Untamed (Phantom Stallion, No. 11) by Terri Farley

Author:Terri Farley
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780060561598
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2004-04-13T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

“Whose land are the mustangs on? Caleb Sawyer’s?” Sam demanded. “I want to go out there right now.”

“That may be so,” Brynna replied, coolly, “but it’s not going to happen.”

Brynna didn’t deny it was the hermit’s ranch, so Sam knew she’d guessed right.

“Why not? Why would you protect someone like him instead of the horses?”

“I’m not protecting him over the horses. If the horses were grazing on land he leased from BLM, it wouldn’t matter. But this is his home ranch.” Brynna gave a one-shouldered shrug as if she were helpless. “Under law, wild horses must stay on government land. It’s my job to make sure they do.”

Brynna was really going now. She didn’t stop and Sam stayed silent.

“Wild horses can’t go eat ranchers out of house and home. Those ranchers have a right to expect us to take the horses away.”

“Away where?” Sam asked.

Brynna was speeding onto the freeway now, glancing back over her left shoulder for oncoming traffic.

“How do you think your dad would like it if mustangs were crowding our cattle?” she asked, ignoring Sam’s question.

“Away where?” Sam demanded.

“I won’t be shouted at,” Brynna said, settling into driving, eyes fixed on the road ahead. Sam knew she was being punished with silence.

It wouldn’t work. She’d spent hours of her life waiting out Jake Ely. And Dad. Outlasting Brynna should be a piece of cake.

Sam passed the time by staring out the window, hoping Brynna would change her mind about visiting the hermit’s ranch at Snake Head Peak. Sam pictured herself facing Caleb Sawyer. She’d ask him, point-blank, if he had quarreled with her mother.

His guilt would show and she’d know if he was telling the truth.

Or, Sam sighed, feeling the longing in her chest, even if they didn’t go to the ranch, if they only drove as far as Antelope Crossing, they might see the Phantom’s herd.

She relived the moment when the powerful stallion had charged the shooter. He had sensed the man was a threat, but he went anyway, protecting his own.

Still staring out the window, pretending to be casual, Sam tried another strategy on her stepmother.

“Have you gone out to check for yourself that the mustangs are on his land?” Sam asked.

“They’re there, Sam. You saw them. And, as far as removing the horses, well, helicopters are expensive,” Brynna said, as if it were a joke. When she noticed Sam wasn’t laughing, she added, “We won’t do anything drastic to begin.”

“To begin?”

“The mares are in foal, or have foals running alongside,” Brynna said patiently. “A gather would be too stressful. We’ll just try to show them it’s not a peaceful place, so they’ll change grazing grounds.”

“What if they come back?”

“We make it unpleasant for them, Sam, and if that fails, we’ll have no choice but to remove them from the range.”

Then they’d have to put them up for adoption, Sam thought. She remembered a bay colt with a patch of white over one eye. She’d spotted him in the Phantom’s herd around Christmas. He’d

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