.i.+rt gave a victorious grin, and was patted on the back by two attractive women on either side. The woman who bought the Lipizzaner was tall and blond and looked to be in her early thirties. She gave her information to one of the spotters, as the bidding went on for the next horse, and she left her seat a few minutes later and went to the cas.h.i.+er to pay for the horse. The man in the cowboy hat found her there and extended his hand. He was wearing well-worn cowboy boots to go with the hat.

"I just wanted to congratulate you. He's a gorgeous horse," he said with a broad smile. He had been the underbidder, and hadn't wanted to lose. But he had sensed that the woman who had bought the Lipizzaner wasn't going to give up, at any price. And he had already gone well past his limit on the last bid. He had bought two other horses that day, fabulous Arabians that he was happy with, although the Lipizzaner was what he had come for. The Arabians were extras he just couldn't resist.

"Thank you," the blond woman said pleasantly, with a slightly embarra.s.sed smile. "I'm sorry, I have a thing about Lipizzaners."

"So do I," he said easily. "Did you buy him to show?"

"No, to breed."

"So was I. Maybe we can talk about that sometime. I'm from Pegasus Ranch in California." He was sure that if she knew horses, she had heard of his ranch. And he could hear that she was American, although the women she was with were English.

"Garrison Farm, in Virginia," she said. He knew it. "I'm staying with my cousins nearby." She didn't want to say that she was staying at the castle, which belonged to her cousins. It made her sound like a sn.o.b. He was very understated and casual in his demeanor. And she had been very intense during the bidding. She was a pretty woman, and she was wearing riding boots and jodhpurs. She'd been riding that day right up till the auction. "To be honest, I bought him for sentimental reasons. Lipizzaners are part of my family's history." She felt as though she had to explain why she had been so fierce in the bidding, but he didn't seem to mind. He had lost to her with good grace, and looked intrigued by what she said.

"It's part of my family history too," he said vaguely. There was something in her eyes that looked familiar to him, but he didn't know what it was, as though they had met before.

"My great-grandfather gave his best friend two Lipizzaners in Germany before the war and saved his life. They've kind of been good luck charms for us ever since." She smiled, and he noticed how blue her eyes were, they were the same color as his, although he was as dark as she was fair, and he had a California tan, and lines around his eyes from squinting in the sun. He was in his early forties and a handsome man.

"My grandfather was given two Lipizzaners by his best friend in Germany, and he joined the circus with them, which saved his life," the man in the cowboy hat said carefully, as they compared stories which, strangely, were matched, like two halves of a whole.

"Oh my G.o.d," she said, staring at him as though she'd seen a ghost. "I didn't say the part about the circus because that always sounds so crazy, and I've never been absolutely sure the circus part was true. My mother told me about it, but she was always a little vague about the circus, and my grandmother died before I was born, so I couldn't ask her."

"If we're talking about the same two men, the circus part was true. My grandfather left Germany with two Lipizzaners and six Arabians in a railroad car in 1938, and joined the circus. What's your name?" he asked her, looking mystified. How was it possible that two people who were related to that story had come to England to buy the same horse? It felt like destiny to him.

"Nicky Steele. My grandmother's maiden name was von Hemmerle. Marianne von Hemmerle. Her father's name was Alex. He sent her to England to stay with friends and get out of Germany in 1940. She married an RAF pilot-my grandfather-here during the war. He died, and then she went to America and married again. My mother, Violet Beaulieu Steele, is the daughter of the Englishman, so she's half English, and I have cousins here."

"I'm named after your great-grandfather. I'm Alex Bing. My grandfather's name was von Bingen. Nicolas von Bingen, he changed it to Nick Bing when he joined the circus, and it stuck. He never changed it back after he left the circus. I guess it was easier."

She looked equally stricken by what he said. "I think I'm named after your grandfather. Nicola, people call me Nicky. This is so weird." The hair was standing up on her arms. "I wish my grandmother were still alive so I could tell her. Wait till I tell my mom. I run their farm in Virginia."

"My dad is still alive, Lucas Bing. He was six when they came from Germany, and joined the circus with his brother and my grandfather. My father had an older brother, Tobias, who died in the Pacific in '42. My dad is eighty-two and still going strong. My grandfather Nick pa.s.sed on when I was six, thirty-seven years ago. I was riding with him when he died on our ranch. He just went to sleep while we were talking. All our bloodlines at the ranch came from the original Pegasus, the stallion they brought from Germany before the war."

"I've heard about your ranch. All the names sound familiar. The part about the circus always threw me. It sounded so weird to me, I was never sure it was true," she said, looking slightly embarra.s.sed, and he laughed.

"It always sounded strange to me too. But kind of fun. My grandfather's stories were fantastic. He married a high-wire artist from the circus. She died last year at ninety-six. She was terrific, Polish, and a beautiful woman. Would you like to talk about this over a drink?" His eyes searched hers, looking for something more, as though she were a ghost from the past.

"I'd love it." She smiled at him. "Do you want to come to the house after the auction? Brace yourself, though, *the house' is the size of Buckingham Palace, although it's falling apart. But it's an amazing place. It's where my grandmother lived during the war, and where my mother was born. My grandfather had just died flying a bombing mission the day before." Their crossed paths were rife with history and sounded like a movie.

They both felt as though they were in a time warp. Alex showed up at Haversham two hours later, and had tea and eventually a scotch with her cousins, who told Nicky later that they thought he was incredibly good looking, and she had noticed it too. It was hard not to. He was striking and at the same time very low key. She had mentioned to her cousins that they were linked by history and two Lipizzaners, and gave them a quick rundown on the story before he arrived. They thought it was fascinating, and that he was even more so. He looked like a genuine cowboy to them.

"Fate, my dear," her cousin Fernanda said. And her raised eyebrows nearly flew over her head, and she shot Nicky a meaningful look, when Alex said he was divorced, and had no kids. Nicky was thirty-seven and never married, she had been too busy raising horses. He was roughly six years older than she was, from what he said, although Nicky didn't really care. She loved their story.

The three women and Alex had a nice time together, and eventually Alex said he was meeting friends from the auction at his hotel and had to go.

"Enjoy your Lipizzaner," he said to Nicky with a warm smile as he left. "You won him fair and square. Stay in touch." He was anxious to tell his father about the meeting. He was going back to California in the morning with the two horses he'd bought. And Nicky was flying back to Virginia with the Lipizzaner two days later. Alex reminded her of the name of his ranch before he left. And she repeated the name of her horse farm in Virginia. Neither would be hard to find on the Internet.

"Let's Google him," her cousin said, giggling, after he left. They felt like schoolgirls, and were impressed by the size of the ranch, and there was a nice picture of him, and one of his father, an older but still very attractive man. They were a good-looking family. And there was one of Nick Bing, the late founder of the ranch. And of Pegasus, the stallion for whom the ranch had been named.

"I think you ought to call him sometime, or drop in for a visit," her other cousin suggested after another scotch.

"And say what?" Nicky said with a sheepish look. She would have felt silly calling, despite their common history.

"Call him for advice about the horse you just bought. I think your meeting was fated. The hand of destiny. Think of it, his grandfather and your great-grandfather were best friends. Yours saved his grandfather's life, and now here you are seventy-six years later."

"It's just a coincidence," Nicky said, brus.h.i.+ng it off. "Though weird, I'll admit." Nicky called her mother in Virginia that night and told her, and Violet was touched by the story and remembered meeting Alex's father and his grandfather when she visited the ranch with her mother Marianne, after a horse show in Santa Barbara in 1965, when she was training for the Olympics, three years before she won the gold.

"That was all before I was married, and before I had you, and before the man you met today was born. What's he like?" She was curious about him, the two families still exchanged Christmas cards every year, but she had lost track of the details. And the man her daughter had met at the auction was an echo of her own history, their two families somehow intertwined.

"He's nice. Kind of a handsome cowboy," Nicky said thoughtfully.

"Was he upset you got the horse?"

"No, he was very gentlemanly about it. I wasn't about to give up that horse," she said, and her mother laughed.

"I'm sure that's true." Nicky never gave an inch once she made up her mind. She was strong-willed and independent, which was why she wasn't married. She had never met her match, and wasn't sure she wanted to anymore. She liked her freedom too much. "Well, I can't wait to see the horse. He must be gorgeous," Violet said warmly. They were all horse mad. It was in their blood.

"He is gorgeous," Nicky said, referring to the Lipizzaner and sounding delighted, and she told her mother all about him. And two days later, Violet saw him for herself, when Nicky brought him home. He was even more beautiful than she'd expected, and a gorgeous specimen of the breed.

Nicky started working with him immediately, and trying to break him, but he was the fiercest, most stubborn horse she had ever seen. He was strong and independent. And for the next month, he resisted all her efforts to train him, although she had trained several Lipizzaners before him, and knew the breed well.

She called him Snow, and he tried to bite her whenever she said his name, as though he didn't like it. The rest of the time, he threw her every chance he got. She had never been thrown as often by any horse she tried to train, and she was black and blue from head to foot, but determined not to give up. She almost called Alex Bing once to ask him for advice, for real, not as a ploy, but she didn't want to admit she was having trouble with the horse. It was embarra.s.sing. She had never had a horse she couldn't break, except this one. He was totally wild, and after two months, she was wondering if she should sell him. She thought again about calling Alex Bing, to offer the stallion to him for breeding, but she didn't want to sell him a bad horse. But she was beginning to think that Snow would be good for nothing except breeding. He had flawless bloodlines and a rotten disposition.

She decided to take him to a horse show with her, when she went to Santa Barbara for a jumping event. She was thinking of selling him to a breeder there.

After the show, she left her jumpers at the stable in Santa Barbara and, on the spur of the moment, decided to drive to Santa Ynez to check out Alex Bing's ranch. She took a single-horse trailer with her, with Snow in it, to ask Alex's advice. She didn't call before she got there. She wasn't planning to stay long, and if he was busy, she would just leave.

She was impressed as soon as she drove onto the property, and saw the beautifully maintained ranch, and the enormous barns. They obviously had a lot of horses. She saw him walk out of one of the barns as she drove up. She stopped her trailer, and he turned to look at her. He smiled as though he'd been expecting her to come, and she laughed as she got out of the front seat in jeans and a crisp white s.h.i.+rt. He was wearing the same cowboy hat he'd worn in England or one just like it.

"Well, what brings you here?" He looked pleased to see her, and recognized her immediately when he walked over to her.

"I brought a friend to visit," she said, pointing to the trailer.

"Anyone I know?"

"Could be," she said, as she opened the door of the trailer and led Snow out. He was a splendid horse, and they both stood admiring him for a minute. Alex was happy to see him again, and her.

"How's he doing?" Alex asked with interest, as a much older man stood in the doorway of one of the barns, and watched them with a smile. He had a feeling he knew who she was. Alex had told him the story when he got back from England, and Lucas had been impressed by the sheer coincidence of their meeting at the auction. He sensed that this was the same girl and the horse.

She laughed at the question and was honest with him. "He's a huge pain in the a.s.s. He throws me every time I ride him. He bites me if I say his name. I don't think he'll ever be any good for anything but breeding. He can't be trained." She had trained a lot of horses, but not this one.

"Are you selling him to me?" Alex asked with a look of serious interest, feeling the horse's legs and flanks with expert hands, and Snow stood peacefully and let him do it, while Nicky waited for him to go wild. But he didn't. He looked at Alex like an old friend, and as she watched them, she knew why she had come. It was suddenly crystal clear in her mind.

"No," she said quietly, "I'm giving him to you. I have this crazy feeling that he wants to be here. Besides, it's a family tradition. My family gives yours horses, Lipizzaners, every seventy-six years." Alex laughed and shook his head. He knew what she had paid for him. A fortune.

"I can't accept a gift like that." He smiled as he said it.

"I'm sure your grandfather said something like that to my great-grandfather in 1938."

"Maybe so," Alex said, watching her quietly, and then he looked at the stallion again. "What did you call him?"

"Snow," she said, and the horse turned and gave her a filthy look, but he didn't try to bite her.

"What about Pegasus?" Alex said, and the horse turned again and looked like he was smiling.

"See what I mean? He doesn't even like the name I gave him. I swear, he hates me. I think he wanted to go home with you all along." It felt that way now, watching him nuzzle Alex. He was wearing a bit and bridle, and Alex swung easily onto his bare back and led him around. The giant Lipizzaner was as meek as a lamb. And Alex looked at Nicky and smiled.

"Want to go for a ride? I can grab you a horse from the barn." She was wearing riding boots, and she nodded, still unable to believe that he was riding the huge stallion bareback with no problem. He had a magical way with horses, and the Lipizzaner looked like he knew he was home and had a friend. He had treated Nicky like the enemy since she bought him.