Golden Filly Collection Two by Lauraine Snelling Read Free Book Online

and Stokes opened the doors to the van and slid out the ramp. The clanging of the metal sounded extra loud on the soft night air.
    A pickup pulled into the paddock, its headlights trapping them in the intensity. As soon as the truck stopped, Donald Shipson stepped out and came forward to greet them. A short, wiry man, obviously an ex-jockey, joined him.
    Trish tried to escape by ducking into the van, but Adam Finley took her arm and drew her back into the circle. She watched as Patrick and the new man slapped each other on the back.
    “Can ya beat that?” Patrick beamed, his teeth gleaming in the car light. “Me old buddy, Timmy O’Ryan. Trish, meet the best man in the world to take care of Spitfire for you. Why, if I’da known…” He shook his head and slapped the man’s back again.
    Trish tried to swallow around the rock in her throat. Even she knew the name Timmy O’Ryan. While other kids collected baseball cards, Trish memorized racing times and the jockeys that set them. “I’m glad to meet you.” Her voice came out strangled. “Ummm, excuse me, I need to see to Spitfire.”
    “Can I help you, miss?” Timmy O’Ryan spoke with the same soft lilt as Patrick. And he had the same steady, blue-eyed gaze. “Maybe he’ll take to me better if you introduce us.”
    Trish nodded. Now she knew what a mouse caught in a trap must feel like.
    Spitfire nickered his special welcome when Trish entered the van. He tossed his head, impatient to be free.
    Timmy followed Trish as she patted her way up the horse’s side to his head. “Hey, old fella, I have someone new for you to meet.” She stroked the black’s cheek and rubbed his ear.
    Spitfire reached to sniff the hand the new man held out. He smelled the shirtsleeve and up to the porkpie hat, then down the other arm. Timmy stood perfectly still, but his voice seemed to whisper a love song as he and Spitfire became acquainted. At last he palmed a carrot and held it for the colt to munch.
    “You’ve made a friend for life.” Trish felt as if her forced smile would crack and her with it.
    “Your father included suggestions like this in his letter of instructions. He wanted to make the transition as easy as possible.”
    Trish nodded. She turned to jerk the lead knot loose. “Come on, fella, back up.”
    Spitfire stopped in the doorway and trumpeted his arrival to any other horses who might be in the area. “Come on.” Trish tugged on the lead. “You can quit showing off anytime.”
    Two answering whinnies came from the barn just past the gate. Spitfire raised his muzzle and sniffed the slight breeze to acquaint himself with the area. Then he followed Trish through the gate and around a second grassy paddock. Timmy loosely held the other lead and paced along with them.
    “That’s the stallion barn right over there.” He pointed to a huge barn, shadowed now by the night. “He’ll have his own paddock, and better care than most people give their kids. While I’m in charge of him, there’ll be grooms helping me.”
    “He only lets me ride him.”
    “I understand. No one will ride him. We’ll hand walk him or gallop him around the training track on a lead. You’ll see, he’ll get fat and sassy, but next spring when he goes to work, that’ll change. I’ll take care of him, miss. You needn’t worry.”
    Trish felt like the horses must feel as Timmy’s gentle voice soothed her fears. Spitfire even drooped on the lead between them. “Come on, fella, let’s see what your new home looks like.”
    She knew her eyes were big as tennis balls as she stared around the softly lit interior of the stallion barn. People don’t live this good, she thought as she took in the glistening woodwork, the shiny brass fittings, and the gleaming name plates on spacious stalls. “There’s yours.” She pointed Spitfire’s head toward the large box stall with Spitfire lettered in brass on an oval blue sign. “I can’t believe this.”
    Timmy stopped beside her. “You