The Man's Outrageous Demands Read Free Page B

horse through the tall grass.
    He was watching her leap and play, putting the horse through several difficult maneuvers when all of a sudden, the horse took a long jump. Sam knew instantly that the rider was not well positioned. And sure enough, she fell off behind.
    Sam’s stomach leapt to his throat. Max had seen the fall as well. Obviously Max was not overly concerned with his sister’s welfare since he laughed at her fall. “I’ll get the horse,” Max called and rode off towards the forest. Sam was already kicking his horse into action to find Marabeth and ensure that she was not hurt from the fall.
    By the time he was halfway down the hillside, he breathed a sigh of relief. She was standing up and dusting off her bottom from the dust. He watched as she looked around and picked up something from the ground beside her, then started walking in the direction her horse had run off.
    Marabeth picked herself up and looked around, disgusted with herself. She hoped the two men who had been up on the hillside had already ridden off, but she knew her luck wasn’t holding out lately.
    And sure enough, the man she’d been thinking of trotted up to greet her.
     
    “Hello,” Sam said, walking his horse up beside her. “Mighty rough fall there.”
     
    “Yes. I know about that.”
     
    “Are you okay?” he said, easily keeping up with her angry strides from atop the horse.
    “Yes. I’m fine, thank you for asking,” she said stiffly. Marabeth had been showing off, trying to impress Sam. But hadn’t done a very good job of it obviously. That’s what she got for showing off, she told herself. She’d seen the two men on the hillside and had wanted to show him that she wasn’t just some idiot princess who proposed to sleeping men during balls. Now she’d only reinforced his opinion of her as an idiot. Well, just as well.
    “Would you like a ride?” he asked.
     
    “No. I deserve to walk back. And maybe my brother will find Beauty.”
     
    “Beauty? You named your horse Beauty?”
     
    She looked up at him and wondered where he was going with that. “Yes. What’s wrong with the name?”
     
    He smiled at her upturned face, admiring the crystal blue eyes. “It’s a male horse, in case you hadn’t noticed,” he teased her.
    Marabeth gritted her teeth. “Yes. I’d noticed. I may conduct embarrassing interviews and fall off horses, but I’m not that dense,” she said and turned back towards the forest to continue walking.
    “Well, that explains everything,” he said and sat up straight in his saddle.
    Marabeth looked back up at him. She wasn’t going to ask. She wasn’t going to ask. She repeated that phrase to herself several times, walking faster in the vain hope of losing him. In the end, her curiosity won out. “What does it explain?” she demanded, finally asking the question she hated herself for asking.
    “Why your horse dumped you.”
    Her mouth fell open. Was he able to read minds? She blinked and shook her head. Now she was just being fanciful. “Excuse me?” asking for clarification on why he thought her horse had dumped her.
    “You named your male horse ‘Beauty’. He was offended. No man wants to be called ‘Beauty’,” Sam said and looked down at her as if he were explaining something very deep and important.
    Marabeth shook her head. “Excuse me, I disagree with you. Beauty didn’t throw me because of his name.”
     
    “Why did he?”
     
    “He didn’t throw me. I fell off,” she said through gritted teeth, glaring at the horrible man.
    “Ah…well, that probably makes all the difference in the world…I guess to the horse as well.” The two of them walked for several minutes in silence. “Are you sure you wouldn’t like a ride?” he finally asked.
    “No. Thank you,” she said with as much dignity as she could muster under the circumstances.
     
    “Why not?” he asked.
    “As I said earlier, I fell off my horse, I deserve to walk,” she said, coming up with an