The Shining Stallion by Terri Farley

Author:Terri Farley
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2007-09-27T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

Together, Darby and her grandfather admired Hoku.

The mustang filly was recovering from her sea journey. Rolling on the warm Hawaiian grass had helped her shed the dull hair from her coat. Her hollow face and sunken sides were filling out from hay, and though the gleam in her eyes was wild, Hoku looked less haunted.

“If her Quarter Horse half beats down that wild blood, your filly might turn into a passable horse,” Jonah said.

Darby loved her filly’s wild side. She didn’t want it beaten down, but she’d heard the dare in her grandfather’s voice. She kept quiet, without hiding her smile.

“You going to have her ready to lead in a few days?” he asked.

“I think so,” Darby said, but she didn’t mention the jump rope.

Jonah grunted, then changed the subject without warning. “Hear the goat surprised you.”

“Yeah,” Darby said.

“Megan feels bad she didn’t warn you.”

“Is that what she said?” Darby asked, wondering how Megan could have forgotten something like that.

“She didn’t have to. I was up at the house when you screamed—”

“I didn’t scream,” Darby insisted. “I never scream.”

“—and she knew exactly what had happened. Even told me to go easy on you about Luna because she felt so bad about forgetting.”

Darby was thinking this over when Jonah made another turn in the conversation.

“Once I got a roping horse, Nell, from a friend on Maui. Cheap, too, because she was fussing with a high-dollar Appy mare of his. Biting her, kicking, and you know in the old times, lots of Appaloosas had little rattails. Nell made a special point of plucking mouthfuls of hair from the Appy’s tail. After a while, it was nothing but sore, pink skin.

“So I took Nell. She worked for me, but the mare had no spark and she was off her feed. Soon I got a call from my friend asking did I want to return Nell or take the Appy, because much as the two carried on, they were such good friends, the Appy had been deafening them all, calling after Nell ever since she’d left.”

Darby sighed.

It wasn’t the first time Jonah had used an animal story to point out something about people.

“I get it,” she told him. “You think Megan and I should be friends, even though we’ve gotten off to a rough start.”

“Granddaughter, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jonah said. “I was only telling you about a couple horses.”

Darby let him have it his way, but she couldn’t help wondering if he was thinking of her or Megan as the one with the rattail.

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