Golden Ghost (15 page)

Arms crossed in stubborn firmness, Jen stood on the other side of the fence, waiting.

“You giving up a career in veterinary medicine for a life of crime?” Sam called to her. “Suspension from school's not so bad, but I don't know what they do to horse thieves these days.”

“They don't hang them,” Jen said, and as she gave a weary laugh, Sam thought there might be hope after all.

S
am walked through the schoolhouse garden, stepping carefully until she met Jen at the fence.

“Have you told my parents I cut school?” Jen asked.

Sam sighed in relief as Jen raised a canteen to her lips to drink. She'd brought her own water.

And there were no horses in sight. She could quit worrying about the arsenic.

“No, I didn't tell. And I asked Ryan not to get them all stirred up, but they're bound to be wondering. It'll be dark in another two hours.” Sam paused to look back down at the horses. Champ and Ace had shifted to the ends of their reins. They looked restless and alert. “Are you hoping the surprise of Golden Rose will make them forget your, uh, mistakes?”

“Yeah, and I think it will work.”

Sam didn't ask how, because it didn't matter.

Jen had to get home. Although the sun still shone,
the temperature had dropped even lower than the predicted six degrees last night. Jen's pink parka wouldn't protect her overnight.

She would freeze to death without shelter, and the town of Nugget would have one more ghost.

“While you've been up here working, did you find any more skeletons?” Sam asked.

Jen's eyes got bigger and she wrapped her arms around herself. “There are all kinds of little bones up here. Rodents and birds, but only two horses. It's not that they scare me, or gross me out,” Jen said solemnly. “After all, I am a scientist at heart. But it makes me sad. It's the opposite of what I want this place to be. Don't laugh, but I've been doing a lot of thinking. I want this to be a place for rebirth. You know? I'll catch Golden Rose and my dad can start over with Kenworthy palominos.”

They heard the first hoof as Jen screwed the top back on the canteen.

They looked at each other, then up the ravine.

Backlit by afternoon sun, the Phantom and Golden Rose stood together. Her palomino coat shone like flame against the cool silver of his. Their manes flowed to the left, pale and silken. Muscles bunched, they watched the humans.

Sam let her breath out by degrees.

It was the wrong time of year for horses to take mates, but these two were surely friends. Locked off from his family, the Phantom had found Rose. Lonely
after the pinto's desertion several weeks ago, she'd joined his tiny herd.

Champ and Ace were neighing now, but only Rose gave a sign that she cared.

“Here they come.” Jen breathed the words as the palomino, quiet and graceful as a doe, picked her way through the boulders.

As she drew near, the mare stopped in a narrow place where she was flanked by purplish rock, and the dirt was bare of boulders. Sam noticed the dark sweat patches on her coat. The horses had been running and the mare was headed for water.

“Keep her away,” Sam said, but her eyes were on the Phantom.

The stallion snorted and shifted. He had to be as thirsty as Rose, but something kept him from coming to the water. Was it their presence, or did he sense something was wrong?

Rose was only yards away from Jen.

Jen held a coiled rope. “If you mess this up for me, I'll never forgive you,” Jen yelled at Sam.

Sam didn't listen. “Get out of here!” she shouted, waving her arms.

The mare only looked quizzical.

With a snort of anger, the stallion came after her.

He leaped to the barren spot between the purple rock walls, then came down at a hoof-hammering speed to slash harsh bites on the mare's rump.

Her squeal echoed along with Jen's shout.

“No!” Jen yelled, as if the bite had hurt her, too.

Floating like a ghost horse, the stallion was already past the length of the mare's body and passing in front of her. He was no more than six feet away from Jen. Standing between her and the palomino, he used his body to sweep the mare back from the water.

“Leave her alone!” Jen shouted, but this time she threw the canteen.

A thud on shoulder muscle. And then there was a clatter of hooves as the Phantom backed from Jen and Rose. For the space of a heartbeat, he looked at Sam.

The stallion's dark brown eyes peered through his shaggy forelock, asking why.

He'd come to her for help, and she'd failed him. Looking at Jen as she raged toward the stallion, Sam wondered which one of them really deserved her friendship.

“Knock it off,” Sam yelled at Jen. She gave her a push and the violence of her movement sent the Phantom leaping back up the rocky slope to the top of the ravine.

He was gone by the time Jen recovered enough to gape at her.

“I didn't hurt him!”

“I don't care. You tried.” Sam leaned forward. Her nose was almost touching Jen's and she wanted to push her down.

“He was trying to steal Rose.”

“No he wasn't,” Sam insisted. “He was trying to stop her from drinking. There's arsenic in the water. At least, they found it in the dead pinto. And she was up here. Remember?”

Sam heard her own uncertainty, but it made too much sense to ignore.

Jen held her hands over her eyes. When she uncovered them, Sam couldn't tell if she was laughing or crying.

“Sam, you don't really believe that, do you? He wanted to add her to his harem.”

Jen was laughing.

With the Phantom safe, Sam wanted to unleash all her worry and anger on Jen.

Instead, she turned to walk away. But she didn't make it very far.

“I tried to help you every way I could, and it wasn't enough,” she shouted over her shoulder. “Good luck with your parents, because I'm out of here.”

“Oh, Sam, come back here,” Jen called.

But Sam could still hear the laughter in Jen's voice. She'd had enough. She mounted Ace and rode out of the ghost town, leaving Jennifer Kenworthy on her own.

Ace didn't waste any time in distracting Sam from her dark thoughts. The little bay mustang proved he'd had yesterday off. After all the excitement in Nugget, he was ready for a run.

For a while, Sam wondered if the Phantom was nearby. Her eyes scanned every foothill in the distance and every inch of playa unrolling before her.

Finally she decided she couldn't blame the Phantom for Ace's energy. She saw no sign of him. What she did see was three Canada geese walking on the playa.

When they were still a mile away, Ace started trotting sideways, ears cocked in their direction.

“It's weird, but you can handle it,” Sam told her horse. “Maybe they were on their way to California and mistook this for the beach.”

As they drew closer, Sam realized the majestic birds were actually circling a tuft of pale winter grass.

“Maybe the thaw exposed something they like to eat, Acey,” Sam told her horse.

Ace clearly wasn't interested in her Discovery Channel narration. When the geese honked in his direction, Ace started shaking.

Sam reined him away.

“Don't be a baby,” Sam told him.

This afternoon was going from bad to worse, and if she got home after dark she couldn't guess what Brynna and Dad would do to her. Yes, she could. She'd be cleaning Blackbeard's Closet.

All at once, the geese began running for takeoff. After a few flat-footed, accelerating steps, they were airborne. Wind rushed through their wings. They
flapped. They flew. They rolled shining black eyes as they rose into the sky.

It was too much for Ace and he began to buck.

Sam lost her reins, made a grab for the horn, and missed. Ace twisted out from under her like a sidewinder.

She hit the playa with a thump that knocked the breath out of her. She raised up to see him running, but she couldn't get the oxygen to call him back. Ace was running for home, without her, and all Sam could do was sit there and try to breathe.

There was no sense waiting for him to come back.

Sam stood. The geese were gone, but she saw something on the horizon. A truck was coming her way.

Jed Kenworthy's truck moved in a cloud of vapor and Sam realized it was getting cold already.

Both Jed and Lila sat inside the truck. Lila had the window down as they pulled alongside Sam and braked to a stop.

“Are you all right, Sam? What happened? Ryan told us you might need help up at Nugget. Where's Jen?”

“I'm okay,” Sam managed to answer one of the questions.

From across the truck cab, Jed leaned forward. “We saw Ace hightailin' it for home.” His brown face looked slightly amused.

“Some geese flew practically up his nose—” she broke off, shaking her head. She was still mad at Jen,
but her parents deserved to know what was going on. “Jen's still up in Nugget.”

Lila opened the door and scooted closer to her husband so Sam had room to sit. “Hop in,” she said. “We're going up there.”

Sam didn't protest. It was just too bad if Jen didn't want her parents. She needed them.

They'd only driven for a minute when Jed grumbled, “What kinda idiot stunt is that girl pulling?”

Sam glared at him. She could feel herself do it, and though she didn't do it on purpose, she didn't try to stifle the mean look. Instead, she answered him.

“The kinda idiot stunt she hopes will make you happy.”

For a full minute, there was only the sound of the truck rolling across the playa. That kind of rudeness wasn't acceptable at River Bend Ranch. If this got back to Dad, she might want to clean Blackbeard's Closet, because it would be her new home.

“We found Golden Rose,” Sam said.

“Impossible,” snapped Jed.

“How?” Lila gasped.

“Jen's been trying to catch her and bring her home so that you can start your breeding program again and you won't leave the ranch.”

Lila took a long, shuddering breath. Her husband frowned through the windshield.

“Well, I'll be,” Jed muttered, but he wasn't talking
about Jen and the palomino.

A sea of glittering water spread across the playa. A lavender building floated upside down amid shimmering ripples. The mirage was back.

While Jen's parents marveled, Sam wondered if Jen's plan was just as unreal as the mirage. At first it had seemed magical that Golden Rose had appeared just in time to rescue the Kenworthys. But nothing had changed.

Nothing except Jen had yelled at her and she'd pushed Jen. Hard. They'd done a pretty good job of fracturing the friendship they'd feared distance would end.

Still looking at the mirage, Jed gave a grunt. “Things aren't always what they seem, I guess.”

He kept his left hand on the steering wheel and patted Lila's knee with his right.

“Thought you and Jen would like to go someplace sparkly and new. Thought I was doin' it for you. Turns out I was wrong on both counts.” Jed narrowed his eyes. “It'd probably just be all dust when we got there, anyway.”

A hush filled the truck cab as they passed Lost Canyon.

The mirage thinned to dancing colors, a dim reflection, and then a haze. It had vanished completely by the time they reached the last stretch of road before Nugget.

Sam blinked. She tried to bring something just
ahead into focus. It wasn't another mirage. At first she thought it was sagebrush. Or maybe a white-faced steer. It was too distant to know for sure.

“The road up to Nugget is a mess, as I recall,” Lila said. “I guess we'll have to hike in.”

“I don't think so,” Sam said, because she'd just figured out that the figure up ahead was Jen. She was riding Champ and leading Golden Rose.

Jed braked to a stop, threw the truck into park, and turned the ignition off.

He'd climbed out of the truck by the time Jen dismounted.

Sam reached for the door handle, but Lila touched her arm and shook her head.

“I think it would be best if we let them work this out in private.”

Lila's face was filled with longing. She wanted to jump out of the truck and run to them, too, but she didn't.

Jen looked about ten years old. Her father wasn't much taller, but Jen acted as if he was. When she handed him the lead rope attached to the mare's halter, Jen tilted her head back. Her hair had straggled free of both braids. As her father held the rope and stared at the mare, Jen chewed on her thumb-nail.

“This is what's been making her act so strange, then,” Lila said to Sam.

“You mean crazy,” Sam said, and Lila laughed.
“Really, she's been staking everything on this.”

In front of them, as dusk closed in, Jen and her father stood talking.

For the first time in months, Sam realized Jed Kenworthy really did look like her own dad. Maybe it was because he looked happy.

“It might have been a good gamble,” Lila said. “If Jed has something of his own to work for, he might see an end to living under Linc Slocum's thumb. It was always a compromise, but lately, he's been seeing it as a life sentence.”

In the purple-gray twilight, between two golden horses, Jen and her father hugged.

Lila leaned across Sam and rolled down the window. “Want me to drive home and you two can bring the horses?” she called to her husband.

Jed raised his right hand in an OK sign. He kept the other arm around Jen. But then, as Lila maneuvered herself into the driver's seat, Jen's hands waved, trying to keep them from leaving.

She ran to the truck, reached inside, and grabbed Sam's shoulder.

“Ow! Are you trying to pull me through the window?” Sam said, pretending to be cranky.

“I'm so sorry. I know I didn't hurt the Phantom, but I have been acting”—Jen searched for a way to be honest, yet easy on herself—“eccentric.”

“Wrong,” Sam said. “I told your mom you were crazy and I'm sticking by that.”

“I was,” Jen admitted with a sigh. Then her face lit with its usual sarcasm. “Crazy as a dog in a meat market, to quote someone we all know and
don't
admire. But it fits, I'm afraid.” Jen looked back over her shoulder at her father and the two palominos. “I only had one goal in mind, and I was a jerk 'til I achieved it. But Sam, it might actually work!”