Blazing the Trail (Sunshine & Shadow Book 5) by Alie Williamson Read Free Book Online Page B

shrugged a thick sweatshirt over her head. Running
down the stairs, she met her dad in the hallway.
    “Morning honey! Sleep
well?” He opened the office door.
    “Yeah, great!” April said.
    He raised his eyebrow.
“Me neither.”
    “How did you...?”
    Her dad tapped his
temple.
    “Right,” April said, as
he disappeared into the office. “Father’s intuition.”
    Laughing, she headed to
the kitchen and poured herself a cup of coffee. Sipping it, she wrapped her
hands around the mug and looked out of the window. She could see Kip carrying
an armful of hay towards the round pen, and she nearly ran from the lodge.
    She reached the corral as
he was tossing it over the fence. Her eyes searched until they found the empty
water bucket in the middle of the sand.
    “It was empty this
morning,” Kip said. “I filled it up and went to get hay. Guess the mustang was
thirsty.”
    “Willow,” April said as
she stepped up onto the fence. She peered over and watched the horse begin to
nibble the hay.
    “Willow,” Kip confirmed.
    April’s eyes travelled
down the mustangs injured fetlock.
    “Her leg...”
    “Yeah, we’ll have to
doctor her today. Probably need to get some tranquilizer too.”
    “We don’t have any?”
    Kip shook his head. “Not
a big deal. It’ll take me an hour to run to town and get some.”
    “Can I...Can I come with
you?”
    Kip looked at her.
“Danielle’s coming with me.”
    April turned back to the
horse, feeling the rejection hit her in the stomach. “Yeah,” she said. “That’s
fine.”
    He was quiet for a
moment, the only sound was the rhythmic munching of the mare.
    “I wonder what Linda will
say when your dad calls her.”
    “You think she’ll want
her back?” April asked.
    Kip shook his head.
“Doubt it. Linda’s not really doing the horse thing anymore, not since Danny
died, anyway.”
    “I want to keep her...”
April murmured. “My Willow.”
    “It’s risky keeping
domesticated mustangs when there’s a wild herd nearby. Chances are they’ll be
taken by the stud. It happened to this one once; how would you feel if it
happened again?”
    “Chinook hasn’t been
taken.”
    Kip raised his eyebrow.
“Even I can admit, the relationship you have with that horse couldn’t be
broken. But Chinook’s a gelding. What would a wild herd want with a gelding?
The studs come to take domesticated mares .”
    “They just go with the
wild ones?”
    “Not always. I heard Danny
had fourteen mares in his back pasture and the wilds only got five, which means
the other nine were either too domesticated to recognize the blood connection,
or too dominant to be bossed around by the stallion. Either way, it’s for the
best. Those ones couldn’t have survived out there.”
    “The other ones that got
taken...” April said, “Do you think they are alive?”
    “Maybe, but...maybe not.
Willow was, though, right? Maybe they’re all as strong as she is.” Kip nodded
his head. “Sometimes I wonder if they’d be better out there, without humans
messin’ them up.”
    “I didn’t even know there
was still wild mustangs this close.”
    “No-one really likes
talkin’ about ‘em,” Kip said, stepping away from the fence and heading towards
the barn.
    “Why not?” April said,
following him.
    “Folks get scared when
someone says they saw a mustang in the mountains.”
    “But...why? They’re just
horses.”
    “Horses that can travel
by the hundreds. They can strip a pasture overnight. Ranchers call ‘em
parasites. They’ll starve off domesticated herds.”
    “They’re just trying to
survive.”
    “Yeah, but put yourself
in your dad’s position. If a mustang herd moves in on Blue Haven land, not only
does he have to worry about them taking his mares, but what about grazing the
cow pastures down to nothing? Then he can’t feed his animals. Which means he
can’t feed you and your mom. Having mustangs around really is as bad as having
a parasite infestation.”
    “I’d just catch