“Are you serious?” Bridget fumed. “That’s too much.”
Sophia turned to her mom. “I’ll be responsible. I won’t spend all of it at once, like she said. And there’s this sci-fi book series I’ve been dying to read. All the kids at school have all five books and I have no idea what they’re raving about. Now I can read them.”
Bridget reluctantly nodded for her to go ahead and get the books. “But you can’t get anything else until you read all of those first.”
Sophia beamed. “Yes. Okay. Thank you.” She turned to Sarah again. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
Sarah smiled. “You’re welcome. Now go make cupcakes with your grandma. I’ll send the boys down.”
Sarah started up the stairs when Margaret said to Bridget, “At least she spent some of Sean’s money on his niece. He’d have wanted to do that for her.”
However Margaret and Bridget wanted to justify the tablet for Sophia without giving Sarah credit for doing something nice, fine. Sarah didn’t really care. Let them think Sean would have done it. She knew the truth. Sean hadn’t bought anything for any of them in all the years they were married. She sent all the birthday and Christmas gifts. She had to remind Sean to call his mom and sister on their birthdays. And when he did, he played it up big-time that he remembered them and was so glad they liked the gift he picked out just for them. They ate it up. Sean kept his good-guy, best-brother-and-son status because of her.
They really didn’t know him at all.
Not the way Sarah did.
Chapter Eleven
Luke’s surly mood simmered for the next day and a half. He didn’t know what to do with the information it took Dean only a few hours to obtain and send to Luke. Sarah’s adult record was clean. No arrests. No parking or speeding tickets. She’d been an upstanding citizen as an adult.
But apparently sixteen-year-old Sarah Anderson had indeed burned her uncle’s ranch to the ground and stood there and watched it go up in flames until the police arrived and arrested her at the scene. She didn’t deny doing it. In fact, she’d confessed to the crime to the responding officer.
The only explanation in the police report for why she’d done it was because she was angry her uncle had sold their horses.
The reason on the surface didn’t warrant her retaliation.
He didn’t know what to make of the information.
He thought of a thousand scenarios that would set her off and make her rage at her uncle and burn the place down. None of them was as benign as the sale of some horses.
He didn’t think she had a quick-trigger temper. He’d never seen her even raise her voice with the boys. Margaret hadn’t mentioned any fights she knew about between Sarah and Sean. She hadn’t called to tell him Sarah had done anything disturbing during her visit.
So what really happened? What provoked that kind of rage?
It ate away at him and consumed his thoughts.
Everyone knew the boss was in a bad mood and they avoided him. So it was surprising when Jerry sought him out in the barn and stood in the doorway. Luke had let several of the horses, including Ace, out into the pasture while he cleaned a few of the stalls. He’d been working out some of his frustrations since before dawn, same as he’d been working himself to death the last couple days.
“Luke, you better come out to the pasture.” Jerry stood back, giving Luke space, but he had a look in his eye that worried Luke.
“What’s going on? Is Ace all right?”
“He’s fine. Agitated, because the men got too close to his prize.”
Luke’s eyebrow shot up. “What?”
“Come take a look.”
Frustrated, he pushed the pitchfork handle against the stall wall. “Just tell me what’s going on.”
“You have to see it to believe it. None of us can get close enough, but I think Ace will let you.”
“That damn horse is going to be the death of me. Can’t he behave?”
They made their way out to the pasture. Luke counted three men with seven horses, Ace among them, all standing around something in the field.
“What’s that on the ground inside the circle of horses, and why won’t they let the men get close to it?”
“You’ll see. It’s the strangest thing. I couldn’t get past any of them animals. They’ve turned into guard dogs.”
Luke’s worry rose the closer he got to the horses. He was finally getting a clear picture of what the horses were doing. Seven horses surrounded a body on the ground. Luke’s heart pounded; he was sure the horses had trampled someone. They wouldn’t allow anyone near whoever had been hurt or killed. Luke quickened his pace until he was right in front of Ace, trying to get past him. The huge animal wouldn’t budge. Ace shifted and blocked Luke again, but he caught a glimpse of the woman.
Sarah.
His heart stopped. He had no idea if she was alive. The devastating thought made his heart pound so hard and fast, he couldn’t catch his breath. He needed to get to her.
Since Ace wouldn’t let him pass, he stopped in his tracks, thinking about the best way to get to her through the horses.
“Did anyone see her get trampled?” Luke held on to his control by a thin thread.
“I don’t think she’s injured,” Jerry called out. “We just can’t figure out what she’s doing out here.”
So far, she hadn’t responded to any of the noise around her. Terribly pale, she didn’t move, but he caught the slight rise and fall of her chest.
“I don’t think she’s hurt,” Jerry called again.
Saying it didn’t make it true.
Luke was about to lose it. He’d never lost control in any situation, but seeing Sarah lying limp on the ground nearly did him in. Sarah needed help, but if Luke didn’t keep a rein on his emotions, he was going to make things worse.
Luke ran a shaking hand through his hair and kept his eyes on Sarah. He took a deep breath and approached Ace, standing a few feet in front of him with Sarah a good ten feet behind her guard horse.
He reached up and stroked Ace and gave him some soothing words. As he stroked Ace, he moved with him closer and closer to Sarah. Although he was talking to Ace and running his hands down his long neck, he kept his gaze on her.
Her arms lay on the grass above her head and her knees were bent and laying to her left. Her long dark hair spread about her head and arms. She looked peaceful, but for the exhaustion etched on her face.
She wore a white tank top and blue plaid flannel shorts. There didn’t appear to be any dirt on her clothes, or her bare legs, so he assumed she hadn’t been trampled. God, he hoped she was all right.
He hadn’t seen her since he’d yelled at her in the training ring, but he hadn’t really stopped thinking about her either.
The closer he got the more worried he became and the knot in his stomach wouldn’t let up. He couldn’t remember ever being this scared, not knowing if she was okay.
What would he tell her boys?
The thought squeezed his heart.
About five feet from her now, Ace stood still right beside him, trying to keep Luke away. Luke wasn’t having any of it and kept walking, using his weight and strength to finally push Ace off to the side.