Broken Road

Chapter 23

Chapter Twenty Three

From the moment the boot of his mud encrusted boot touched the bottom of the stair of the porch he was running towards the stables and corral where he could hear the screams of a wild mustang.

   His breath came in short as a million ideas of thing that could go wrong went thru his head and as he rounded the corner of the stable he stopped dead in his tracks.  There sitting atop the very black devil horse he had been thinking to shot was the Devil herself. With every buck and twist she laughed breathlessly and her hair whipped around her as if she were a tornado. She was so beautiful in that moment his mind went blink and all thoughts vanished from his mind.

   Well all but the thought, My god how she moves.

   He would have groaned those very words if he had had the voice to do it.

   The horse whipped her around and around in a merriment of crazy fun and she laughed aloud when she was tossed into the air on the horses back. It was true; there was nothing that could compare to this.

   Well nothing like the real ride she had shown him, and there wouldn’t be a next one if he didn’t get her off that damn horse!

   Devil felt so free just being tossed around. It was as if there was nothing else in the world at that moment and with everything that had happen to her in the last few months she dissevered a moment of freedom. So she flew.

   The horse was wild its bucking became harder and Winthrop knew in that moment there was something wrong with the horse. He watched frozen in place as events he had predicted came to past.

   Devil twisted the wrong way with the horses buck and she knew she was dust. The horse reared forward throwing her over the beast’s head to stare into its crazed eyes. A shiver ran down her spine as she saw the look in those black eyes. Then the beast reared onto its back legs sending Devil of the animals head to hit its back hard and land on the ground next to its back feet.

   Winthrop had already vaulted over the fence and was running at the wild beast. It was rearing again and it planned on stomping his little Devil into the dust. She wouldn’t last against the horse he knew well. Even he had been afraid to ride the horse.

   The sharp hooves were coming at her she knew so even out of breath she rolled. The back hoof missed her head by inches. She stared at the black leg in front of her eyes and prepared to roll again, but she didn’t move fast enough. It caught her on the shoulder and pinned her to the ground.

   He did the first thing that came to mind when he reached the horse and that was to drag the damn beast as far away from her as he could. When Royal’s men took the horse away Winthrop went to Devil and made her lay down when she tried to get up. He checked her over finding nothing broke he let his anger take over him. He got up hauling her over his shoulder and heading for the house.

   Devil spluttered as she tried to get her hair out of her mouth so she could yell at the him who had hauled her over his should like a bag of grain. “You stupid idiot, let me down!” She screamed as the reached the porch.

   He simply hopped once so her head hit his lower back and she screamed again, “Let me go!”

   He ignored her and upon crossing the doors threshold he glared at Red. “Watch the kid.” When Red nodded, wide-eyed and open mouthed he watch the Boss take the little lady up stairs hanging over his should.

   Red looked at the baby who giggled watching them go up the ancient stair case, and then look at him.

   He grinned suddenly and laughed till his sides hurt. “Oh man, the Boss has it good.” He tapped the baby’s nose. “Your mama’s in for it. Now let’s go find your grandpa.”