Lead Me Home (7 page)

“Nope. Finished what I had to do so I could watch you with Houdini.”

“Want to help me?”

“You bet!” He started to clamor over the fence.

“Wait a sec. Go get your riding helmet first.”

Lester’s dark eyes widened. “You’re gonna put me up on him?”

“I’m thinking about it. You’re lighter than I am, so you could ease him into the idea.” Matthew would keep a firm hold on the horse and Lester could jump off if things got dicey. “That’s if you want to.”

“Are you kidding? Of
course
I want to. Be right back.” He took off at a run.

“Okay, Houdini.” Matthew rubbed the stallion’s nose. “I’m taking a chance on you, so don’t let me down.”

Lester came back in a flash, buckling his riding helmet as he sprinted toward the corral.

“Slow down,” Matthew called as softly as he could and still be heard. “No rapid movements and no loud noises.”

“Oh.” Lester downgraded to a walk. “Sorry.”

It had occurred to Matthew this morning that the teenagers spending their first summer on a ranch weren’t much different in temperament from Houdini. Most of them had gotten into trouble due to lack of structure, just like the horse.

So after Lester climbed into the corral, Matthew explained Houdini’s issues while Lester fed the horse a few pieces of carrot. Lester nodded as if he completely understood. Matthew supposed he did.

“Now just start loving on him,” Matthew said. “Get him used to how you smell. Talk to him, too. In other words, treat him like a friend.”

Stepping back, Matthew allowed Lester to move in. The boy began by stroking the horse and telling him how awesome he was. Then Lester proceeded to lay all his sins at Houdini’s feet. He confessed how much trouble he’d caused himself and others by doing things he shouldn’t, and he urged the horse to go straight or face the consequences.

Matthew bit his lip to keep from laughing. But as Lester continued his earnest conversation by giving examples of friends who’d also nearly ruined their lives, Matthew looked on in amazement.

The horse couldn’t understand the words, but something was going on between those two, some level of communication that even Matthew, with all his years of experience, hadn’t achieved. Houdini lowered his head so that Lester could scratch it better, and bumped his nose playfully against the boy’s knee during the long monologue.

With a huge smile on his face, Lester glanced over at Matthew. “He likes me.”

“He sure does.” Matthew wondered if Houdini’s former owners had had a teenager who’d spent time with the horse. That would partially explain Houdini’s reaction, but Matthew thought it went deeper than that. Lester and Houdini just seemed to get each other. It reminded him of a scene out of
The Black Stallion
.

As the boy and horse continued their love fest, Matthew decided the time had come to try his experiment. “Why don’t you ask him if he’ll let you up on his back?”

“Okay.” Lester rubbed Houdini’s nose. “Houdini, how about giving me a ride, buddy? I’m just a kid, and I only weigh ninety-one and a half pounds, so you’ll barely feel me. Plus I’ll get street cred like you wouldn’t believe. So can I?”

Houdini snorted.

Lester glanced over his shoulder at Matthew. “I think that means yes.”

“All right. Here’s the plan. I’ll help you on but we’ll go slow, and I’m going to hang on to Houdini in case you have to get off in a hurry.”

“I won’t have to.” Lester’s smile was filled with confidence. “Houdini likes me. He won’t buck me off, will you, boy?”

Houdini butted Lester’s chest.

Lester laughed. “But I think we should give him one more piece of carrot to chew on, so he’ll have something else to think about while I climb up there.”

“You have the instincts of a horse trainer, Lester.”

“That’s because I’m gonna be one, like you.”

Matthew was impressed with the conviction in Lester’s voice. “When did you decide that?”

“About ten minutes ago.”

Now that was humbling. So far as he knew, Matthew had never changed the course of a person’s life, but he had a hunch that he’d just changed Lester’s. “It’s a great life,” he said, and was surprised at the emotion clogging his throat. He hadn’t realized that being idolized by a young boy could affect him so much. “So, ready to mount up?”

“Yep.”

“Okay, I want you to climb up on the fence and I’ll bring him over to you. That way you can ease onto him gradually.”

“Okay.”

Once Lester was on the fence, Matthew led Houdini over. “Keep your left hand on the fence as you slide your right leg over. And talk to him. Talking’s good.”

Assuring the horse that everything would be just fine, Lester put one leg over his back and slowly began to transfer his weight. Houdini shivered but stayed where he was.

“Now take hold of his mane with your right hand.”

Houdini swung his head around to see what was going on, but other than that, he didn’t react. So far, so good.

“Grab his mane with your other hand and shift all your weight onto him. That’s it. Sink your weight into your heels and lower your center of gravity. Good. Sit up straight and tall. Excellent.” Matthew gripped the reins in anticipation of an explosion.

Amazingly, it never came. Houdini shifted his weight and looked back to see if Lester was still up there. Apparently the horse was fine with that. Matthew let out a breath and relaxed his hold on the reins.

Lester made a little clicking noise with his tongue.

“Hey, don’t—” But Matthew had no more time to protest because Houdini started off at a slow walk, and Matthew followed along, holding the reins.

“See that?” Lester said. “He’s letting me ride him.”

“Yes.” Matthew mentally crossed his fingers that this little stunt wouldn’t backfire. “So he is.”

They made a circuit of the corral, which was about all Matthew’s nerves could take. “I’m going to guide him over toward the fence again,” he said. “When I pull back on the reins, you say
whoa
. Then I want you to climb off the same way you got on.”

“Aw.” Lester frowned at Matthew. “Can’t we keep going?”

“Better to make it short the first time and teach him to stop on command. Okay, tell him to whoa.”

Lester did as he was told and Houdini came to a halt as if he’d suddenly become a perfectly trained horse. Matthew knew better, and he was immensely relieved when Lester was back on the fence.

“I rode him.” Lester’s frown gave way to a look of pride. “I was the first person to ride that horse.”

“Yes, you were. If you want, I’ll talk to Emmett about giving you time this afternoon to try it again.”

“That would be great!”

“And if we can keep this on the down-low, you might be the one putting on a demonstration later instead of me.”

“Wow.” Lester’s eyes shone. “That would be amazing. I won’t say anything to anybody, I promise!”

“Good.” Matthew stroked Houdini’s silky neck. “Because it’s about time to go in for lunch, and it might be hard to keep that secret.”

“Nope. I can do it. But I wouldn’t mind skipping lunch. I
hate
the lunches here.”

“I have a feeling today’s might be better.”

“Boy, I hope so. Yesterday’s was disgusting.”

Poor Aurelia, Matthew thought as he and Lester walked Houdini back to the barn. She tried so hard, and her efforts were wasted because this wasn’t a sophisticated crowd.

They really would need to do a little menu-planning tonight. But he hoped it wouldn’t take long, because he had some other activities in mind.

5

A
URELIA HAD HER
misgivings about the meal she served for lunch. Substituting potatoes for eggplant in ratatouille seemed like a sacrilege, but she’d made the adjustment and also allowances for the varying cooking times of potatoes and eggplant. She had no recipe for corn bread other than Mary Lou’s, which was uninteresting, but she didn’t have time to get creative with the ingredients.

Matthew gave her a warm smile that jacked up her pulse rate as she put his plate in front of him. “Looks like a great vegetable stew,” he said.

That reminded her that she wasn’t supposed to mention the French name, although in all good conscience she couldn’t call it ratatouille without the eggplant. “I hope you like it.”

“Corn bread smells good,” said Bob Gilbert, one of the few cowboys she knew who wore glasses.

“Thank you.” She gave him his plate. “It’s Mary Lou’s recipe.” Maybe she imagined it, but she could swear someone let out a heartfelt sigh. She was beginning to think Matthew was right, and cowboys were vocal when they liked the food, but not so much when they didn’t.

She continued to get the food on the table along with help from Sarah, who’d recently begun pitching in to serve and clear the lunch meal. It gave her a chance to interact with each of the cowhands and underscored her position as the matriarchal head of the family. Aurelia was constantly impressed by the ways in which the Chance family kept the ranch functioning as a loyal unit.

As she moved back and forth between the kitchen and the dining room, she thought about Western movies she’d watched in which the cowboys ate whatever came from the chuck wagon, because if they complained, they’d get nothing. Apparently cowboys were both loyal and stoic. If she was the replacement cook, they’d put up with her, even if she’d been badly missing the mark with their meals.

Well, then, she’d be more open to whatever suggestions Matthew made tonight. But as she glanced across the room at him, she thought about what he might suggest that had nothing to do with food, and she retreated to the kitchen before someone noticed that she was blushing for no good reason.

Because she’d been so involved with converting the ratatouille to a potato-based dish, she hadn’t had a chance to come up with a creative dessert, either. At the last minute she’d fallen back on another of Mary Lou’s recipes, double chocolate chip brownies.

She brought those out after she and Sarah had cleared the lunch dishes, and she heard a distinct murmur of approval running through the room like a soft breeze. After she’d delivered a plate of brownies to each table, she walked over to Matthew’s seat, grabbed his water glass and a spoon, and tapped it to get everyone’s attention.

Matthew glanced up at her, his eyebrows raised.

She gave him a quick smile and returned to the audience she’d created with the spoon-and-water glass routine. “It’s been brought to my attention that some of you might not be totally happy with the meals I’ve served.”

At first everyone looked guilty, but then a chorus of protests arose, assuring her that her cooking was great, and they appreciated all her efforts, yada, yada, yada. The comments came mainly from the tables dedicated to the cowhands and the teenagers. The Chance family seemed to be observing the proceedings with interest, but they didn’t take sides.

Aurelia cut off the protestations by tapping on the glass again. “You’re all sweethearts for trying to make me feel better, but I got the message from the way everyone reacted to Mary Lou’s corn bread and her double chocolate chip brownies.”

“Well, we do like those brownies,” said Shorty LaBeff. “You’d have to be dead not to go for those.”

Heads nodded all around the dining room.

Aurelia took a deep breath. “I can see why the brownies are a favorite. Chocolate is a mood elevator.”

Danny Lancaster, the cowboy with very big ears, raised a hand. “And I vote we ride that elevator to the top! More chocolate!”

That got a laugh, but Aurelia tapped her spoon again because she was determined to have her say. “Mary Lou is a wonderful cook, and I don’t blame you for being partial to her recipes. But since you’re stuck with me for another two weeks, that gives you a chance to try some different foods, and personally, I think that’s always a good thing.”

That seemed to be a new concept, because quite a few of the men looked at her in bewilderment. That made her even more determined to open their minds to unusual dishes. “I propose a compromise. I’ll continue to provide you with interesting entrées, but—”

“This vegetable stew wasn’t bad,” Frank Delaney piped up. “I can live with stuff like this.”

Aurelia glanced down at Matthew, who might have been right about the potatoes. He seemed somewhat surprised that she’d taken the offensive today. Good. She didn’t want him to think she was incapable of handling her own issues.

“So here’s the deal,” she said. “I want to challenge you a bit with the entrées, although I’ll modify them if I decide they’re too off-the-wall, and I’ll stick to Mary Lou’s recipes for dessert.”

The cheer that went up convinced her that she had, in fact, been torturing them with her innovative meals. But they hadn’t complained, either because they were good sports or because they’d been afraid they’d end up with nothing to eat. That was about to change.

“From now on, I want you to tell me what you liked and didn’t like about the meals,” she said. “Don’t be shy.”

“Okay, what were those things that looked like a piece of pine tree stuck crossways in the stew?” Shorty asked. “It didn’t look edible.”

“It’s rosemary. I used it as a garnish. It flavors the dish but you’re not supposed to eat it.”

Frank Delaney spoke up. “How are we supposed to know that?”

“Good point. From now on, I’ll make an announcement about what’s to be eaten and what’s not.”

Frank nodded. “So we might get some culture while Aurelia’s here. That’s not so bad.”

“Do we have to eat everything on our plate?” The speaker was one of the teenagers, a tall, slim boy named Jeff.

Aurelia didn’t know how to answer because she wasn’t sure what sort of rules had been set down for the kids. She looked over at the family table where Sarah’s fiancé Pete Beckett sat. The tall, distinguished-looking philanthropist was underwriting the program, so he should probably be the authority on cleaning or not cleaning one’s plate.

Pete stood. “No, you don’t have to eat everything. All I ask is that you
try
everything. Aurelia’s right. You have a chance while she’s here to expand your food horizons, and I advise you to take advantage of it.”