Appaloosa Blues (Sisters of Spirit #8) Read Free Page A

and fussing is not good for him, but he won’t listen to them and try to take it easier.”
    “He never did take it easy.”
    “He’s starting to. He falls asleep in his chair after lunch and takes a short nap. He didn’t used to do that.” She looked at her sister. “Go ahead and ride, Jo. Everyone expects you to. I’m going to call Johnny while no one is here.”
    “Don’t forget to take that ring off.”
    “For sure.”
    Jo dropped her pack inside her room, yanked some old clothes out of a drawer, changed, kicked off her sandals and pulled on her boots. She grabbed a jacket as she headed out the door, and then ran down to the barn, where she collected some oats in a pan, Paca’s bridle, and a brush. She ran out to the corral and found the little horse waiting for her.
    “Could you tell I was in the car?” she asked. Paca nuzzled her, jamming her nose up to Jo’s body to get her scent, then pressed her head against Jo and held it there.
    Jo stroked the horse’s neck and behind the ears, then put on the bridle after Paca finished up the oats.
    “Want to go?” Jo asked, but Paca was already headed out the gate, and Jo had to hurry to keep up.
    A quick brushing, then Jo saddled up. Paca left the barnyard at a dead run.
    The Appaloosa tore up the mountain road toward the trails Jo always took, jumping six-inch ditches across the way like they were wide and four feet deep.
    Jo gave Paca her head, enjoying the horses’ delight in being out of the pasture and moving again. She let her run for awhile, then pulled her in.
    “You’re bound to be out of shape, girl. And so am I. If I stay out too long, my legs will feel it in the morning.”
    She stayed on the road until she got to one of her father’s wire gates leading into a mountain pasture. It was late in the afternoon by now, and if she hurried, she could get to her favorite lookout point in time to watch the sun go down. No matter that it was on Adam’s land. That had never stopped her from going, as it was the best spot of all.
    She opened the wire gate, let Paca through, then stopped. She’d come out totally unprepared. Except for her jacket tied on behind the saddle, she had no knife, no matches, no gun. She put her hand in her pocket.
    She hadn’t even remembered to take her cell phone out of her purse. Still, it wasn’t that far to where she wanted to go. She could even walk home, if she had to. What could go wrong on a beautiful day like today?
    She closed the gate, remounted, and rode off down the trail. If she hurried, she could be back while there was still light in the sky.
     

CHAPTER TWO
    Sitting relaxed in the saddle, Jo gave her Appaloosa a free rein as she cantered toward the corner of her father's mountain pasture. She breathed deeply of the fragrant Ponderosa pine, enjoying anew the wide open spaces. She could easily reach the lookout point before sunset.
    The viewpoint could only be reached by going through a second gate onto Adam Trahern's land, but Jo had never let that stop her. She had ridden these Oregon mountain trails ever since she was old enough to walk and knew every wire gate within a ten-mile radius. Even the fact that the land belonged to her grandfather's sworn enemy did not make her hesitate.
    The Ponderosas opened up ahead of her into a wide clearing. There the narrow trail cut through a patch of stirrup-high brush, as dense as any hedge. In the thickest part of the brush, Jo spotted her father's old Hereford bull, face to face with a younger bull that had to belong to Adam.
    They had destroyed a large section of the barbed wire fence and were circling slowly in the wreckage, pausing now and then to snort loudly and paw the ground, throwing scoops of dirt over their massive backs before charging each other.
    Jo pulled Paca down to a fast trot as she rode closer. Sounds do not carry well through timber, so Jo had not heard any noise as she approached.
    Adam's bull, she thought, looking angrily at the younger and