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But, he admitted, he sure admired it.
She pulled back on the reins, slowed the horse to a jerky walk and then brought it back to the stump.
Pop-eyed, Teddy turned his face up to Thad’s. “Man, oh, man, Leah is somethin’, huh, Pa?”
Thad’s throat was so full he could not answer. Lady halted at the mounting stump and Leah started to dismount. With one foot in the stirrup, she searched blindly with the other for the top of the block.
Thad shot forward and caught her about the waist. “Leah,” he murmured. “You can let go of the reins now.”
Finger by finger, she released her grip on the leather lines, and he lifted her off the horse. “Kick your boots free of the stirrup,” he instructed. When she managed it, he set her on her feet.
“Pa?” Teddy danced at his side. “Kin I have a horse?”
Thad caught his wife’s gaze and a look passed between them. He shook his head. Leah, however, gave him a shaky smile and nodded.
Maybe she was right—his son needed his own horse. A pony. But right now it was the last thing he wanted to think about.
He turned away from Teddy and concentrated on guiding Leah toward the house. She took a single hesitant step, but in the next moment a gray pallor washed over her face and she crumpled to her knees.
Thad scooped her into his arms and started for the house with Teddy scampering at his heels. They were halfway to the porch when she regained consciousness. She lifted her head, then snuggled her face against Thad’s shoulder, reached her arms around his neck and clung to him.
That took him by surprise! She needed him!
He stopped short. Jumpin’ jennies. He hadn’t had a single thought about Hattie all morning. He sucked in a lungful of crisp, cold air, shook his head and tramped up the porch steps and into the house.
She needed him. What a feeling!
Chapter Twelve
Thad thrust open the front door and set Leah down as gently as he could. Her legs buckled, but she managed to grab on to his arm and hold tight. With his help, she staggered across the living room and collapsed into the wide-armed chair by the fireplace. Thad’s chair. She hadn’t the strength to move to the settle.
Teddy stomped through the door. “I could do that easy, Pa, honest I could. I could ride a horse as good as Leah. She did it, and she’s not near as smart as me.”
Thad ruffled his son’s hair and then turned away. “I’ll go tend to the horse.”
Teddy darted after him. “Please, please, Pa. When do I gets to have a horse?”
Leah was too tired to correct the boy’s grammar. She listened as Teddy followed his dad all the way to the barn, begging for a horse of his own, but she could hear nothing from Thad. Grateful to be left alone, she leaned her head back against the damask-covered chair and closed her eyes.
Riding a horse was not impossible, she reasoned. It was the before and after that took their toll. Swinging that heavy leather saddle into place took more strength than she had—or thought she had. But when she realized she had managed to do it anyway, she felt a warm rush of pride.
An hour later, Thad scrubbed his hands and face at the water pump in the yard and waited while Teddy did the same. Together, they had fed Lady, and then Thad had left Teddy to put fresh hay in her stall while he tramped out of the barn and walked the perimeter of his wheat field. Damn, the seedlings look bedraggled, but there was no sense mooning over it now.
When he entered the house, his first glimpse of Leah by the fireplace brought him up short. She was curled up in his chair, sound asleep, her arms wrapped across her dirt-smeared shirt. He had to chuckle. Their noon meal was definitely not going to be on time, but somehow he didn’t mind. She was worn-out, so he let her sleep.
He managed to chop up kindling and lay it in the fireplace and get a blaze going without waking her up. Then he rattled around in the kitchen, slicing up a loaf of Leah’s bread for bacon-and-butter sandwiches.
“Oh, boy,” Teddy chortled. “My favorite.” He chomped a huge bite and chewed noisily. “Leah’s never gonna be ready to ride to town on her own, is she, Pa? I bet I could learn how real quick!”
“Don’t talk with your mouth full, son.”
Teddy snapped his jaws shut and swallowed. “Well, she’s not, is she?”
Thad flicked a glance at his wife, still asleep in the chair by the fire. Was she ready? Maybe, maybe not. But he knew enough about Leah to know she would consider herself ready, and the first chance she got she’d be halfway to town before he could blink. He had to admire her spirit.
Leah might look small and delicate, but he was learning that on the inside she could be as tough as tanned leather and determined as a bull. He’d known strapping farm wives who hadn’t near the grit his Leah showed. Hattie, he recalled with a stab of regret, hadn’t even come close. He remembered the morning she’d wept over a rosebud he’d accidentally snapped off.
