The Horsewoman by James Patterson Read Free Book Online

“That’s not you.”
    “Agree to disagree,” she said.
    “Shut up and listen to the man,” Mrs. Atwood said to Becky.
    “ Please listen,” Daniel said to Becky, “even though that is not always your greatest skill as a horsewoman.”
    “You added lines three different times,” Mrs. Atwood said to Becky now. “If this were a real event, you would have lost.”
    “I just wanted to go clean!” Becky yelled.
    “So we could give you a pat on your head when you were done?” her grandmother said.
    “Please listen,” he said again, “because we are all on the same team. And we are trying to help you.”
    Daniel was expecting her to walk away. But she did not. Good. He wanted to use her anger in this moment.
    “This horse is the one who has the need for speed,” he said. “You must allow him to be himself, even here, with only a handful of people watching him. He only understands one way.”
    Becky started to say something. Daniel patiently held up both hands.
    “Let me finish,” he said. “There is a reason I wanted you on this horse after your mother fell. I believe the way you ride and the way he can run and jump means you, even more than your mother, are made for him.” He gestured toward the ring now.
    “Just not riding him like that,” he said.
    “I could have gone faster if I wanted to,” Becky said.
    “What was stopping you?” Daniel said.
    “I wanted him to get to know me,” she said.
    “Then let him get to know you as the rider you are,” Daniel said. “This horse runs one way. You ride one way. Now let’s get him out of the barn and do it again, all right?”
    They both knew he wasn’t asking.
    Becky turned to her grandmother and said, “Anything you’d like to add?”
    “Hell, no,” she said. “I’m an old woman, but I could have ridden that horse up better than you just did.”
    Then Mrs. Atwood was yelling at Emilio to bring the damn horse back out, and to be quick about it.
    When Coronado was back in the ring, Mrs. Atwood said to Becky, “Now ride the damn horse without your foot on the damn brake.”
    Becky said, “Screw all of you.”
    She looked at Emilio and said, “Give me the reins and all of you get the hell out of my way.”
    Then Daniel watched as Becky rode the horse the way he wanted her to ride him, rode him hard, flying around the ring, not coming close to a rail, holding back nothing. Same horse. Different rider.
    When Becky finished the course, she came back around with Coronado, took off her helmet and the hairnet she wore underneath it, shook her hair loose. Full of challenge, she looked down from the big horse and said, “Was that good enough for you?”
    “Better,” he said.
    He went inside the barn and placed a call.
    “Maybe my plan wasn’t so crazy after all,” he said.
    “She can’t do this without you, Daniel,” Maggie Atwood said.
    “Deja que ese sea nuestro secreto,” he said.
    “I only recognize the last word,” she said. “Secret.”
    “Let that be our secret,” Daniel said to her.
    But not the only secret, Daniel knew.

FOURTEEN
    Caroline
    THREE NIGHTS LATER, Caroline Atwood requested the table in the far corner of the back room at Oli’s, a favorite restaurant among Wellington horse people. Gorton arrived a half hour late.
    “We took off late from Teterboro,” he said.
    The regional airport was no Andrews Air Force Base, but Caroline knew it was where he kept his personal Air Force One when it wasn’t flying him into Palm Beach International.
    She thought about saying How awful for you, but didn’t, remembering Becky’s directive that she needed a charm offensive tonight.
    “What in the world is that?” Caroline had said to her granddaughter, who had been heading out to dinner with friends.
    “Heavy on the charm and light on the offensive,” Becky had said.
    “Got it.”
    “Basically,” Becky’d said, “try to be good.”
    “I thought that was my line,” she’d said.
    She hadn’t spoken to him in days, since